Substitutions

Roger: "Um, so you know that chocolate milk you put in my lunch today? It tasted funny, like cleaner. It tasted like 409."
Me: "What?!"
Evelyn: "Yeah- mine tasted funny too- like metal and chemicals."
So I am throwing out the remaining chocolate milk boxes (darn Spiderman promotion wasn't a good deal!) and a now sticking with the Almarai brand Maher the Adventurer chocolate milk- even if it is more expensive.
I've also learned not to skimp on eggs. I bought a flat of cheap "farm fresh" eggs on sale once only to crack open a bunch of rotten ones. Upon closer examination, they had been laid and packaged two months before. Yuck. Threw out all 30. Bahrain National Farm Fresh is now the only egg for me- will not deviate from that brand!
Also, did you know vegetable ghee is like shortening? Me neither! Necessity is the mother of invention- I needed shortening to replace lard (pork product- costs $$$ and impossible to find) in my homemade tortilla recipe (since you can't really find those here either and it just isn't the same to make pita tacos). I'll let you know how it turns out. And while turkey bacon is kind of disappointing, turkey ham is a fab fake!