Sunday, May 13: Sam Giacobozzi

Breakfast: Larabar

I thought, good for me. There are two ingredients in this: nuts and figs. Excellent start to the day, Giacobozzi. And then…I got so so hungry and made many poor choices. And we begin:
I go to the Larabar website and stumble upon this:

I HEARD LÄRABAR WAS PURCHASED BY GENERAL MILLS?

LÄRABAR was acquired by the Natural and Organic Division of General Mills called Small Planet Foods in June 2008. Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen complete the Small Planet Foods division. View a letter from Lara regarding the acquisition.

Thank you conglomerations! And, to add insult to injury, this was the response from the nice man who answered my phone call: “We don’t maintain a list of sourcing ingredients in terms of country of origin. But I can tell you that it was manufactured in the US in the Denver area.”
What’s the deal with the party line being, “In the United States”? Also, I toyed with the idea of calling him a liar, thus forcing his hand because there is no way they don’t keep a list of where they get their ingredients. Jill, Robert and I laughed about the idea of people driving around in VW vans and just grabbing nuts from unknown fields and making larabars out of them. Such a quaint concept.

Snack: Candy (Ferrero Rochero – Quantity, 2)
At church (it was Mother’s Day) they gave out a bag of candy and a flower to every woman over the age of 18. At first, I was being a little bit (read: very big) of a jerk internally because I hate Mother’s Day (that’s another story for another gender blog) but then when I ate the candy, my tune changed quite a bit. I LOVED THEM. Seriously. LOVE.
I have an email out to Ferrero Rochero for sourcing information. You know, tracking our “food” and candy choices.

Lunch: Orange Juice and a Burrito
Now, burritos should just be renamed “Bermuda Triangle” because Jill and I took everything out of our refrigerator and stuck it in. This burrito contained the following ingredients: Rice, Beans, Corn, Fake Meat, Homemade Pico do Gallo (Tomatoes, Cilantro, Onions, Garlic) Cheese, Sour Cream, Squash, Mushrooms and probably something else that I forgot. What the heck?
OJ: “Contains orange juice concentrate from the USA, Brazil and Costa Rica.” Awesome.
Fake Meat: When I went to Fantastic World Foods, I found this:
A NEVER-ENDING DISCOVERY
What a delight to discover a new dish or recipe! Fresh and exciting! Your sensory experiences embrace a deeper understanding of the culture and geography from which this lovely food originates.
A culinary voyage across continents and cultures!
I thought: a voyage across continents, indeed. Email out to them because they have no phone number listed.
Rice: A thoughtful purchase from JP in that she chose the Yoga Organics brown rice that was grown and distributed in Arkansas. Thanks, LPF Compact! Raising awareness since 2012.
Kroger Brand corn, sour cream and black beans. (See below for information regarding this).
Snack: Apple, Peanut Butter, Hummus and Naan
Organic apple from Selah, WA with “Dark Chocolate Dreams” peanut butter with rich dark chocolate. (I purchased this while with you, Melody (and Jill!) at the Peanut Factory in VA. Email out to them.
The Naan (as Jill pointed out in her blog) is from “Concord - Unincorporated, but apparently close to Toronto.”
The hummus was made by Jill and again, contained many ingredients including: apple cider vinegar, jalapeños, onions, garbanzo beans, parsley, olive oil, salt and tahini. Seriously, people.
Olive Oil is from Spain (Sevilla).
Bragg Organic Raw Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar: The nice man asked for all of my contact information and then told me that “he did not have sufficient information to answer my question” - it was so robot-like that I didn’t answer, because for some reason, instead of thinking that he responded in a robot voice, I thought that it was in fact, a robot. Apparently they will call me back…
Garbanzo beans are ‘Private Selection’ brand, but apparently that just means, “Fancy Kroger”? It’s their product…so…on to the ‘Private Selection Organic Garbanzo Beans’.
Henrietta needed a lot of information about the beans and so I decided not to ask her about the sour cream and corn. I did, however, ask about the black beans since I considered them to be in the “bean family”. She seemed a little confused by my question, but after being on hold for a few minutes she came back to inform me that my beans were gluten free and also that they contained “sodium sdfjhkafhs, which keeps them firm” and also “calcium sdfjhfha, which does something real real special” and then said, “what was your other question?” When I asked where the ingredients were sourced or where they came from, she put me on hold again and then came back with, “Stateside, grown in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida - they are grown ALL OVER THE PLACE. It’s the same with all the beans.”
The sentence, “they are grown ALL OVER THE PLACE” sent me into darkness.

Third Snack (that’s right. Hungry): Puffins cereal and almond milk
I went to the ‘Barbara’s Bakery’ website and discovered that I too was now part of the “Puffins Family”! I particularly enjoyed the use of ‘whimsical’ in describing said Puffin: “If you can't get enough of the whimsical puffin, visit our online store for puffin tote bags, stuffed toys and more.” I tried to call but couldn’t get through…I have an email out to them as well.
Blue Diamond Almonds Almond Breeze Almond Milk: Almonds from California.
All over. The lady seemed nice and as if she were proud to tell me this fact.

Conclusion: My diet is pretty good - we make a lot of our own food and it’s relatively fresh. Also, most of it comes from who knows where? I give myself a pass/fail, but mostly a giant fail.