I have a confession to make. I just sat at my computer, ate a mess of potato chips, one of my husband's frozen peanut butter cups, and followed it with an orange (my lame gesture at eating healthy) and a glass of water. Oh, the bloat! And I still plan on eating lunch in an hour.

Not good. Bathing suit season is coming! (Note to those of you who are waiting to adopt: once you have children you CANNOT just tell people you aren't fond of swimming, which was my long-used strategy before children. You must accompany them into the water, and you can't do this in your capri pants.)

My husband is actually the king of junk food in our house. He is not a heavy man, but the amount of garbage he puts away *after* the kids are in bed is sometimes astonishing. (I know, I know...he's eating himself into an early grave. I've told him that. He doesn't care).

When we were in Russia, therefore, he saw no reason to mess with a good thing. In fact, he felt it was his duty to sample the Russian junk food scene, much like a wine snob would make it his duty to sample the local vin.

It is just as easy to find junk food in Russia as it is here. In both the big and small markets there are potato chips, chocolate bars, cookies, whatever. Fast food is easy to find, too, at least in Moscow. We actually ate a lot of fast food in Moscow as we were trying to save money and it seemed like all the non-fast food restaurants were very expensive (at least in the Red Square are, where we stayed). We had Mcdonald's (tastes basically the same - the milkshake was a bit different) and Pizzeria Uno (tasted like pizza) and we ate a couple of meals as Rostik, which is kind of like a Russian KFC, but with more variety.

I was relieved when we got to our region (Voronezh) and it was possible to get a basic sandwich and yogurt in our hotel cafe without paying an arm and a leg. (I highly recommend the espresso at the Hotel Don in Voronezh, by the way. Mmmm...espresso. Maybe that's the subject of another post). We also ate at several delicious, not crazy expensive restaurants in Voronezh, as well. No more Rostik's for us, thank goodness!

And finally, although Little J's first actual meal out with us was (I'm embarrased to say) "chicken" nuggets at Mcdonald's, I'm proud to say that the kid hasn't had a Happy Meal in over two years

That's right - two years. I know, I know - it's not American! Next thing you know I won't be letting him drink Pepsi...