I never, ever shop at Wal-Mart.

Fortunately, simply making the decision to cook at home frequently despite my pygmy kitchen (rather than engaging in the Atlanta lifestyle of dinner out more often than not), helps reduce being a conspicuous consumer, and makes restaurants more of a treat than a routine.

I felt proud that, for Thanksgiving this year, I was able to give my mother the gift of time in the form of a week’s worth of frozen meals: I’d made bison chili, vegetarian split pea soup, turkey meatloaf and the like, and took them all to her over the holiday visit. Now she has some convenient and good things that she didn’t have to create after a tiring day at work. smiles Just wish we lived closer so I could do that for her a bit more often.