How I finally broke the coffee habit

So, over the past few years I've developed this bad habit: going out for coffee. It seems so innocuous at first, a good cheap pick-me-up treat. But here's why it was bothering me:
1) It's expensive. Sure, it's just a few bucks here and there, but it adds up, especially if I'd go three or four times a week.

2) It's not healthy seeing as I'd get sugary drinks or add a thousand sugars to regular coffee. Too many empty calories wasn't doing anything to help me drop the baby weight.

3) It's bad for the environment. Idling in drive-thrus, forgetting reusable cups, using straws and coffee stirrers and individual packets of sugar.

I knew all this, but I was still having trouble breaking the habit of going out for coffee. So I linked it to something else I wanted to do: switch to organic milk. As anyone who reads my blog knows, I'm a big fan of organic and locally grown food. However, I'm a bigger fan of not living beyond our means. In other cases, I've been able to make choices. For example, humanely raised meat is far more expensive than regular meat, so I control costs by eating a lot less meat. I buy in-season fruits and veggies, which tend to be less expensive than out-of-season. But we drink a lot of milk. Switching to organic milk adds about $40-$50 a month to our grocery bill. I love milk, the kids love milk, and I use a lot of milk for cooking and baking. Cutting back on our milk consumption wasn't really a valid option for us.

So I linked the two in my head (and budget!). Cutting out all the coffee stops easily freed up an extra $50 a month. I've been doing it for almost two months now, so I think it'll stick. I feel good...we switched to organic milk, I broke the out-for-coffee habit, and I kept our budget in line! Win-win-win!

And I should admit, it's not that I'll NEVER get coffee out again. I mean, I still pop out occasionally with a friend, or grab a coffee with TK on a weekend while we're out and about. But now it's a special treat, something I do once every couple weeks rather than nearly every day.

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I'm thinking of including related or unrelated "green tips" at the end of my posts from time to time. Who knows if I'll keep it up or not, but it's just something that I've been thinking of. As I've mentioned numerous times before, I'm a fan of small steps. I make little changes, because it's relatively easy and eventually, enough little changes add up to big changes. Anyway, feel free to use 'em or not...I'm pretty non-judgmental about it all. What works for me and my family might not work for y'all. I'm just getting them out there! And please, share the green tips that have worked for your family, too!

Okay, here's my first tip: when we make coffee at home, there's usually some left in the pot. Instead of just dumping it down the drain, we've started freezing it into ice cubes. Then I can use them to make DELICIOUS homemade frappuccinos! Just add some coffee ice cubes, milk (or half and half if you're feeling wild), and a few teaspoons of sugar to a blender, and blend until the ice is well-crushed. To make it extra special, drizzle some chocolate syrup down the sides of a clear glass, then pour in the frappuccino. Looks pretty, tastes yummy! You could also use the cubes to cool down hot coffee without watering it down. I bet it would also make an interesting Baileys or Kahlua on the coffee-rocks :) I can't verify that until I've weaned Z-man, but you better believe I'm going to be trying it next fall!

See, pretty painless, right? Just finding a use for a common leftover in our house and getting into the habit of being aware of food waste. Plus, making these coffee frappuccinos once every week or two keeps me from missing my coffees out too much!

The Redemption of the Coffee Wench

Some of you may remember my story of the coffee wench, the terrible barista who tried to poison me by giving me Splenda. This may be surprising, but I still go to that coffee shop. Hey, what do you want, it's the one in my supermarket. It's either go there or shop without delicious coffee. But when the coffee wench is working, I just order a plain coffee, nothing special for her to make wrong or put Splenda in.

It's been a long time, though, and last time I was shopping, I really, really, really wanted the warm caramely goodness of a caramel macchiato. But The Coffee Wench was working. Oh, terrible conundrum...what to do??

I figured, it's been months. I'm hardly one to hold a grudge*. So I ordered my caramel macchiato. And you know what? It was PERFECT. Full of REAL sugar, and I think she even added extra caramel sauce on top.

Even better, I was buying those little Horizon milk boxes for my kids, and by mistake, I picked up one without a straw (oh, the humanity! There's no way a regular straw could ever be an acceptable substitute for my kids). Luckily, I noticed before we left, so I went back up to ask if I could exchange it for a milk with an attached straw. She said fine, then as I was leaving, she asked if I wanted the straw-free milk, since she'd otherwise just have to throw it away.

So not only did she give me a great coffee, she also gave me free milk. I think she's officially overcome her coffee wench title. Perhaps I'll even call her a barista now, though it still seems like a slight overstatement of the skills of a person working in a grocery story coffee shop...

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Replies to comments on Crazy fear:

Okay, now I'm paranoid. No one really called me out on it being a crazy fear. And no one else owned up to carrying a presidential curse. ThreeUnderTwo and Melodie, it seems like you two really would like me to vote for the opposite candidate you support. Oh dear, I am cursed, aren't I?

Melodie: that's so funny! Ah, the hanging chads. Gotta love it!

Jongirl: The money's not in the presidency, but in all those cushy post-presidential jobs... And the best thing about Buffalo would be you and dad. And for the record for all of you who haven't been to Buffalo, it really is a very nice town. It doesn't deserve the bad rap it gets in general.

Snick: How strange! Maybe Maddie and Riley are...gasp...REPUBLICANS! No, it could never be ;)

Sheri-CT: I highly doubt you and I are voting for the same candidate. But I love you anyway! And I'm so glad you figured out how to comment. HI!

Nancy: You're right, it is funny people are trying to sway me. Well, at least I can say with some conviction that my blog appeals to people of different political leanings!

American in Norway: Thanks for the comment! I hope you're enjoying your SITS day. I love the stories of the crazy things kids say to embarrass us. Here's another post of some silly things my boys said, though you may start to get the idea that my kids are a little obsessed with discussing boy and girl parts!

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*Okay, people who know me, feel free to burst into gales of laughter about this one. Fine, so I am one to hold a grudge. Just ask TGIF's Restaurants, who crossed me in, oh, about 1997 and I'm still annoyed. Or AT&T, who pissed me off in 2002 and I still hate them with a fiery passion. But it takes more than one coffee with Splenda to incur my eternal wrath. Six months was just the right amount of anger over that coffee.

Red Carrots??

I was at a specialty food store the other day that had tons and tons of interesting vegetables. One especially intriguing section had a big pile of baby vegetables. No further descriptions were given, just "baby vegetables".

How could I resist REAL baby carrots, not just those ground down regular carrots that pass as baby carrots these days (which I also love, but it seems like a big cheat to call them baby carrots. Wouldn't whittled carrots be more accurate?)

But while I was searching through the bin, there were some baby veggies that looked like red carrots. Hmm, I've never heard of red carrots! I got a bunch even though I had no idea what they were.

I'm still not sure, but I googled around and discovered that as I suspected, red carrots do in fact exist. In fact, I guess carrots come in a far wider array of hues than the traditional orange carried in our grocery stores.

So here they are, our orange and red carrots. I washed, chopped, and steamed them briefly, then sauteed them in butter with some rosemary out of the garden. Yum, rosemary. I'm going to have to be careful or I'll eat all of the rosemary and there will be none left in the garden to grow! Anyway, they came out delightfully...a little earthier than the carrots I get at the supermarket but that gave the flavor a little more depth and character than what I normally expect from carrots. So if you happen to run across red carrots (or carrots of any unusual color), I'd highly recommend giving them a try!

Random related thought: While we're talking food, I think I've found a great answer to my "but coffee isn't local" issue. I mean, I doubt I'd ever be committed enough to go on a 100 mile diet or anything...I like chocolate too much for one thing! But here's a good compromise for me about coffee: Wicked Joe. It's made in Maine, and the company is wicked crazy about all the pro-earth stuff they do...certainly they're a lifestyle choice rather than just a drink choice. But most importantly, it's wicked good! We got Jamaican Me Crazy...a coffee flavored with Kahlua, caramel, and vanilla. Insanely delightful. Even walking past the bag of coffee is a terrific experience. We actually don't make much coffee at home, maybe two pots a week, so this is one area where I certainly don't mind paying extra. Especially for something that's super mega awesome wicked cool.

Oh, and there's the benefit of getting to say "wicked" all the time. What can I say? That's one of my all-time favorite parts of living in the Boston area!

The little things

Snickollet had a recent post about the little things that make her happy. Well, it's not that recent a post anymore, but anyway, it's still true; it's the little things that make or break a day. Not to take the big things for granted, but today I'm going to focus on the little things that make me happy.

• Books. Not to take the "little" part too literally (or should I say Little-er-ly), but books are tiny pieces of portable happiness. Some books have changed my life. Some books have provided me with fleeting entertainment. Sure, some have also been boring or annoying or unreadable, but I just get rid of those. Or, to be honest, I even get some enjoyment out of ridiculing the really bad ones. So books tops my "little things" list.

• Coffee. I gave up caffeine when I started trying to get pregnant, and I just never went back. But I still love a cup of decaf. Sweet and creamy...lots of sugar and half and half. About a zillion calories, and worth every delicious one!

• A good bagel. There's nothing like a New York bagel, but luckily, we found an adequate substitution in the area. I mean, it's not a NY bagel, but it'll do.

• Chocolate. I like my chocolate in brownie form. Or chocolate chip cookie form. Or bar form. And you all know about my chip addiction. Who am I kidding, I love chocolate no matter how you package it. As long as it's not ruined with hazelnut flavor. Who came up with that bad idea?

• Comments of my blog. What can I say? I'm still a relatively new blogger, and it's a bit of a zing when a new comment notification pops up.

• The silly things N-Man and B-Man do. For the most part, the boys fall square in the "big thing" category rather than the "little thing" category. But their random silly comments are little things that just make my day. Recently, it's been how excited they get about flushing the toilet. They stick their heads right in and yell as loud as they can "BYE BYE MY PEE!" and then giggle. It's hilarious.

• At least one good show on TV. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Veronica Mars, Heroes: those have been some of my favorites. This year, it was a surprise show that I didn't think I'd like. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I don't know why I didn't think I'd like it. Terminator is one of my all-time favorite movies. Oh wait, that's why. Has there ever been a good TV show based on a movie? And coming up this May 22nd, the premiere of my favorite reality show, So You Think You Can Dance. Come on, all you AI fans, I'm counting on you giving this one a try this summer!

• Frozen Strawberry Margaritas at my favorite Mexican restaurant. The chips and salsa are great, too.

Well, those are a few of my favorite things, if I can be a bit "the hills are alive" for a moment.

Random unrelated thoughts: The boys are back in diapers. Me being sick, and now them being sick was just not conducive to potty training. Plus, it turns out they like peeing in their undies more than they like peeing in their diapers. Who knows...we'll try again in a month or two, when we're all healthy and when it's a bit warmer.

It must be MIRACLE syrup!

I went to the coffee shop today, to feed the coffee addiction. Mmmm. While I was there, I had a very depressing conversation with the coffee-wench. I refuse to call her a barista, one: because it seems like a vast overstatement of her skills, and two: because she was kind of wench-y, as you'll soon hear about.

I ordered my non-fat decaf caramel macchiato (because apparently I love to waste my money on overpriced coffee drinks. It's so yummy, though! Why couldn't I become addicted to some cheap truck stop coffee?). Do you know what she has the nerve to ask me? "Do you want sugar-free caramel syrup?" No, I don't. If I did, I would have ordered it. That was what I thought, but what I said was, "No thanks, I don't like fake sugar."

Her response: "There's no fake sugar in this." Really? Do you have miracle syrup? If it's sugar-free and there's no fake sugar, what makes it sweet? I'm sarcastic in my head, but what came out of my mouth was a friendly "I'm sure there must be some kind of artificial sweetener in it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be sweet."

"No," she assured me. "Here, you can even look at it." She handed me the bottle, which I spent one second perusing until I found it, right near the top of the ingredient list. "This has sucralose in it," I tell her. She stares at me blankly. "That's Splenda," I clarify.

"No, it doesn't say Splenda," she insists, starting to really get an attitude. Her opinion that I'm an idiot is just dripping from every word by now.

"I know," I answer. "Splenda is a brand name..." Here's where I finally decide to drop it. "I'll just have the regular syrup, please."

She makes my coffee, I take it and rush out as my boys are really starting to get a little crazy. As I sit in the car and take the first sip, I realize, yep, she used the sugar-free. See, wench-y. What did I tell you. If I hadn't already strapped both boys in their car seats, I would have gone back in and asked for a new one. Of course, that probably would have been a spit-flavored coffee, so perhaps this is for the best.

Oh, I drank my coffee anyway. What can I say, I'm addicted. But now I have this gross tinny-metallic aftertaste that I just can't get rid of, even with brushing. Yuck.

Random unrelated thought, adult humor warning: B-man is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, so we've been trying to teach him about it so that he knows not to take food from people and to ask if things have nuts in it. Both boys are getting really interested in talking about it. That's the set-up to the story.

So, last night at dinner, N-man busts out, unrelated to anything we were currently talking about, "Mommy eats peanuts!" I don't know why he said this. For the time being, we keep a nut-free house so I *don't* eat peanuts. Okay, this doesn't sound like adult humor yet, right? Well, when the boys say "peanuts", it sounds like a word for the male genitalia. So, his happy announcement of "Mommy eats peanuts" sounds like something far worse than he intended. TK and I couldn't keep a straight face, which is the hardest part of parenting. Because as soon as you laugh, they do whatever they're doing, except more. So, B-man picks up the chant, and now both of them are practically yelling "Mommy eats peanuts, Mommy eats peanuts".

Thank goodness we were in the house and not out to dinner. Although I'm sure they'll try this one again. They're probably waiting until my in-laws are in town.