The Dilema

Put yourself in my shoes, just for a moment, and tell me what you would do.

Yesterday, you were on campus all day. You get done with class and head home with only enough time to take a nap before you have to head off to work until midnight. Then, because you are pregnant and exhausted, you come home and eat a snack with the hubby and fall right asleep.

Today, you wake up and head to work to start your 12 hour shift. You grab all the quick snacks you could find in the fridge: a premade snack bag of red grapes, and a premade snack bag of celery and red pepper slices, and a string cheese. You also see a box of Cheezits in the pantry, and 3 peaches in the fruit bowl, so you grab those and head to work.  You haven't eaten breakfast yet, because since you were so exhausted from the night before, you decide that sleep was more important in this case (knowing that you could eat when you got to work anyway), and only made enough time to get ready.  Once you are at work, you grab open snack #1 & 2: The string cheese and peaches. This is your breakfast. You are hungry like 30 minutes later.

You realize that the snacks you brought with you are not going to hold you and the baby over for 12 hours, and realize that, under the circumstances, you have to walk across to the Wilkinson Center and get some food at the Cougareat.

The Wilk: 

The Cougareat (like a food court in the mall):

You survey your options (mind you: you are pregnant, and sometimes stuff just doesn't sound good. You also don't have endless money in your bank account).  There is Taco Bell, definitely cheap, but honestly, it's crap food. There is Subway... you've eaten there a lot recently, and you really need a break from sandwiches for a while. There is L&T (good, healthy food, but it is a wrap with mostly lettuce... you will be hungry again in like 20 minutes). There is Tomatillo's... pretty darn good Italian food, but also not cheap... but also filled with lots of carbs... good food for someone who is working all day.   

For lunch, you decide to go with Tomatillo's... your overwhelming appetite took over, and you are now $7 poorer. You eat it and realize that all these carbs and protein (from the parmesan chicken you got) are keeping you full for quite a while. Maybe it was worth the mulah afterall??

Three hours later (you are usually hungry after two hours, so good job, Tomatillo's), you get hungry again and decide it's time for dinner.  So, with no other options, you head over to the Wilk again.

You narrow your food options down to your two biggest priorities: Baby, and money.  You need to feed your baby with good food that is nutrient dense, and minimize the amount of processed food/chemicals that could reach your baby through what you eat. You also just spent $7 on lunch, and really need to try and cut back on your next food purchase, cuz you be po!

So, you decide that, based on your priorities, your options are between Taco Bell and Tomatillo's.  The cheap food and the real food. You could not justify spending the same amount of money on the very same food you ate just a few hours earlier, so you head over to the Taco Bell line...  You begin looking at the menu... 

Then you realize, who the heck are you kidding?

Which one would your baby appreciate more? The junk or the not-so-junk?

You head back over to Tomatillo's, remembering that you saw a cheaper item on the menu earlier... yep, there it is, Chicken and Broccoli pasta, with two breadsticks and a drink... for $5. 

AMEN.

They will give me just as much food as I got earlier, and I can still save $2, while eating another veggie in the process! 

Baby:1    Bank account: 0