Having my lunch....and pie too!

Soccer season has started here in Florida and we have 3 practices a week and one game (sometimes two for Darcy) on Saturday. Since this schedule started dinner has usually been from a drive-thru window because my children do not get home from school until 4:00 PM and we leave for soccer at 5:30 PM. They are not hungry for dinner after school and they don't like to eat before practice.

Practice ends as late as 7:30 PM and by the time we are home and I've cooked something to eat it is 9:00 PM. It is a miserable schedule and seriously my body is craving some vegetables. But the point I'm trying to make by all this is that I haven't really purchased much from the grocery store beyond the necessities. Thus I have not had much food to chose from for myself at lunchtime and I've tended to skip that meal. Which in turn causes a headache and some nasty grouchiness.

This week I decided enough. I would make sure to eat properly for breakfast and lunch and also try to have something for dinner in the crockpot for after soccer. That lasted one day. I got sick. Today, feeling better, I ventured out to get some things accomplished. Unfortunately, I forgot to eat lunch, and by 2:00 I was ready to knock someone down and start gnawing on his arm. I was at the bank (which could not cash my check because the computers were down) when I looked across the street and spied our new grocery store.

A chain of stores was recently bought out by Publix, our number one grocer here in Florida, and they have feverishly been refurbishing the old stores. This grocery is right down the street from my house (and down the street from two other Publix stores, I might add) and I had gone there on Sunday only to find it hadn't opened yet, but a big sign in the window announced "5 days til the Grand Opening".

Now from my position at the bank, I realize that today was the Grand Opening. I decided that I would go there, check it out, and get myself a deli sandwich.

I debated on getting a cart, decided I needed one to rest my weak body, and I headed to the deli. As I rounded the corner, I stopped. There, spread out in front of me, was a smorgasbord of deliciousness.  Publix workers stood at display set-ups handing out food. I began at the beginning where I received a glass of 7 up. From there, I scored a cup of blazing buffalo chicken salad, and a fruit salad that included grapes, pineapple, and marshmallows with a pretzel sticks stuck through their middle.

As I stood debating on whether or not to join the line at the deli, a man approached me with a tray of various cheeses. I sampled a few. Then I decided to walk the rest of the store to get the layout of the land. I'd let the deli line recede and I'd return later for my sandwich.

I walked through the produce and into the meat section. There, more employees offered me samples pork sausage and shrimp. Farther down, I was given a plate of 3 different kinds of Publix potato chips which went well with the black Angus cheeseburger bites I sampled next, followed by a few glasses of white and red wines at another display further on.

I enjoyed the chips so much that I pushed my cart down the chip aisle where I assisted a Publix manager on the aesthetics of his salsa display. He asked for my help and we strolled up and down the chip aisle while he questioned and I passed along my wisdom.

Finishing with him, I encountered another display where I helped myself to some Breyers peppermint ice cream in a tiny little ice cream cone. The next aisle I got a tiny wiener in some BBQ sauce and a cup of Publix's key lime pie. By this time, I had come full circle and was back at the front of the store where I decided that I was way too full for a deli sandwich. I parked my empty cart and headed back to my car where I mapped out my plan for the next coming week.

I'll be visiting all the new Publix Grand Openings that are cropping up one by one. Then I'll hit the annual Holiday feast at my own Publix which always comes with food, wine, and entertainment to boot. I looked it up. It starts at 4:00 PM on a night we don't have soccer.

Guess what's for dinner, kids?