reusable bags (and, of course, dinner)

I am somewhat in love with my reusable bags. I have the standard totes from Trader Joe's and Winco, but I also have some that are more fun. We have an insulated bag we bought at Costco (actually, we bought two of these...the first one was eaten by squirrels on our first family camping trip -- this year we'll keep a better watch on the thing). This one is great, but it's also a bit huge so we often forget to bring it with us.

My second favorite (penfavorite? like penultimate?) resubale bags are Pic's and my lunch bags. We got these from the mimi the sardine website. They are machine washable and super cute. I have the mouse design and Pic has the ladybug design. (I was hoping she'd pick the mouse one, considering it's pink and she loves pink. Then I could have the ladybug one, which is very red and green, two of my three favorite colors. They're both cute, though).

My very favorite reusable bags are the chico bags I just got. These bags are $5/bag, but you get one free after you order four (of course, you have to pay shipping, but shipping's less than $5). Each bag has an attached pouch, so you can just roll the bag up and stuff it back into the pouch. Also, each has a carabineer attached so I just hook my bags onto my purse and I don't forget to bring them with me. I've only had the bags for a couple of weeks, but I've already used them a bunch. Yea, less plastic bag use! These bags are, I'm pretty sure, the same size as plastic grocery bags (maybe a tiny bit bigger) and they hold up to 20 pounds. You can machine wash these bags also.

Speaking of all of this reusableness, tomorrow is Earth Day! We plan on attending the festivities at Idlewild tomorrow, if the whole of Reno isn't blown away in the middle of the night because of this crazy wind. Earth Day always makes me think of my grammie, who taught me to recycle and thrift shop (or 'vintage' shop as Stacy and Clinton were referring to it on What Not to Wear last night...although I'm sure the second-hand clothes the woman bought in New York were waaay more expensive than what I get at Goodwill and Savers). Also, my grammie's birthday was April 22nd and Earth Day occasionally falls on this day. Although I'm don't have the whole religion thing figured out, I do like the idea of guardian angels and I like to think that my grammie is watching over Pic. Happy Birthday/Earth Day Grammie!

Finally: dinner. Tonight I tried a recipe from one of my Cooking Light cookbooks (I am constantly searching Goodwill's shelves for these). I made something described as an english muffin sandwich in my cookbook, although it reminded me more of sopes than a sandwich and we used forks and knives to eat our 'sandwiches.' I added chopped spinach and I think that next time I'll make them with garlic instead of shallots. (By the way, can anyone use a bunch of shallots? Safeway only sold them by the bag and I doubt that I'll be able to use them all up.) I also used whole wheat (where the first ingredient is actually whole wheat) english muffins and reduced-fat provolone cheese.

We also had chopped spinach, apple and tomato salad. It sounds just like what it is. I made dressing, but I'm not sure that balsamic vinegar is ever supposed to be used when making a vinaigrette. If anyone knows how to make easy vinaigrettes, please share. I didn't put any dressing on my salad, but Cardo braved it and said he liked it (but he also often says that he'll eat anything).




P.S. I just added my links and the Chico Bag store just redesigned their site and added new bags. Is it lame that I really want to order new bags now? I want at least a red one and an Earth one. If anyone else (in Reno, Carson, Sparks) wants to order three, let me know and we can order all five at the same time. Otherwise, I'll just order five more and give my totes away.