Little Things

My boys on the sofa.

Last night Chris and I went to see True Grit with a couple of his friends. This required eating as soon as he came home and dashing off to the movies. I made a stir-fry with carrots, broccoli, squash, snow peas, bean sprouts, and chicken I'd baked a couple days before in ginger stir-fry sauce. I was running behind, so we didn't eat any rice. While it was a really tasty dinner and I'm now cured of my acute DROWN IT IN SOY SAUCE-itus, I was nervous we'd still be hungry when we got to the movies and make iffy choices.

I'm sure you see where this is going. Sneaking food into movies is nothing new, really. I've been doing it for years, and it was pretty bad when I worked as a dollar store cashier right next to a display of movie theater candy, from Reese's Pieces to Junior Mints to my favorite, Buncha Crunch. By the end of my time there, I'd gained considerable weight from the daily sodas, movie candy, and oh, did I mention the store was directly next door to a pizza place?

This was going to be different, though. Tonight, I'd be packing (with some help from Chris while I got dressed) healthy and quiet snacks. Quiet doesn't seem like a big deal, but trust me, no one wants to be the center of attention for cracking open a Coke Zero and crunching on carrot sticks. Trust the voice of experience here. This is what we packed: 5 or six strawberries with the tops cut off, about 10 or 15 blueberries, about two inches of sliced cucumbers, and one of those light Babybel mini cheeses.

I have my bag of contraband snacks and I'm all ready to enjoy the movie!

It was great! I forgot to grab water before we left, so we still ended up paying $3 a bottle for it, but in the end it's better than $10 soda, popcorn, and candy. Plus, smug superiority over eating the right thing without feeling guilty tastes pretty great, too.