Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Homemaking Tip—100 Calorie Packs

Cali has this habit of re-bagging everything right after the Wal-Mart checker has bagged it. The thought of coming out with ten plastic bags when five would suffice is not acceptable to her. I’m not crazy about a plethora of plastic bags either, but I’ve watched those checkers’ disdain when they see Cali redoing their work and well, I’d rather deal with extra bags than their icy glares.

However . . . in the privacy of home I re-bag to my heart's content. I’ve already showed a couple of examples before here and here.

But sometimes I’m like the Wal-Mart checkers and I don’t condense bags at all. In fact, for convenience, I multiply them like I did here.

Today I walked down the Easter candy aisle and found great buys on all of my favorites—Cadbury eggs, black jelly beans, robin eggs and Hershey coconut kisses. For $8.15 I bought one of each. As I was driving home I was wondering how in the world I was going to pace myself through that candy so I wouldn’t gain weight. I thought of the exorbitant prices Nabisco charges for their 100 calorie packs to alleviate people’s fear of gaining weight and thought, “Hey. I’ll just make my own 100 calorie portion packs.” And so I did.

And Jane and her 100 calorie bags of candy lived happily ever after . . . well, at least they will until Cali comes to visit and condenses all the bags.
What would you put in your 100 calorie bags?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is brilliant. And thanks for those other links- I love how you freeze meat and use those grocery bags. And the oatmeal pack, totally a project Mya and I are going to do. Thanks!

Lyle and Mary: said...

I'm too lazy to re-bag candy portions. I just buy expensive chocolates like Godiva. Then I'm too cheap to down the whole box in one sitting, and just treat myself to one a day. I could never control myself with peanut m&m's. Open the bag, and their gone. Spend more money and I ration. Go figure.

Becky said...

Love it! Can't wait to click on the other links and see what other wisdom I can glean :)

P.S. Your candy would be safe at my house since I don't like black jelly beans or coconut but it sounds like your tastes for sweets is very similar to my mom's...I'll have to let her know to head out and pick up some Easter candy.

Amy said...

I had forgotten about your oatmeal packs, but that's something I'd love to do. As for the candy, I could easily share with you (minus the black jelly beans!).

Kathy’s Korner said...

hum......

Lori said...

I'm gonna need more than one and it doesn't matter what's in them as long as its chocolate....

Alisa said...

bag after bag of cadburry eggs ... then maybe a few skittle bags, then more cadburry eggs, then anything chocolate mint, then maybe I would have to throw in something salty.

melanie said...

LOVE this idea Jane! Of course I would rather 200 calorie packs but that's just because I love Easter candy above all other holiday candy. It's just my favorite! The black jelly beans, all things Cadbury, chocolate/coconut....oh I can't stop typing because I love all of it.

I need to know where you got the good deals on all this candy.... so I can copy you and make little bags for my weekend getaway. :)

Linda said...

This is such a great idea! I just may have to make some 100 calorie packs myself. Thanks for the tip.

Jess said...

AWESOME!!! I love this & thank you thank you for the other links :)

Rebecca said...

GENIUS idea. Cause as I'm munching on jelly beans, I've no idea how many I've eaten. Thanks for sharing.

Cali said...

Mom,

I just ate 4 cookies. I'm stressing because I only left Ray two. I'm also stressing because what I really mean is I ate 4 cookies for breakfast. I'm not even kidding a little bit about all this. So, I promise I won't rebag and I'm actually going to follow your advice. 100 calorie bags. Brilliant Neighbor Jane.

Jill said...

That's a good idea, but I don't think I'd be any good at limiting myself to 100 calories worth of Cadbury eggs. How many are in that baggie like 10? Ouch!

Unknown said...

Jane, my good neighbor, we are so on the same page here. Drives me nuts to buy small packs for the kids school lunches and pay for the convenience rather than the product. We 100 calorie pack cereal (for snacks), cheez its, hershey bars (1/2 each), kisses, cheetos, and lots of snacks that say xx calories per serving but actually come in two pack - swiss rolls, ding dongs, peanut butter bars, etc. Great post!

Nikki said...

I bag Goldfish crackers and cheesy pretzels in 100 calorie baggies.

Is that a glimpse of Cadbury Mini-eggs I see in your picture? I am so jealous. I can only find the dark ones around here in normal size bags. The only way I can find milk chocolate Cadbury Mini-eggs is in the little trial bags.

Ande said...

Haha Mom you make me laugh. You are a genius. I wish I was there to eat them with you. Oh Cadbury Eggs...

Amie said...

Very smart... those 100 calorie packs are pricey!

Kim Sue said...

when I am on top of things I rebag snacks like goldfish, pretzels, animal crackers for Carly (and me) because she will wander off with the whole goldfish bag and either eat the whole bag or leave it somewhere like beside the swing outside