You can do it, too!! Organic shopping at Lowes Foods

I haven't had too much to say this week, since the kids are home and that kind of limits what yummy food we get to experiment with. We try to appease Dalton, the picky one, with foods he'll eat while he's home, so it gets a bit repetitive. Yesterday was a good day for me, foodwise. I had some of my microwaved eggs and cheese with a toasted slice of my homemade bread machine bread for breakfast. For lunch I had a cucumber (from the garden) and turkey sandwich on the yummy Earthgrains bread we got for FREE at Bilo last week. If you bought 2lbs of produce (duh, of course we did) you get a loaf for free. We opted for the Wheatberry, and it may the best bread I've had, ever. Not sure how much it is to buy, but I'll be checking into it! I finished off lunch with an apple and some grapes. All that held me over until dinner, where we grilled chicken with our White Alabama Sauce, grilled potatoes and sauteed fresh spinach and portobello mushrooms. YUM!! I actually only ate the veggies!

Anyway, since I haven't had a lot to say about what we're eating, I decided I'm going to do a little learning. We spend so much time focused on shopping, and sales, and buying new foods, that I thought I needed to learn a bit about the stores we go to. A normal weekend shopping trip for us has become going to the farmer's market, Lowes Foods, BiLo and Food Lion, to hit all the sales. We get the fliers, plan menus for the week, make our lists and hit the road. I'm very surprised at how much I LOVE to grocery shop, when it used to be such a chore!!

Yesterday I spent A LOT of time on the Lowes Foods website, and learned a lot. The thing I love most about Lowes Foods,is that they carry an inexpensive line of natural and organic products, called Full Circle Foods. Most of this stuff is only 10 cents or so more expensive than the regular products, and is sold right along side of the regular ones, so you don't have to shop in that exclusive, expensive organic section. I was really surprised at the huge selection they offer, and I'm so glad that people like me can benefit from lower priced products that are so good for us! Other grocery stores are also beginning to offer this, so don't be afraid to try it out when you see the organic label!

We haven't spent much time actually browsing in this store, and at first glance, it seems pricier than the others we go to. However, the website offers up tons of sales that you don't get in the store. They have a page on their site called Instasave. You log in with your member card, click on the sales you want to take part of, and they automatically get applied to your card. When you get to the store, the savings are automatically there, and not available for the general public. I've got my list for this week, and am saving nearly $20 that other people won't be saving!

I was also impressed with the Lowes Foods Community/Charity work section of the web page. They seem to do a lot with the communities that they do business with, so that's a little more incentive for me to want to shop with them.

Ok, I feel like a Lowes Foods commercial!! We'll be doing our primary shopping at this store this week, just to check it out a little more in person. I will report back! Expect some "reviews" of the other stores we shop at - coming soon - including the farmer's market!

Going along with some of the theme of today's blog, take a minute to read this article. It's about not being afraid of your "diet". By diet I don't mean - way to lose weight - but just the daily foods you eat and the lifestyle that goes with it. This article talks about eating healthy, but that it's ok to stray from your "plan". It's a good one, written by Kath Eats blogger, Kath, who I read every day!

Ok, I think I've made up for the last few days of not blogging much! I'm leaving work now (yes, I posted this at work..oops) and headed home to RELAX, I hope!! Spaghetti on the menu tonight...boring!