Great news in the world of grocery shopping!

I have been a little behind with posts, but the two pieces of info I have to share with you this morning will hopefully make up for it.  I will start out again advocating for online shopping... especially if you have an amazon prime account.  On Monday, I bought what I thought was just a larger tub of protein powder than what I usually get... It looked different in the picture...  Scott usually gets the 1 lb tub of it for me at Sprouts, since he works so far NW and Sprouts is at Oracle and Magee.  If you are desperate for some and don't have time to order it online or go to Sprouts, I think they might sell it at New Life.  Anyway, when he gets it at Sprouts, which is usually well- priced in their gluten free products, he pays about $20 for a 1 lb tub.  OUTRAGEOUS!  Through Amazon prime, there is no shipping, it got here on Wednesday (two days after I ordered it), and it was a 3 lb tub for $30.95!  I'd like to say I knew it was going to be that big when I ordered it, but I didn't... I just knew I needed a new tub before my half marathon this weekend.  What a deal!!!
Pic of the GIANT tub of protein powder I got through Amazon Prime:

This is a gluten, dairy and soy free protein powder that I put in my fruit smoothies.  I also mix it with Coconut milk for a post- run shake.  I have had a lot of people ask me for the kind of protein powder I use, and I usually reluctantly say this one... It's tough because I have had the delicious regular protein powders (a long time ago), and it's hard sometimes to adjust to this one.  But, since there really aren't any other options that I know of, I go with this one.  It blends great and tastes great in a fruit smoothie... it's a little more funky when just with Coconut milk, but it does the job in terms of delivering protein and nutrients.  

If that wasn't enough, I must tell my Rita Ranch Cottonwood friends about my experience at Fry's yesterday.  I was rushing in to get an emergency Diet Mountain Dew for Scott, and to get a few other things, and it seemed like there were a lot of extra workers around the aisles of the "nutrition"section.  Interestingly, I always call it the organic section, but yesterday I discovered that I was mistaken.  In a moment of boldness, I asked one lady if she does the ordering for that section.  She said "no", but she directed me to a lady who does.  So... I went to that lady, introduced myself, told her I'm the one that has left her thank you notes from time to time, and tried my best to make friends with her.  I then swooped in with the question... I asked her if she had heard of Udi's or Rudy's gluten free bread, and asked what the chances were that she might be able to order that bread for our Fry's.  Her answer made me so happy!  She said that they had just ordered some and it would be in on Friday... Here comes the sneaky and unfortunate catch though.  She said that Fry's corporate hasn't approved it for use in the nutrition section, so they don't really have a place to put it.  She directed me to go talk to Maria in the bakery section, as she might be able to tell me where it will be.  So... I continued my wild goose chase through the store, wandering through tables of croissants, donuts, fresh baked bread and cakes, and asked for Maria.  Well Maria was on break.  Perfect!  I'm in a Diet Mountain Dew rush and Maria isn't even there!  I'm so close at this point, I decide to do the rest of my shopping and then come back to make a second trip into my LEAST favorite section of the store.  When I returned to the bakery section, I asked for Maria, who still wasn't actually there, I didn't get to see or meet her, but the lady I talked to asked Mysterious Maria about the Udi's bread.  She came back and said it would be out Friday.  I again asked "where might I find it?" and she told me it would be in the freezer case.  Well.... there's only one freezer case in that section, and it holds the ice cream cakes.  So I took this as an opportunity to do a small amount of gluten free education/ advocacy.  Call me a nerd, but it's what I do!  I'm a special education teacher always working to include and make school more universally designed, so why not do that in the grocery store?  Anyway, I shared with her that Safeway is storing their Gfree bread in the regular freezer case with the frozen french bread and frozen dough.  She looked a little bewildered, so I decided to tone it down a bit, and I just suggested alternate places they could put it.  I also asked if Maria would be available to meet with me on Friday.  She will :)  I'm going Friday morning, hopefully will get bread, and I will write a post with the details of the outcome!  Have a great Thursday!