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Blog Day 30

This morning, I got to sleep in a little longer than I usually do on weekdays. My first class today was not until 10:40, so I did not have to leave for school until around 10:10. I still needed enough time to get ready for the day, however, so I set my alarm for 9:00AM the night before so I could be sure I woke up in time. I got out of bed, showered, got dressed, packed my backpack, and I was completely ready around 9:30. I felt like I was forgetting something, but I could not think of what it was, so I just worked on homework until it was time to go. Right when I arrived on campus, I realized what I had forgotten: breakfast. So, with about 15 minutes until my class started, I rushed over to the vending machine to pick something out. I ended up picking an “Apple Yogurt Nut Mix”, which had the orange “sensible” label which I still did not know the meaning of. This was probably the healthiest option in the vending machine, however, with yogurt, apple chunks, almonds, among other nuts. It was kind of like a trail mix, and it costed $1.49. I used my Gopher Gold as I usually do for vending machines. I would classify this consumption under society and economy.

After my first class, I went on to the Minneapolis campus in the campus connector, since the next part of my day was my violin lesson. I arrived with about 30 minutes to spare at 12:30, so I went to Coffman Union for lunch. I had not consumed lunch here since last semester, since I am on the St. Paul campus for the rest of my classes. The food choices at Coffman are pretty different from the choices at St. Paul. There is Panda Express, Chick-Fil-A, Baja Sol, and a pizza place with a less known company name. Two of these restaurants specialize in chicken, so I could not go to either Chick-Fil-A or Panda Express. Baja Sol may sell vegetarian foods, but I had never ordered from there before, so I ended up just choosing the pizza place instead. I purchased a slice of cheese pizza as well as cheesy breadsticks, which comes with three breadsticks. I also got some complimentary marinara sauce and parmesan cheese for the breadsticks to give them more flavor. The total cost of all of this was a little over $8.00, but I also got a Land O’ Lakes Grip ‘n Go milk to balance the salty taste, which added another $2.00. This made the total cost a little over $10.00 with tax. I would classify this consumption under economy and culture.

When I got home from school, I was feeling hungry again since I had not eaten as of around 12:40. It was now almost 6:00 after I had finished my last class and commuted home, so the last meal I ate was over 5 hours ago. I still had not gone shopping since several days ago, so I did not have any fresh foods to eat. I was going downstairs to my freezer to pick something out, but then I heard the doorbell ring. It turned out that my mom had ordered Domino’s pizza for all of us, and it had just arrived about 5 minutes after I got home. I have a specific type of pizza I like to order from Domino’s, and thankfully my mom must have known that type when she ordered the pizza. She ordered a simple cheese pizza for my younger brother and my dad, since he’s a very picky eater and doesn’t like anything except for cheese pizza. For her and me, however, she ordered a pizza with spinach, black olives, as well as a fresh-baked crust. This type of crust is slightly more expensive than the standard crust, but it is a lot softer, and it does not have the garlic on it. I actually originally chose this crust because I was getting headaches from the garlic combined with the salty pizza, and ever since I switched to this crust I have not gone back to the classic crust. It is an extra dollar, but both my mom and I feel it is worth it. The total for both pizzas was $11.00 plus tax, and I assume a delivery charge as well. I would classify this consumption under culture and economy.

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Collection Week 4

For my collection this week, I have began to stray away from only collecting food boxes, to the point where I am also collecting a few wrappers, bottles, and containers now. Not all of my diet was being included by solely collecting boxes, so I decided to branch from that and start preserving the packaging for almost everything I ate, aside from things such as deli containers which generally do not have much packaging design at all. In the past couple of weeks, I have focused much more on food packaging and how I’m drawn to it, as well as the implied meaning behind the designs of certain packaging. 

The primary themes of my collection at this point are culture and design. Being a vegetarian, every single food package in these images are from a vegetarian meal or food, and none contain any type of meat. There are a few brands which appear very often in my collection, such as Amy’s Organic, Evol, and Trader Joe’s. Amy’s Organic specializes in vegetarian and vegan food, so I can safely assume that most of their products are vegetarian when I purchase them. The design of Amy’s Organic packages is also very unique due to the imagery and typography, so I can easily distinguish them from other meals in the store. While Evol does make several non-vegetarian dishes as well, their brand is very identifiable through the usage of color and typography. The primary way I can distinguish between vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals with this brand is by recognizing the color of the non-vegetarian meals. For example, when an Evol brand box has red typography on it, I know that it has chicken, so I do not purchase it. On the other hand, when it has a green label on it, I know that it is vegetarian, so I can purchase it.

Trader Joe’s has a very unique packaging style as well. While there is no consistent way to determine whether or not a Trader Joe’s food is vegetarian, the ingredients are always very straight-forward on the back of the package, and I can just look at the first few ingredients to detect if there is any meat in the food. In addition to this, foods like chips or cereal I never have to check, since these never have meat in them anyway. Of all the packaging I have collected over the past four weeks, Trader Joe’s packaging has stood out the most to me. They do not have a consistent color or imagery style like other brands, but they do have a very consistent font choice for their meals. The font is always arranged in a slightly different way from product to product, but the thick, outlined bubble letters remain on every food they sell. Overall, I was very influenced by the packaging of the foods I consumed, and the packaging implies my design initiative as well as my vegetarian diet.

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Image of full Collection.

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Collection Week 4- Description is above,

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Blog Day 29

Today, being a Tuesday, I consumed lunch around 10:30AM. Since I was on the St. Paul Campus, I pretty much had two substantial options for lunch: Papa John’s pizza, cheese or garden vegetable, or a Subway with various options. Since I just had Little Caesar’s pizza for lunch yesterday, I ended up choosing to get a Subway instead of more pizza. Pizza is delicious, but I can only have so much of it before I get headaches from the saltiness. I ended up buying a six-inch veggie patty sub from Subway, as well as two cookies. I was thrilled when I saw that they had my favorite type of cookie there again, the double chocolate chip. This is basically a chocolate cookie with milk and white chocolate chips, and they usually don’t have any since I assume they are so popular. They only had two left, so I got both of them. I knew that it would be a better deal if I bought a drink as well at this point to make a “meal”, so I went to the refrigerator to see their choices for today. They had a new type of Minute Made juice, “cranberry apple raspberry”, so I ended up picking that. This meal totaled to $7.71, and I used FlexDine to pay as I always do. I would classify this consumption under society and economy.

When I got home from my last class today, I consumed something from the freezer in the basement. The meal I consumed was a chili mac which I had purchased from Target a while back. I like to purchase a lot of frozen meals I like in case I ever don’t have anything else to eat, since they’re generally pretty good and they last for at least a year. Today was one of those occasions, since I could not find anything else to eat besides small snacks in my kitchen. The specific brand of this chili mac was Amy’s Organic, and I originally purchased each one at Target for $3.99. In terms of brands when it comes to chili mac, I am very partial to Amy’s Organic. My reasoning for this is because I can be certain that it is vegetarian whenever I buy it, since they only make one type and it contains beans and no meat. That, and because they use organic ingredients, which is always a plus. I would classify this consumption under society and economy.

Later in the evening, around 7PM, I had some evening snacks from the cabinet. I decided to have both a salty snack and a sweet snack, so that they would balance out each other and ideally I would not get tired of one or the other too quickly. The two snacks I chose were “Extra Toasty” Cheez-Its and the “Cinnamon Candy”-flavored Oreos. I had already bought both of these before, so thankfully I did not have to waste any money on snacks today. The reason I chose to consume some Cheez-Its was because they’re a relatively healthy salty snack compared to other options, such as potato chips, and I have always loved the taste of them, especially the extra-toasty kind. As for the Oreos, I consumed them with a glass of skim milk, as I usually do. The brand of the skim milk is Kemp’s Select, and as I have stated in previous blog posts I consume this brand because the farmers treat their cows better, and do not use artificial growth hormones on them. I love to dip cookies in milk, Oreos especially, since the cream inside the two cookies becomes very soft and satisfying to chew. Nabisco even labels many of their Oreo packages with the slogan “Milk’s favorite cookie”, and ever since I dipped an Oreo in milk for the first time, I completely understand why they have that slogan. I would classify this consumption under culture, society, and design.

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Blog Day 28

For breakfast today, I had a wrap from Trader Joe’s. It was the same type of wrap which I ate last time I went to Trader Joe’s, the Veggie Wrap with Hummus, and it costed $3.99. I consumed this wrap around 9:00 in the morning, after sleeping in a little longer than usual since my first class on Mondays is not until 3 in the afternoon. I’ve actually purchased this specific wrap from Trader Joe’s so many times now that I hardly even pay attention to the label to know what type it is. I just recognize the unique shape of the wrap, an almost-perfect square due to the wrap being split in half, and the label, which is the only bright green label of all of the wraps at Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s has a very unique typography style in all of their products as well. It’s a style you don’t really see anywhere else except trader Joe’s, with type set in a font consisting of very bulky letters and a very abstract font. The letters are also spread out in a unique way; Rather than all being on the same baseline, they’re usually on a curved baseline, a jagged baseline, or simply all over the place. In the case of this veggie wrap, the letters are set on an almost jagged baseline. I would classify this consumption under design and culture.

Later in the day, around 12PM, my mom, older brother, and I all went to a place called Radio City to look for a telescope for my older brother. He’s getting married this March and graduating this May, so the telescope is pretty much a combined graduation and marriage gift for him from our parents. Since Radio City is just across the street from a Little Caesar’s, we decided to stop by there afterwards to get a pizza for lunch. I had not eaten Little Caesar’s pizza for at least a couple years, despite being my favorite brand of pizza, so I was very excited to get a pizza there after so long today. Neither my mom or brother is a vegetarian, but since they both know that I am, we ended up just buying a cheese pizza for all of us to share. It ended up being enough for all of us, despite how much both my brother and I eat. The total cost of the pizza was $5.00, but the employees there have a very pushy selling strategy to attempt to make more sales. First, they asked if we wanted crazy bread with our order, then they asked if we wanted additional cheese for an extra dollar, and then they asked if we wanted any drinks to go with our pizza. We ended up sticking with just the pizza despite all of this. I would classify this consumption under economy and society.

As another snack today, I had a few pieces of candy from a big bag I purchased the last time I went to Target. The specific type of candy I ate was Reese’s peanut butter cups, more specifically the Valentine’s Day special type. Although this is literally the same type of candy, just with red and pink wrappers and a Valentine’s Day-themed bag instead. This type was actually a better deal than the standard family-sized bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups, on sale for $2.50 instead of $2.99 for the normal bag. I used to always pick out the dark chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cups in the same size bag whenever I went to Target or another place that had a candy aisle, but they recently stopped making that type and now I always have to get the milk chocolate type. This type is not bad by any means, but I just prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate in pretty much everything. The brand of Reese’s peanut butter cups is Hershey’s, very well known for their selection of chocolates of course. I would say whenever I’m in doubt as to which type of candy I should buy, I always go to a Hershey’s brand chocolate candy since I can count on the chocolate tasting good no matter what it is. I would classify this consumption under economy, design, and culture.

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Blog Day 27

This morning, I did not have breakfast since I slept in after staying up late on Saturday night. So, the first meal I had after getting ready for the day was lunch, or more of a “brunch” actually since it was around 10:30AM. For this brunch, I ended up having multiple snacks. The bulk of the snacks I ate, however, was crackers. The type of crackers I ate was Cheez-Its, by the brand Sunshine. I actually never realized that this was the brand that made Cheez-Its until today when I was looking over the box. Their main product must be Cheez-Its, since I didn’t recognize their label from anything else either. The Cheez-Its I consumed were not ordinary Cheez-Its, either. The specific flavor of this box was “Extra Toasty”, which is essentially a box full of slightly overcooked crackers. Believe it or not, this flavor of Cheez-Its is actually my favorite, and it was even the most requested flavor according to the back of the box as well. Something about the taste of slightly overcooked Cheez-Its makes them even better than normal Cheez-Its. I bought this box from Target a while back actually, for $2.99, and I just forgot I had them until recently. I would classify this consumption under culture and economy.

After finishing several crackers, I felt like I needed to eat something sweet to balance the saltiness of the Cheez-Its. So, I looked in my refrigerator to see what we had, and then I remembered that I had picked out several Key Lime yogurts last time I went to Cub Foods. I bought several of the Yoplait brand standard yogurt when I went to Target, since they were on sale, but I also bought several more of a slightly different type of Yoplait yogurt when I went to Cub Foods. The type I bought from Cub, also on sale for 5 for $3, was the Yoplait “Whips”, a much fluffier version of the standard creamy yogurt from the same brand. I’ve always been able to easily distinguish between the two types of Yogurt whenever I pick them out, at least under the Yoplait brand, since the normal type has red and white graphics while the “Whips” type has purple and white graphics. While I don’t really prefer one or the other, I tend to only buy the “Whips” type when I’m at Cub Foods and the normal type when I’m at Target. This is because Target does not sell the “Whips” type, so I know if I feel in the mood for it I would need to get it from Cub. I would classify this consumption under design and economy.

In the evening, my mom told me she was making a trip to Whole Foods, which is probably one of my favorite grocery stores! Despite the closest location being in Maple Grove, which is about a 20-minute drive from our house, it’s always worth it to go there in my opinion since they have some really healthy and unique food choices there. As with most grocery stores, the first place we walked over to when we got there was the deli. There were so many pasta salads laid out behind the glass that I’d never seen anything like before, so I tried at least two or three samples, after making sure what I tried was vegetarian of course. Despite all of the samples I tried being delicious, I only picked out one of them since Whole Foods has pretty high prices. The salad I picked out was the “Smoked Gouda Mozzarella” salad, which was basically pasta with smoked gouda chunks, mozzarella cheese, spinach, red peppers, among other less obvious ingredients. This salad was honestly one of the best pasta salads I’ve ever tried, and the price was one of the highest prices I’ve seen for pasta salads too; $8.99 per pound. I ended up getting a little over half a pound, which ended up totaling to $5.47. This was a lot for the amount I got, but this was also a pasta that was exclusive to Whole Foods so I wanted to get it since it’s a long enough drive from our house. I would classify this consumption under society, design, and economy.

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Blog Day 26

This morning,  around 8AM, I woke up to the smell of freshly baked pie. While I wasn’t sure what type of pie it was, I could tell it was some kind of fruit pie. After I showered and got ready for breakfast, I came downstairs and immediately I knew what type of pie it was since I was closer to the scent: apple. Probably my favorite type of pie. It turned out that my mom had went shopping with my brother and his girlfriend the day before, and picked out fresh apples, a pie crust, among other ingredients from Trader Joe’s to make an apple pie. I was just going to have a bowl of Fruity O’s for breakfast, so this was a really pleasant surprise! Thankfully the pie was pretty big, so there was enough for my entire family to get some. While I usually prefer my pie to be warmed up in the case of fruit pies, I was actually just as fine with the taste of this pie as it was, not heated up. It had a different sensation when I ate it, but it was not a bad sensation. I’m not sure how much all of the ingredients costed, but I know that all of the ingredients came from Trader Joe’s, making the entire pie the Trader Joe’s brand. I would classify this consumption under culture.

For lunch today, I had some croissants from Target, I had picked out a big bag of small croissants last time I had went there about a week ago, but I never got around to having any until now for some reason. I do remember that the whole bag was $5.99, which was not a bad price considering there were at least 10 croissants in it. The brand of them was Target’s Market Pantry brand, which I actually find to offer foods that taste just as good as main brands in general. I could immediately tell that they were market pantry because of the dark green color on the label, and the infamous Market Pantry logo. Croissants are actually surprisingly filling for me, since I would have originally assumed they were just a type of bread. I don’t even need to put anything on them to give them more flavor; They taste great and make me full on their own. I had a total of two of them for my lunch, which definitely didn’t make my lunch the most nutritious. I did also pour myself a glass of Kemp’s Select skim milk, since I was pretty thirsty after eating two croissants. I would classify this consumption under economy and design.

In the evening, as somewhat of a dinner around 4:30PM, I wanted to have something that was at least a little more nutritious than my lunch was. So, I ended up having a few pieces of garlic bread with cheese and hummus. The garlic bread was purchased during the same trip as the croissants were purchased, and it was also the Market Pantry brand. This bread came in a big, round loaf, and it costed $5.99 as well. The hummus I used was the spinach and artichoke flavor by Sabra, since I still had a bit left from when I started it. The specific type of cheese I had was pepper jack, since I really enjoy spicy foods and pepper jack cheese adds a little spice to the standard cheese. This cheese was also the Market Pantry brand. One thing I noticed about Market Pantry recently is that they have started using different packaging for different types of foods. For example, the garlic bread was the standard dark green label with the rounded logo, while the cheese was wrapped in a red and white package with “Market Pantry” in a larger, all caps font. Because the bread packaging seemed to resemble what the cheese packaging used to be like, it’s possible that they are just transitioning and have yet to transition for everything yet. I ended up making little topless sandwiches with the three ingredients, which ended up being a relatively substantial dinner. I would classify this consumption under culture and economy.

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Blog Day 25

This morning, I decided to have some cereal for breakfast. It had been long enough since I ate my Trader Joe’s Fruity O’s cereal, longer than I usually wait between eating bowls of it actually, so I decided to have a bowl for breakfast today. This was around 9AM, after being able to sleep in since it was a Friday. Because of the experiences I’ve had with Trader Joe’s cereals like this in the past, I only used a small bowl to pour the cereal in this time, so that I could eat all of it before it got too soggy. Right when I started eating, however, one of my cats came up on the table and started meowing at me, as if he wanted some cereal too. A few seconds after that, two of my other cats came running up onto the table, as if they understood what the first cat was saying and wanted to eat some of my food too. Having 5 cats in total, I’m pretty used to guarding my food at this point, since I always feel bad pushing any of them off of the table. I managed to finish all of the cereal and drink most of the remaining milk in the bowl, and as a treat for waiting, I left my cats a little bit of the skim milk in the bowl for them to lick up before I put the bowl in the sink. I would classify this consumption under culture.

For lunch, I decided to have a wrap I had gotten from Cub Foods the other day. The wrap was called the “Mediterranean wrap”, which I assumed was vegetarian based on similar Mediterranean foods I’ve eaten but I checked the ingredients to be sure before I bought it. Sure enough it was vegetarian, and it had a lot of ingredients which I love: Feta cheese, spinach, olives, tomatoes, and a mystery sauce that tasted good. All of these ingredients were wrapped in a sun-dried tomato tortilla, which has always been my favorite type of tortilla. The cost of the wrap was $3.99. I remember when I was much younger, at first I only picked out these tortillas with my mom because my favorite color is red, and I had never seen red tortillas before. Now I like them for more than just the color. Because the wrap was pretty large, it was split into two halves. I could barely finish one half before I was full, so I saved the other half by putting it back in the plastic box in the refrigerator. While the brand of this wrap was Cub Foods technically, I am not partial to Cub Foods for this type of meal. I only bought it there because it was convenient, and since I would not know how to make one myself. I would classify this consumption under economy, design, and culture.

Later in the day, I decided to have a snack. The snack I ended up having was honey-cinnamon flavored almonds I had bought from Target a while ago. The cost of the entire bag was $5.99, and the reason I chose to buy them when I did was because I’m a huge fan of both cinnamon and almonds, and I’ve had this flavor of them before and it’s a delicious combination! These are not my favorite type of almonds, however. My favorite type of almonds is dark chocolate-covered almonds, but they are generally more expensive and not as healthy as other flavors. I try to pick out some nuts every time I go to Target, since they are a good source of protein for vegetarians. The brand of the almonds is Market Pantry, Target’s signature food brand, and I remember when I bought them that all the packages of nuts were designed the exact same way. They all included the Market Pantry logo on a transparent package, and the name of the type of nuts was below the logo. The way you were able to distinguish between them, however, is the background color of the type of nuts. In this case, the background color of the honey cinnamon almonds was a brown-yellow, the color you would expect for the flavor. I would classify this consumption under design and society.

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Blog Day 24

Despite being a Thursday, I was able to consume some breakfast this morning before I left for school. I was completely ready by 7:25, which gave me enough time to grab something quickly before I had to leave. I ended up having a yogurt from my refrigerator. Last time I went to Target, they were having a sale on yogurts; 5 for $4, and the discount would only apply if you bought five. Because I’m a big dairy fan in general I wasn’t concerned about finishing 5 yogurts before they expired, which was on May 12th for all of them. The brand of the yogurt that was on sale was Yoplait, and the flavor of all the ones I chose was Key Lime Pie. I pretty much love all flavors of yogurt, but ever since my mom introduced me to the key lime pie flavor back when I was really young, it’s always been my top favorite. When it comes to yogurt, the first brand I’m always drawn to is Yoplait. It’s the brand I’ve always eaten growing up, so I’m very used to the taste, so I usually end up buying that brand. I’m willing to try any brand of yogurt, though. I would classify this consumption under culture and economy.

Today, being a Thursday, I decided to buy a sub from Subway during my only break from classes, from 10:25 to 11:30. The line was longer than usual for this time of day, and then I realized it was because there was a new employee working there. When it was finally my turn in line, I told the new employee that I wanted a six-inch sub on wheat bread. He went to the back room for about a minute, and came out with a burnt loaf of bread that looked more like 4 inches. Then, I told him that I wanted the veggie patty. At first he couldn’t find it, so I pointed at the cabinet behind him where they always take them out of. He gave me one that was broken in half. At least when I asked for pepper jack cheese, he gave me 3 pieces instead of the standard 2 pieces that would be on a six-inch sub. I got the rest of my toppings as usual, as well as 2 oatmeal raisin cookies to make a meal. I picked out the Mott’s apple juice as my drink, which was still only the 10 ounce size instead of the 14 ounce. Then, when I went to pay, the lady at the cash register told me that the drink was only 99 cents, and that she would still have to charge me the full price of the meal if I got it. I hesitantly agreed, paid with Flexdine, and ate my lunch. Aside from the crispy, burnt bread crumbling all over, the sub wasn’t too bad. I would classify this consumption under economy and society.

For dinner, around 6:00, I had a leftover salad, a cookie, and milk. I had finished the bean salad and Italian pasta salad already, but I still had some “Super Food” salad leftover. While I do not know the actual nutrition information of this salad, I would guess that it’s pretty healthy considering the ingredients: Spinach, carrots, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and cashews. This definitely wasn’t the most tasty salad I’ve gotten from Cub, which is probably why I ended up not eating the entire container last time. It still wasn’t bad, though. Then, as a dessert, I had a cookie from the big package I bought from Cub the same day I bought the salad, and I poured a glass of milk to dip the cookie in. The milk was the Kemp’s brand, titled “Kemp’s Select”, which is the milk I always pick out from the store. My reasoning for this is because my older brother once told me several years ago that some skim milk had artificial growth hormones in them, and he was right. So, I always choose this brand now since they make a pledge to never treat their cows with these hormones. I don’t notice much of a difference in taste, but I just feel like it’s better to be safe than sorry. I would classify this consumption under society and culture.

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Blog Day 23

Since I ended up having to get to school earlier today than I usually do on Wednesdays, I was not able to have breakfast before school. So, instead, I ended up getting a snack from the vending machine around 8:30. There were a lot of choices there, almost all of which were vegetarian options which was good, but pretty much all of it was junk food too, which wasn’t so good. It was a vending machine, though, so I didn’t expect any more than junk food. There were a few options that caught my eye, however, due to a bright orange label with a swirl graphic that read “Sensible”. I had no idea what this meant, but the label looked pretty natural, so I chose one of the “sensible” choices from the vending machine: a standard Rice Krispies bar. Believe it or not, I actually hadn’t had a Rice Krispies bar since at least high school, so it’s been a minimum of 2 years at this point. Thankfully it tasted just as good as I remembered it! The cost of the bar was $1.50, which seemed a bit on the pricey side, but then again everything in vending machines is overpriced. I would classify this consumption under society, economy, and design.

Since I normally have milk with whatever I eat for breakfast, I suddenly had a strong thirst for milk immediately after I finished my Rice Krispies bar. So, since I was on the St. Paul campus, the only place I knew I could go to get milk was the student center. There may have been cheaper alternatives for skim milk on the East or West bank, but I wouldn’t have enough time to go over there and get back to St. Paul in time for my next class, since it was already 9:00. So, I went over to the student center dining area to get an individual bottle of milk. I wasn’t used to seeing the dining area of the student center so empty, since normally I go around 11:00 when it’s really busy. It felt much more peaceful with hardly anyone there. I walked over to the refrigerated section and grabbed a skim milk, checking the date on each one since I wouldn’t be holding anyone up and I wanted to get the freshest milk. The latest date I ended up finding was February 16th, which was actually a big difference from the earliest expiration date, which was tomorrow. So, I’m glad I checked! The cost of the milk was $1.99, and it was the Land O’ Lakes “Grip ‘n Go” brand. As similar as all skim milk tastes, I’ve noticed that something about Land O’ Lakes milk makes it my favorite. I’m not sure if it’s just the brand or if it actually tastes better, but either way, I’m actually okay paying more for Land O’ Lakes milk than another brand of milk. I would classify this consumption under economy, design, and culture.

In the evening, I stopped by the Cub deli on the way home from school yet again. This time, due to traffic, I ended up going to my local Cub Foods, the Arden Hills location, as it was much closer to my house and I wanted to get the drive out of the way. All Cub Foods locations tend to have different deli selections, despite being the same company, so I didn’t know what I would find at this one. When I walked to the deli, my eye was immediately drawn to two things: A mixed bean salad, and the price tag of the salad, showing that it was only $2.99 per pound rather than $4.99. I love beans so much; they’re probably on the list of my top favorite foods. So, I didn’t even try a sample of this salad. I did, however, ask if the salad was vegetarian, since last time I went to Byerly’s I discovered that they added bacon to their signature bean salad. Thankfully Cub’s version does not include meat, so I was still able to buy it. I always ask when I can’t see the ingredients right in front of me. I bought a medium-sized container, which ended up being close to two pounds, with the total cost at $5.78 for the whole container. For this amount of beans, I wasn’t going to complain at all. I would classify this consumption under economy and culture.

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Blog Day 22

This morning, around 7:00 in the morning, I consumed a breakfast sandwich before I went to school. The sandwich was a cheese and egg biscuit, more specifically a smoked gouda and egg white biscuit, so it was actually pretty healthy. It was definitely packaged, as most foods are in America, especially frozen foods, and on the label of the package was the unique, identifiable “evol” logo. The logo has a backwards “e” since it’s meant to be “love” spelled backwards, but it is still legibly an “e” since no other letter is close to that shape. I generally don’t even check the ingredients in evol meals, simply because the typography and color choices on the packaging make the food look natural. I’m sure the meals are very healthy comparatively speaking, but definitely not as healthy as some things. I consumed this sandwich at my house after microwaving it, and the sandwich was individually wrapped. Unfortunately, unlike some bulk frozen foods, this sandwich does not come in big packages with more than one inside. I’m sure it would be less expensive if it did, but as of now I always have to buy each sandwich individually, which makes me feel very wasteful with all the packaging. I would classify this consumption under design and society.

After my last class of the day today, around 4:45, I stopped by the Roseville Cub Foods on the way home. As always, the first thing I did when I got there was walk over to the deli, to see what vegetarian pasta salads they had. They actually had a much bigger selection than usual today, and I was thrilled to see so many vegetarian options. After trying a few samples, I ended up getting a container of the Italian pasta salad. Usually I can’t get an Italian pasta from the deli like this since it so often contains pepperoni or another kind of meat. However, this specific one contained all the Italian ingredients I love; mozzarella cheese, rotini pasta, tomatoes, and Italian sauce; but no tomatoes! Because of this, I decided to get a pretty big container of it, since I could save whatever I didn’t eat for later in the refrigerator. The pasta wasn’t cheap, sadly, as it costed $7.99 per pound. I ended up getting a bit more than a pound, totaling to around $10.00 for the container. It was a lot of pasta, though. While there have been instances where something doesn’t taste right in Cub’s pasta salads, most of the time it is a very reliable brand. I always try a sample first to be sure, though. I would classify this consumption under economy and culture.

On the same trip to Cub, I ended up buying a big container of cookies. I was going to try to steer away from less healthy foods like cookies when I went, but then I remembered that this was the Roseville Cub. This location always makes chocolate chip cookies that taste far better than any other location. The texture is softer, the cookies dissolve in milk easier, they have more chocolate chips, among other things I’m probably forgetting. Because I knew how good the Cub brand chocolate chip cookies would taste at this location, I decided to buy the biggest package available, the 24-pack of cookies, since it was a better deal than the 12-pack. The 24-pack is $6.99, and the 12-pack is $3.99, so basically you save fifty cents for buying the 24-pack instead of two 12-packs. I made sure to pick the latest expiration date, too. As reliable as Cub usually is, sometimes expired foods can get overlooked there, so I make it a habit to check every food I purchase there. Plus, since I was buying a package of cookies this big, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to eat all of them. They expired on February 12th, so I felt like I should be fine. I would classify this consumption under economy, culture, and society.

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Blog Day 21

This morning, I did not eat breakfast like I normally do. I was going to have a bowl of Trader Joe’s Fruity O’s, but then I remembered I had a dentist appointment at 10:00. The reason I had this appointment is because I was due for an exam, since the last dental appointment I had was over 6 months ago. Because of this, I wanted to make sure I didn’t have any food before the appointment, since I would feel embarrassed to have food in my teeth when they’re examining them. Plus, I like to get in and out of the dentist as quick as possible, and by not having food potentially stuck in my teeth, it could save a little time. The dentist I go to is Moore Lake Dental, because it’s where I’ve gone all my life and my mom always schedules my dentist appointments there. I used to get a fluoride treatment every time I went, but since our insurance doesn’t cover it anymore I have not gotten it for the past couple of years. I consider that a good thing, actually, since while the treatment does strengthen your teeth, it also makes it so you can’t eat for several hours after, and having not eaten breakfast I was famished by the end of the appointment. At the end, I got my normal “Moore Lake Dental” toothbrush, a red one since that’s my favorite color, and some Johnson and Johnson cinnamon floss. I would classify this consumption under culture and design.

Since I still had some time before my class started at the U of M, I decided to go back home and have lunch there instead of on campus today. For lunch, I had an Oscar Meyer Lunchable. The specific type of Lunchable I consumed was an extra cheesy pizza Lunchable. However, this was not the standard extra cheesy pizza. This was the “Organic” version, which is basically the same thing but with no artificial flavors, preservatives, or ingredients. The only reason I got this type instead of the standard type when I bought it at Target was because it was on sale. It was not less than the standard Lunchable, but it was $2.50 instead of $3.00 which I felt was a reasonable discount. The standard extra cheesy pizza Lunchables are normally $1.79 each at Target, but I had been eyeing the organic version every time I bought the standard version just because I was curious how it would taste. Even the packaging of the Lunchable itself looked more natural; It had neutral green and cream colors making up the wrapper instead of the bright yellow and orange on the standard version. When I tried it, I actually noticed a substantial difference between the normal version and this version, especially in the sauce and cheese. The sauce tasted more like tomatoes, and the cheese tasted like it had a lot less fat. Both of these observations could have just been because I was so convinced that it would be a lot better based on the packaging, though. I would classify this consumption under culture, economy, and design.

In the evening, once I was home from my last class around 6:00, the first thing I did when I got home was snacked on some Girl Scout cookies. We had just finished a package of Thin Mints, so I decided to open a package of the Samoas next so that the Thin Mints wouldn’t get boring to eat too fast. This was the first of five packages of Samoas my mom had bought, four from my 5-year-old cousin in New Hampshire and one from a neighbor who stopped by our house today selling more cookies. It’s really hard to say no to little girls selling cookies. While the brand of the cookies is labeled as “Girl Scouts”, I do wonder if the Girl Scouts actually make them or if they just buy them from a private seller and sell them. Either way, they taste delicious! The Samoas were just as good as I remembered them, with their chocolate-caramel-coconut combination to die for. I always recognize Girl Scout cookies by their unique box colors. In this case, when I saw the purple box I immediately knew it was a box of Samoas. The Girl Scouts definitely know how to use color in their packaging design. I would classify this consumption under culture and design.

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Blog Day 20

Today, I woke up later than I normally do, even on weekends, since I was up until around 2AM last night. I didn’t wake up until around 10, and by the time I had showered and done everything I needed to do to get ready for the day, it was almost 11:00. So, instead of having breakfast, the first meal of the day I had was lunch. I went down to my freezer, and picked out the first meal that looked appetizing to me: macaroni and cheese. The brand of the macaroni and cheese was Stouffers, but it was different from the standard Stouffer’s mac and cheese since it also included broccoli mixed in. I purchased several of these at Target a few days ago, since I love mac and cheese and the addition of broccoli gave it more nutrition than solely cheese and pasta. As a vegetarian, I need to make sure I’m getting enough of all the major vitamins and minerals in my diet, and this mac and cheese was a good source of protein and the broccoli was a good source of fiber and other important vitamins. I would classify this consumption under culture and society.

In the evening, my family and I decided to watch the super bowl together. For this occasion, my mom bought a vegetable platter for us to snack on during the game. None of us are huge football fans, but we really enjoyed the funny commercials and the amazing half-time show! The vegetable platter my mom bought for us was from Target, and it contained three different types of vegetables: carrots, broccoli, and celery. It also came with a standard hummus dip in the center, but I was the only one who seemed to like this part. Everyone else dipped their vegetables in a dill dip my mom had bought as well. Of the veggies on the platter, the carrots were eaten the fastest, then the broccoli, and then the celery. There was a lot of celery leftover at the end, since everyone liked the carrots and broccoli much more. There was no specific brand of this platter, it was just labeled as “Veggie Platter with Hummus” on the packaging. The reason we ate this snack during the game was because it was much healthier than the alternatives, such as chips. Plus, this was a very healthy vegetarian snack for me. The veggies were also pretty tasty dipped in hummus, too. I would classify this consumption under culture and economy.

Around 8:00 at night, since vegetables are not very filling even with sauces, I was hungry again for a more substantial dinner. First, I asked my mom if we were having anything as a family, since sometimes we do and that’s better than my frozen meal alternatives. She said we weren’t, so I picked out something else from the freezer. From everything I saw in there, the thing that sounded the most appetizing to me at the time was the Trader Joe’s “Hatch Chili” mac and cheese. I had picked this out from Trader Joe’s the last time we went, since macaroni and cheese has always been one of my favorite meals, and the chilies in this version would give it some extra flavor. When I looked at the nutrition facts of this meal, it supposedly contained 2 servings in the package, but considering the minimal food I ate during the rest of the day I decided to just make it all and eat the two servings in their entirety. It was about the size of a normal mac and cheese, too, so I didn’t feel that it was a big deal to eat it all. Like the Stouffer’s mac and cheese I consumed earlier, this was a good source of protein, and while the chilies weren’t too nutritional on their own, they added a nice zip of flavor. I would classify this consumption under culture. 

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Week 3 Collection

This week, the items I have added to my collection are more food packaging. The difference between this week and last week is that I have collected more than just boxes, as I was not obtaining enough boxes from the foods I consumed. This week, I have many more types of packaging in my collection, such as wrappers and over-packaging. My collection this week contains fewer healthy meals than the past two weeks, which are only the Hatch Chili Macaroni and Cheese from Trader Joe’s, the Stouffer’s Mac and Cheese with Broccoli, and the “Petite Quiches” from Target. The rest of my collection is made up of junk food, all cookies actually. There is the $5 Nestle cookies over-packaging from Target, the box for the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, the wrapper for the Chips Ahoy! Chewy Reese’s peanut butter cup cookies, and the Cinnamon Candy-flavored Oreo wrapper. I am collecting these items this week to show what the bulk of my daily diet consists of.

Over the past week, my diet has been much poorer than previous weeks. Four of the seven items in my collection are from junk food, as my diet has consisted of far more junk food than it probably should over the past week. Even the “healthy” meals I consumed this past week were not the healthiest. Both Mac and Cheeses contained relatively high amounts of fat, and the pasta was not whole grain or anything. However, both of these mac and cheeses also contained vegetables; broccoli in the Stouffer’s brand and chili peppers in the Trader Joe’s brand. Both also contained high amounts of protein in the cheese, which is beneficial for me since I don’t get protein from meat, being a vegetarian. Some themes I identify when looking at my collection are culture and economy. Culture is a theme I identify because I have a vegetarian diet, and the foods I eat are very reflective of that since none contain any meat. Economy is another theme because I purchased all of the foods and meals represented in the photo, and all of them have bar codes as well to show that they were sold at stores.

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Collection Week 3- Description is above.

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Blog Day 19

For breakfast today, at around 10 AM, I ate some leftover waffles. Last time I made waffles with our old waffle maker, there was still quite a bit of the batch of the waffle mixture leftover, as everyone had eaten all the waffles they wanted for the day and weren’t hungry anymore. So, I was able to make 4 more whole waffles from the remaining batch, and I put them in the freezer to preserve them for another breakfast. Today, since I still wasn’t really in the mood for Trader Joe’s Fruity O’s cereal yet, I decided to have one of the leftover waffles. There were two big differences this time, though. First of all, the waffle was microwaved this time, so it wasn’t as fresh as the day I made them. Second, I actually bought syrup last time I went to Target! That made up for the less-fresh waffles, since I always love to put syrup on my waffles whenever possible. The specific syrup I bought was the 16-ounce size of the Market Pantry brand, since it was the best deal at only $2.69 instead of $3.99 for the main brand syrup. It still tasted like syrup, and it made the waffles delicious! I would classify this consumption under culture and economy.

Around 2:00 in the afternoon, after my already late start, I had some lunch. This was more of a snack than a lunch, but I consider it my lunch since it was the most substantial thing I had around lunch time. What I had was some Triscuits I had bought from Target the last time I went, dipped in spinach and artichoke hummus, also bought from Target. The specific type of Triscuits I ate was the Smoked Gouda flavor. There were a lot of different flavors there that looked like they could be just as good, but since I already knew how good the Smoked Gouda flavor was, I decided to just stick with them. Maybe next time I go I’ll try a different flavor. The hummus I dipped the crackers in was the Sabra brand, a brand that I can always identify when I see it since they seem to be the leading hummus brand at Target (As well as other grocery stores). For the hummus, I actually bought a type that I’d never tried before, the spinach and artichoke flavor, as well as the type that has always been my favorite, the roasted red pepper. Because they were both Sabra hummus, I was fine trying something a little different since I’ve loved all of the hummus that I’ve tried from them before. I would classify this consumption under design and economy.

As an evening snack, I had a cookie from a big package of cookies I bought the other day. While I ate the cookie at my house, I originally purchased the package from the Shoreview Target, since it’s the closest Target to where I live. The package of cookies included 20 big cookies in total, and costed $4.99 for the entire package. I believe these cookies are made by the bakers at Target, but the label also lists that the cookies include Nestle Toll House chips, so technically these cookies are made by two different brands. Usually when I’ve bought these cookies in the past, I’ve bought them because they’re super soft and very tasty. This time, however, when I ate the first cookie this evening, it was not soft. Rather, it was crunchier than the Chips Ahoy! Chunky cookies. I knew that it wasn’t expired since I’m always careful to check the dates of the foods I buy, but this batch must have been overcooked or something else along those lines. Even dipped in milk, these were not the soft cookies I knew from Target. The good news is the cookie tasted good otherwise, so I must have just been unlucky and gotten a bad batch. I would classify this consumption under economic and society.