the economy, scatterbrains, and delicious apples

ok, so i’ve been totally scatter-brained lately.  i mean SERIOUSLY scatter-brained.  and, on top of that, i haven’t been sleeping very much.  between the work and the friends and the fact that the woman i love lives almost 40 minutes away, i just haven’t had time to sleep very much.  not that i’m complaining, because i’m not.  I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.  i’ll keep it up until i drop from exhaustion if i’ve gotta.  it’s totally worth it.  i’m also starting to stress this whole wedding thing a bit.  jess would probably say that it’s about dang time and she’d be right.  so far, she’s done the lion’s share of the legwork and research.  now it’s my turn.  and, believe it or not, i’m actually enjoying it.  at least more than i thought that i would.

all of that is just the set-up for this post, though.  because of that stuff, i’m a bit of a zombie-robot-pirate in the morning.  i shuffle out of bed, get ready for work on automatic, and am only capable of communicating with “arrrrr” and grumbles.  which is why (though my amazing fiancee gave me food to take to work) i forgot my lunch at home and found myself trying to figure out what to do about my midday meal.

did i mention that i’m pretty close to total brokeness?  no?  crap… that’s an important part of the story.  ok, so i’m pretty broke at the moment.  high cost of gas, high cost of food, high cost of utilities… well, everything costs too much at the moment so i’m broke.  there ya go.

so i’m sitting here at work with no lunch and realizing that i’m not only going to have to buy something to eat, but i’m going to have to spend gas to get to someplace where i can purchase said meal and i realize that fast food is about the only choice because of my limited supply of monetary units.  i detest fast food for the most part.  it’s not just the crappy service and dubious to negative nutritional value.  it’s the fact that the ingredients are of such a low quality and the preparation is slap-dash that it tastes aweful.

it’s also the preservatives.  you can taste them.  and i, at least, can feel them.  when i eat a meal that contains a ton of preservatives, i can feel my body start to get out of whack.  it’s not a fun feeling.

but it’s so damn cheap.  that’s the problem.  fast food is gross and horrendously unhealthy… but it’s cheap.  you can get a crap-ton of food for $6.

so i pull up to fastfood chain xyz, look at the drive through line, think about what i’m about to be eating and say to myself, “aw, hell no!”  folks, i just couldn’t do it.  even though i’m broke.  i’d rather skip lunch than eat poorly at this point in my life.  it’s just not worth it otherwise.  (by the way, i’m in the same boat with beer for the most part as well.  if i’m going to take in all those empty calories, it damn well better taste good!)

but i didn’t skip lunch.  i’ve got a new plan.

there are a plethora of grocery stores very close to my workplace.  normally you go to the supermarket and get food for several days… stuff that has to be cooked or prepared in some way.  we don’t think about our grocery stores as places to get food to eat right now for the most part.  and with good reason.  for the most part, our markets are set up for purchasing trips where we buy enough food to last us a week or two and feed a family of four.  that’s where the money is.  it can be very difficult to purchase just enough food for one or two people sometimes, let alone enough for just one meal.  but that’s exactly what i wanted to do.  fresh, good food is what i want.  and i only want to spend $6 on a meal.  so i’m going to start visiting grocery stores on days when i either don’t pack a lunch or forget to bring it once it’s packed.  starting today.

today i went to harris teeter.  not a cheap store, mind you.  almost everything is marked up at least 15% from what i’m used to spending at the kroger in east nashville.  the quality of some of the fresh items is much better, but even the canned foods are more expensive.  anyway, i spent a touch more than i wanted after tax, but i walked out with a quarter-pound of fresh-sliced sharp cheddar, a quarter-pound of smoked turkey, a small, crusty loaf of freshly baked bread (low on sugar, but not sugar free as bread really should be), and a GINORMOUS honeycrisp apple.  plenty of food (too much, honestly – i’m saving some of the cheese for a snack this afternoon), almost NO preservatives and it tasted amazing.  it was super-simple, rustic fare, but man did it hit the spot.  i’ve just got to say, honeycrisp apples are the best apples ever.  the season is limited, but DANG are they good.  i ate mine (as i usually do) core and all. and it was delicious.  almost like halfway between an apple and a grape.  very crisp and clean.

(AUTHORS NOTE:  while apple cores are a great source of dietary fiber and vitamins, apple SEEDS are a great source of arsenic.  and that junk builds up in your system so always spit the seeds, kids.)

anyway, that’s my new personal challenge.  fresh, tasty (and preferably healthy) meals on the run for less than $6.  i’m hoping to enlist my ever-health-concious fiancee to help me choose even healthier options while maintaining the tastiness.

i’m a foodie.  this is what counts as “an adventure” for me.  i know… kinda lame.