In with the new! Some favorite newbies and throwbacks

Some of my favorite new things!

Chickpea Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies. They are good if you like chocolate anything, eat healthful foods and don't make regular stops at Mrs. Fields. Caveats abound, but I really like them. And so do the kiddies.

Chobani 100-Calorie Greek Yogurt
I usually steer clear of 100-calorie packaged things, but these yogurts have 5 grams of fiber, 12 grams of protein and 8 grams of sugar, vs 0/12/17. Stevia, not artificial sweeteners, too. Favorite flavor? Key Lime.


Almond milk with pea protein doesn't sound yummy or "so delicious", but this drink is pretty good for sweetened coffee and smoothies. Baby liked it and drank my whole glass. Unfortunately, It's getting harder to find. I hope I can keep buying it yet fear another favorite thing will be discontinued.

Udi's bread
If you have to eat gluten-free bread, at least pick one that won't make you cry.






Funny how many of the old things become new again. While I was turning my nose at things, these things kept improving or stayed a distant cool as others downgraded.

Don't sleep on...

Press-on nails

I can be quite hard-headed, so it takes several decades of my bad nail polish application, nearly instantaneous chipping from even professional manicures AND mixed yet always expensive gel nail experiences for me to press onward. See what I did there? I recently noticed certain colleagues had the same manicure. Same exact colors. What are the odds? And their manicures all lasted more than one and even two weeks. It took me a while to figure out their secret: press-on nails! I am 5 days into these short length Kiss nails. They are sometimes also sold as imPress. The glue is inside the nail, and I did them in bed without stinking up the place and getting an imprint of the sheets on the polish or worrying about nail polish getting in food I lovingly prepared. Let my mistake be your lesson: make sure you press down for at least 30 seconds per nail. Easy fix (unless you have 12 fingers per hand), since they have 24 nails per kit. They run $6-$10 and are pretty darn durable! I finally feel like I have a "nice nail" option I can live with and maintain!

Chadwick's of Boston
The workwear workhorse. Yes, they can be stuffy (steer clear of the corduroy dress), but they can be cool, too. I am loving their suit shift dress, which I wear as a jumper over a blouse. I got tall so the dresses (I get at least one of a good thing) fall past my knees. $20 on clearance!!!!!! And Retail Me Not often has 25% off coupons! High shipping, but the coupon codes offset this.

Aldi
Why did I tun my nose up at Aldi? They are not posh, nor are they green and crunchy. The quarter for a cart--which you do get back--is weird in the U.S.  No samples and many name brands you've never heard of. But many name brands I do know feature ingredients I don't like. Aldi has many organic items and gluten-free cornbread and cake mix, wraps, chocolate-covered pretzels and crackers at a super-reasonable price. Plus, they have things like pickles and maraschino cherries without artificial colors. Yay!

Moon Boots
The cutest monstrosity! I was sick of not having great snow boots, so I went to the snow boot extreme. And now I also have boots for the moon!

I am also trying to battle my creeping addiction to Chicago mix popcorn! Guilty pleasures will be for another day...