Imperfect Foods website

Hey Eddie, remember World Harvest Food Bank? Well, I found a grocery store online that essentially does the same thing! It collects surplus produce and food that regular grocery store chains, like Whole Foods, deem unsightly because they're not perfectly shaped or are a few days from their expiry date and deliver them in grocery boxes to your door.  

It says it runs about 30% less than the average grocery store and they sell other things than produce, too. They deliver to Los Angeles and I tried random zip codes for Seattle, NYC, Detroit and Nashville. They seem to deliver to all except, unfortunately Nashville, BUT they do deliver to at least one zip code in Detroit and I recently read there are now several of these surplus grocery food services online, so, Jack, maybe you can find one that services Nashville!  ♡♡♡

Keep in mind the food will look less than perfect and may be closer to its expiration date than food directly from the grocery store, so you'll want to consume it quickly. This website says it'll let you specify your produce items minutely. Not all of the surplus grocery services may let you do that because they are working with whatever they can scoop up as surplus, after all. But, I swear to goodness, if you're not already familiar with the stats on this subject and how these type of special grocery stores work, it's well worth educating yourself on it for the sake of sustainable food consumption and farming. For instance, did you know that 40% of food in America goes to waste? And it takes so much water, land and farming tools to produce. And for naught. Anyway, check out their website below (and that of World Harvest also included) to get a primer on the subject, and then feel free to Google away. It's very important.

Eddie, you're welcome (if not encouraged) to share these links with Paul and Keanu and any of your other friends who may be interested whenever you get a chance (especially Paul). I don't want to keep burdening you, however, Eddie, and at some point I do still hope to erect a separate blog where Paul and Keanu and Shelby can also log onto to see stuff like this.

https://try.imperfectfoods.com/6-reasons-why?utm_source=fbads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=US-TEST_PBM_Prospecting_Conversions_ASB&utm_content=080219-Listicle-TEST-V2_US_All-Customers-Broad_All_All_oCPM-CC_Conversions&utm_term=091919_BoxPink_6ReasonsFoodWaste_Static_LearnMore_ListicleLP_PBM

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Here's the brick and mortar one located in LA. Feel free to see if your city has anything similar.  :)

World Harvest Food Bank 

(213) 746 • 2227 
3100 VENICE BLVD. LOS ANGELES CA 90019

MONDAY - FRIDAY 8AM TO 6PM SATURDAY 8AM TO 3PM

https://www.worldharvestla.org
https://www.facebook.com/WorldHarvestFoodBank/
https://www.yelp.com/biz/world-harvest-food-bank-los-angeles

P.S. Thanksgiving

Note: Many items will be vegan (from that PETA list), but some will be vegetarian with likely some kind of milk product in them. I hope that's OK, too.

Peta gives Trader Joe's vegan Thanksgiving Dinner its official endorsement

Check it out! For this year:

https://www.peta.org/living/food/vegan-thanksgiving-trader-joes/

Many of these items I'd be getting. :)

Another Thanksgiving question

As it turns out, Trader Joe's has unexpectedly offered a host of Thanksgiving vegan items this year, which I'm inclined to because they look yummy, but also because they're a bit more affordable than Whole Foods (the upside is that we'll be able to have a wider variety of sides - rubbing belly in yummy-happy gesture). The only thing is that several of the sides are frozen (as opposed to fresh, which Whole Foods sometimes has). Will that be OK with you guys?

Like I mentioned in the previous post, the sum total will prolly come from mainly both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, but many items would be frozen from TJ's.

Blue Apron mealkit service

Here's another one. Delivers to your door the fresh ingredients with step-by-step recipe instructions. They have a vegetarian plan (which sometimes can be synonymous with vegan - you have to check). And then, I don't know if they deliver to Nashville or Seattle, you guys'll have to check.

I'll just keep bombarding you with sites the Internet keeps offering me, Jack, until the Google monsters on your own computer is auto-targeting your ads with veggie mealkit servies. :-P

https://www.blueapron.com/pages/pricing?cvosrc=social-paid.facebook.PSFB-60-A&fb_ad=SB+-+Acq+-+Pricing+Page+-+Chick_6meals_freeshipping&fb_adid=6132572802322&fb_adset=SB+-+ACQ+-+F18%2B+-+Subscribe&fb_adsetid=6132572801322&fb_campaign=SB+-+Acquisition+-+Subscribe+-+Non+WW+-+%2460+Drip+-+Bid+Cap+-+10%2F28&fb_campaignid=6131837981322&utm_campaign=PSFB-60-A&utm_medium=social-paid&utm_source=facebook

The Pest Control Regimen; The New Normal

So, the thing that they're doing today is pest control, which I'm happy for, on the one hand, because it comes free of charge and we do have a bug problem in the building. However, what has been so upsetting snd cumbersome is that the particular method they use is one whereby they require you to not only move all of your belongings from your kitchen and bathroom cabinets and general area, but also the heavy appliances as well, like your fridge and stove and any other big furniture. They want you to pull it away from your wall so they can get back behind in there, treat the area and exterminate any bugs. This might be all well and good if it weren't for a couple of factors: 1) While I can do a surpising amount of physical activities safely with my heart condition (thank God), one thing I am not recommended to do is heavy lifting and pulling. So, for me, a single woman with a heart condition, moving my stove and fridge and other big furniture away from the wall is just not feasibly safe for me (nor is it for many of the seniors and disabled here). And I've been feeling a lot of stress this week, wondering if I have to try to do this. I did not attempt to do it, and have been hoping this would be sufficient. Even clearing out the kitchen and bathroom area of smaller items, putting all the content in bins in the center of the apartment (per their instructions) has been exhausting, costly and like playing Tetras because my apartment is so small (I had to scramble to make sure everything would fit in its new rearranged place to accommodate the sprayed area). In terms of the supplies this required, I was given virtually no advance warning, they just sprung this expenditure on me and I am on a fixed income with everything already planned for the month generally.

What is also infuriatingly insulting is that you get absolutely no dialogue from management on this. They did not check with me beforehand to even see if I was available to prepare my apartment, cover costs, and then - the final kicker - be gone EVERY Friday for the foreseeable future. Oh, didn't I mention, haha? So, they'll be requiring I do this every Friday morning from here on out with all of my kitchen and bathroom stuff, gone for four hours every time until God knows how many weeks from now. Out of the blue management just informed me, did not ask me or negotiate a schedule with me.

The wondrous cherry ontop is that for all of this hassle and labor of prepping your unit in this way when you are disabled, it is known far and wide among the Rosslyn tenants that THE BUG TREATMENT DOESN'T WORK. It's not an effective chemical treatment which provides a long-term resolution of the pest issue and quickly the bugs return, only for you to have to subject yourself to the regimen again and again.

What you'll love about this predicament is that the whole reason for this hassle is likely the Ghetto Lady because I've heard her complaining about bugs up top and, for what it's worth, in the Underground state, I heard her repeatedly confirm wanting the pest control treatment. Well, that's well and good for her place but it's quite possible that her complaints either purposely or inadvertantly implicated the rest of us neighbors nearby so that management decided to subject us all to the routine. Again, pest control=good, but ineffective pest control that makes demands on my disability, my pocket book, my time and energy with no respect for my own schedule each week=bad.

Definitive THUMBS DOWN.

Thanksgiving dinner grocers

The grocers that I'll prolly be getting the Thanksgiving dinner food from will be among the following:

Trader Joe's
Whole Foods
Ralphs (if the internet isn't lying to me, there should be several in Nashville).

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Another mealkit website I found that has vegetarian meals (not strictly vegan) is HelloFresh.com. If you're not already familiar with them, what you both may like about it (since you both like to cook) is that instead of sending you fully prepared meals, it sends you the ingredients with a recipe and then, you prepare it yourself. This might be helpful, Jack, if you're looking to see how vegetarian ingredients interact with each other through the cooking process. In other words, if you wanna teach yourself how to cook veggie, this might be helpful. :)

Veestro plant-based prepared food site

Oooh! Kewl new vegan prepared-in-advance mealkit site I found. This is for you, Jack, but also for you, too, Eddie and, if you guys like it, you're welcome to pass it onto Paul, also. 

Note: the phone app is no longer letting me activate URL links (for whatever reason) so, you'll have to c/p the link yourself. Sorry. :(

It's called Veestro. Www.vestro.com

100% plant-based

                 Non-GMO ala carte items

organic ingredients

fully prepared

no preservatives

Thanksgiving thoughts

Preliminary thoughts for Thanksgiving include scheduling our late dinner on a night OTHER than Thanksgiving night because the neighbor situation is OUT OF CONTROL these days and every year that Ghetto Lady and her Ghetto Ass Family is pretty rowdy and uncontrollable (not to mention how the other two neighbors can really pop off on holidays, too). Also, this way I don't have to worry about you two not getting to spend the holiday with your kids and Paul will hopefully get the chance to spend it with his wife, and Shelby, his friends/family.

Secondly, I was thinking we could schedule our dinner sometime that weekend at least, Thanksgiving weekend, but my ne'erdowell neighbor situation has been so volatile and trigger happy, I'm wondering if it might be safest avoiding Thanksgiving weekend altogether and aiming to have our late night supper either BEFORE Thanksgiving Thursday or on a following weekday night the SUBSEQUENT WEEK (Hope this is making sense). What are your guys' thoughts on that???

As a backup, we could do Buca di Beppo Italian restaurant again. We could schedule it for a day other than Thanksgiving to allow everyone time to see their families. Buca is, however, typically open for business on Thanksgiving day proper, too.

Jack, you'll be happy to know there's a Buca di Beppo in Nashville, TN and one in Livonia, MI (about 25 miles outside of Detroit). There's one in Seattle for Eddie: a few in the UK for Paul; and several here in LA for Shelby and I. A couple of things on using this as a back up plan, however:

1) It offers vegetarian, but not really strong vegan offerings and Shelby is a strict vegan (though perhaps he'd be amenable to just grabbing a salad and bread rolls if he shares his main Thanksgiving dinner with family/friends on Thanksgiving day proper.

2) If I go eat at the restaurant in real time, I can't really converse with you guys bc I'm out in public. Now, like you and Paul did last year, Eddie, I could pick up the food the day before we eat it and then fix it up at home, but I don't have a microwave (by choice) and will have to think about whether I could reheat everything sufficiently in my little oven (also, if I don't eat at the restaurant in real time  that would put me back in my apartment anyway - so, if I'm eating Buca at home, I might as well just buy traditional Thanksgiving food from the grocers and eat it at home).

3) Also, unfortunately, I get less food for the money with Buca di Beppo, whereas if I buy food from the grocers, my buck will likely go farther.

4) I do love me the traditional Thanksgiving fare: mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegan gravy, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, Tofurky, green bean caserole (maybe) and vegan pie. Yuuuummmmers!

Presently, I am still inclined to make traditional fare at my apartment on a night OTHER than Thanksgiving so we can talk some and connect and if the neighbors act up on THAT night, we can hopefully just try again the next night. And, hopefully, everything will reheat up again well enough if we need to try again.

What do you two think???

I'll try to sense whether this preference is OK with you two and then post a Thanksgiving plans confirmation post on here. THAT post you can share verbatim with Paul, Eddie. And then, I'll post the final post which will be a listing of the vegan Thanksgiving groceries I buy from Whole Foods, et al, so you guys can duplicate it (as best as possible). That way we can "share" a Thanksgiving meal together. :) ♡♡♡ You can share that grocery list post with Paul, too, Eddie. I'll also post that one on Facebook for Shelby. :)

Tonight at Dia de los Muertos, Hollywood Forever

Btw, I'll be in the same costume/character I was in for Into the Woods last weekend, so you both will have a second chance to psychically discern who and what my costumed character is before I post the photos on the Soulkin Instagram account. ☆☆☆

Dia de los Muertos

I'll be at a Dia de los Muertos celebration later tonight, from approximately 7pm - 12 midnight, at Hollywood Forever cemetary, where Chris Cornell, Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino and Peter Lorre are buried.

I'd love to patch you two in, Ed and Jack, even if for a little while, if either of you two are free. The event is crowded and hectic, so I don't know that I'll be able to patch you guys in for too long, but maybe for a bit because it's a very special event, honoring the departed. I like to honor my friends there. ♡♡♡