How to Enjoy the Day

My family, like the typical American family, enjoys spending Sundays together after attending church. One thing that I particularly enjoy about my family is how we incorporate food into that.

The whole day start for me at about 10:00 in the morning, when my dad wakes me up. Every day he does it exactly the same way, whether on purpose of not I don’t know, he knocks lightly on the door, this wakes me up, and then says “we’re leaving in 40 minutes, there are doughnuts up stairs when you are ready”. This begins the day of eating.

Every Sunday the first meal the whole family wakes up to is doughnuts. A very long time ago these doughnuts would have been picked up from Krispy Kreme, but ever since the tragic closing of Krispy Kreme the doughnuts have been from the Hy-Vee bakery.  

The name of this meal is a hotly debated topic in my family. My father grew up in a small farm town that had a population of about 200 people and out there they call the noon meal “dinner” the afternoon snack “lunch” and the night time meal “super”.  So just about every time we sit down for a meal my mom and dad playfully fight each trying to get the most people to call it what they want.  

The next meal (lunch/dinner), during the warmer parts of the year is almost always something grilled. Typically when my dad is out getting the doughnuts before we wake up he will also pick us some steak or hamburgers or pork along with maybe some stuffed peppers on a good day. This feast of sorts is enjoyed with family friends we meet up with at church or with only our family.  During the colder months of the year we will typically stop at a restaurant after church to enjoy a meal together.

If you have read my blog before you already know what’s for dinner/supper during the football season (if not, check out that post), but that leaves the rest of the year to nice home cooked meals. My Mom will normally make spaghetti, meatloaf or something else hearty. Sometimes we are asked to vote on who’s meal was better, my mom’s or my dad’s. For this meal my favorite thing to have would be tacos, even though they aren’t really a “hearty” food.

Finally, if my dad is in a good mood he will make shakes for us before we go to bed. This special treat happens about once a month and is always well received. (428 words)          

Airlines

What I have learned from the airlines is that I am a second class citizen and second class citizens are treated differently that first class citizens. But thanks to an error by Delta Airlines I, not anyone that I was traveling with (which I thought was pretty funny),was allowed to move up to first class. It was awesome.

First of all the people are better. They are mostly from higher in society then everyone else in the plane and they have the sense not to bring their screaming child, or at least not bring them up to the first class section. Another great thing is that, unlike those animals in second class, we are in the front of the plane. This makes for a very quite and relaxing flight. Another thing that adds to the comfort is the larger seats and the complimentary blankets.

Now to the part that this blog is actually about, the food. I will admit that it was a relatively short flight that I was upgraded on, Atlanta to O’Hare, so we were not served real meals, just fantastically free snacks and beverages. While the swine were starving in the back of the plane during our wait on the run, we upper class citizens were served. Keep in mind that all of the following food was completely free. The stewardesses came around with a basket containing, what was advertised as “fresh”, fruit. I enjoyed several apples and bananas. Next she came around with a basket full of fun sized candy bars, but since we could have as many as we wanted it didn’t matter that they were only fun sized. Another option that we had was the option of the free graham Cracker type things that are handed out to the savages in second class, which I admit, even with my sophisticated first class taste buds, I still very much enjoy. The next thing that was provided to use was beverages. The Neanderthals in the back of the plane get water and small sums of pop poured into plastic cups. However we received pop in the can, it was even opened right in front of us. I am not sure why, but I think the fact that they opened it right in front of us made it seem fancier. The also served the older members of first class Champaign. When I asked I was unable to provide sufficient identification.

In conclusion second class sucks. First class is where its at, you get all of the best things along with all of the best serves and all of the best sitting conditions. Fly first class, you don’t know what you are missing. (449 words)     

Farmers

Since this whole thing is about food, I thought that I would do a little thing about how we get food. Because that’s kind of important.

Most of my family on my dad’s side comes from a small farming town in Dubuque county. About three hundreds people live there, and since my grandma and grandpa had ten kids and all of my aunts and uncles had about five kids, our family makes up a pretty big part of the towns population.

In the 1950’s my grandpa started a Feed store (I will explain what that is in a little bit) and then when he retired he gave his business to my two of my uncles. They have since opened three more stores.

A feed store is what you may see on the side of the road when you are driving in the country. They normally have a few large silver silos and trucks and large machinery sitting around them. What they do is they store farmers crop for them and then turn it into animal feed (as the name suggests). During the summer time, when there is no crop to be harvested and stored) they also sell literally tons of fertilizer for farmers to put on there fields.

Just think how bad the word would be if there weren’t people who did that stuff or, even worse, the farmers them selves. This country isn’t like some developing country where if you are not a farmer you are a warrior, so if you don’t want to die you have to farm. These people choose to do this. That means choosing to wake up before the sun comes up, and going to bed after it goes down. Most of them are very smart and could very easily be doing a job that is physically easier and be making more money doing it.

Farmers help to feed the country, as well as give America a very valuable material for export, corn is Americas second largest cash crop behind Marijuana (http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1053757/pg1). (349 words)  

Frozen Pizza

The unsung hero of food…frozen pizza

How many times have you been sitting at home in need of a meal, but been too lazy to make something of go somewhere to eat? And how many of those times have you turned to frozen pizza to give you a cheap and delicious meal? My guess is, if you are anything like me, the answer is “a lot”.  Have you ever just sat back and thought about how many times frozen pizza was there for you when no one else was?

Frozen pizza is a pretty remarkable thing if you think about it. You take it out of your freezer hard as a rock then you just put it on/into your pizza cook device and within twenty minutes you have a hot pizza with melty cheese and fluffy crust. Speaking of pizza cooking devices, I feel compelled to tell you about the one my family use because it is so simple and it works so well. Our pizza cooker consists of a spinning pan (this is what you set the pizza on) and a stationary part that goes over the pan. This stationary part has metal wires in it that are coiled and somehow get really hot and cook the pizza as it spins around underneath it. This works better than the conventional ways of cooking frozen pizza because, in an oven, because, in my opinion, it helps to make the crust softer as well as helps to give the cheese a more even melt pattern. One last reason that I think my way is the best way is because is so simple a toddler could do it. There is not hassling with preheating and forgetting to turn the oven off, it automatically turns off when the timer goes off.  

Cream Puffs

Somehow, for the first seven teen years that I spend on this planet I managed to never eat a cream puff. You can imagine my excitement when I tried my first one ever and they turned out to be arguably the best thing that I had eaten this month.

For those of you who, like my old self, have never had a cream puff, what it is is it is a round ball of flaky goodness that incases a cool cream center. When bitten this cream center explodes in your mouth and gives you a blast of unparalleled flavor. The only problem with these cream puffs is that when you get them from the store, like we did, you have to wait for them to thaw out before you can enjoy them. The time that it takes to let them thaw out can be compared to the time that it takes for something to finish cooking in the microwave, by that I mean that it seems to take longer than it should.

When my dad first threw one at me (not to me, at me) and said “try it”, I was hesitant because I didn’t really know what it was. I had heard about them and how good they were, but I didn’t really know. When I held it my hand for the first time it felt cold, my teeth hurt when something really cold touches them, this was concerning because I knew that based on the name there must be cream inside, this cream I assumed would be cold. My fear was that it would explode in my mouth and cause me some pain, however the fear was misplaced for when I bit into it and it turned out to be wonderful.

One thing out the experience that I am slightly embarrassed by (other than being scared about eating a cream puff) is how long it took me to figure out why was why the cream in cream puffs tasted so similar to the chocolate pies from Kathy’s Pies that I so much enjoy. I told my family about the observation that I made and I was immediately laughed at. I soon realized why. Apparently chocolate pies are not called “Chocolate Pies” but are instead called “Chocolate Cream Pies”. Then I came to the realization that the cream in cream puffs and the cream in chocolate cream pies was the same cream! Needless to say I felt pretty stupid. (410 words)

Parker’s Finger Cleaner

I have another business idea to propose to you people.

For me, the worst part of eating a bag of chips of eating at KFC is the fact that you can’t use your phone after you finish. You can, but not with our smearing the grease and oil from whatever you ate all over the touch screen of your phone. Not only is this extremely inconvenient, but it is also a security risk because people can now see the dots or lines of oil and grease on your screen thus giving away your pass code or dot pattern for android users. Something must be done about this problem.

                        

When I was trying to think of some way to accomplish this goal I had to keep a few things in mind. First of all, no one wants to have to wash their hands or anything like that, this new thing had to be mobile, and it also had to be functional. Another key thing is the ability to accessorize it and let me make money off of these accessories. I think that I came up with the perfect solution.

I would call my new invention Parker’s Finger Cleaner and it would be shaped the finger of a glove. In side this finger shaped thing out be grease on oil absorbing substances. Admittedly, I do not know if the technology is in existence yet, perhaps I am doing the same thing that Leonardo DiVinci did when he thought of the helicopter hundreds of years before it was actually made, just with a much less important and less complex idea. Assuming that the technology is out there or it will be in the near future, I will continue on with my explanation. Around the finger part will be size adjusters as well as a battery pack that will power the climate control part of it. Parker’s Finger Cleaner is very simple to use. Simply slide your dirty finger into the finger part of the glove (or out the finger part of the glove over your finger depending on how you like to think about it) and then adjust the size adjusters until it is nice and snug. Then, in an up and down motion, slide Parker’s Finger Cleaner on your finger. When one finger is clean just readjust it for your next finger until all of your fingers are nice and clean. If you find that your fingers are to warm or cold while you are cleaning them all you have to do is use the climate control settings to make you digits the perfect temperature.

Now to the big money maker. The accessories. I will have assorted carrying cases, and perhaps even a phone case with one of these built in. Another accessory idea is different cases for the products themselves. The hope is that there can be as many cases for my products as there are for phones, the only difference is that I would figure out some way to insure that third parties couldn’t make them as well. This would insure that all of the profit when to me. (519 words)    

Fruit........?

So today I am going to be discussing a topic that, in my opinion, a lot of idiots try to weigh in on. That is the debate over whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.

There is something you need to know when trying to determine the classification of a tomato, and that is the fruit is both a scientific term and a culinary term, while vegetable is only a culinary term. The definition of the word “vegetable” is any part of any plant that is used for food (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vegetable), so by this definition a tomato is a in fact a vegetable, but so is every fruit. The scientific definition of “fruit” the developed ovary of a plant, so basically anything with a seed (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fruit?s=t). The culinary definition is any sweet tasting plant part. This is what throws people off. A tomato is not sweet, but is does have seeds so it fits both definitions. So now we have to look at the definition of vegetable, and according to that the tomato is a fruit. I have considered the evidence and while both definitions make a good argument it is my professional opinion that the tomato is a vegetable.

So naturally upon learning this my t question was “then how the @#$% is a banana a fruit if it doesn’t have any seeds in it?” I was able to determine that the bananas we eat have been selectively bread to produce smaller and smaller seeds because that’s what the consumers want. When you take a bite into a banana you can see small black dots organized in a circle around the center, those are the seeds.

One thing that I am still unsure about is how seedless watermelon is considered a fruit. I have always thought of it as a fruit, but according to the dictionary definition it is not. I did some fairly extensive research trying to find the answer to this question, but with no success. So if anyone knows anything about this topic and would like to enlighten me, please feel free to. (361 words)

Lazy Day "Meals"

Let me just start off by saying that none of these are going to be actual meal, by putting the word “meal” and “lazy”, for me, that means just a large snack. A snack that is suitable for just sitting in front of the television all day. So here it is.

Breakfast-I think that this one should be beyond obvious…cold cereal. Maybe if you are feel motivated you can go put a pop tart in the toaster for a warmer meal, but for the most part cereal and milk and you can listen to my favorite cereal eating song right here http://youtu.be/u5_aFc2bWiM.

Lunch-this is one that I am particularly proud of discovering. My mom finds this cheese at Sam’s Club (I would like to apologize that I can not recall the name) that comes in this one pound block and is already individually sliced and the slices are separates with a thin piece of paper. Once you have the cheese now all you need are some Triscuts. My favorite kind to uses is rosemary and olive oil. What you are going to want to do is to put some of the cheese on to the cracker then eat it. Through out years of testing I have concluded that to get the ideal cracker to cheese ratio you must fold the slice of cheese into fourths, this gives you a smaller piece of cheese that is about the same size as the cracker. After one pound if cheese and a box of Triscuts you will be full until dinner time easily.

Dinner-one word-leftovers. My personal favorite would have to be spaghetti, pop it in the micro wave for a few minutes and *snaps fingers* you have a delicious piping hot plate of heaven. (302 words)     

Drink Mixing

I believe I have discovered a new fad that drink companies are doing.

Throughout the years I have begun to notice a change in the types of juices and drinks that have been available to me. Perhaps I have just never noticed this before and it really has been going on since before I was born. The difference is that drink companies are beginning to mix their drinks with different types of fruit juices, my favorite being mango juice.

I first noticed this while I was trying to purchase an Arnold Palmer (for those of you who live under a rock it is a delicious mix of lemonade and iced tea) when I noticed that they were out of it. So naturally I started to look around for the next best thing when I stumbled upon a beverage made by the company Arizona. This beverage was half ice tea, like the Arnold Palmer that I had wanted, but rather than having lemonade it had mango juice. Thinking that it would have an interesting flavor to it I decided to give it a try and then immediately fell in love with it. The only way that I can think to describe it is as being a less harsh taste than Arnold Palmer. If AP (Arnold Palmer) was a mountain, than this new drink would be a grass covered, gently rolling hill.

Then it couldn't have been a week later that I had just woken up from a very restful slumber at my, at that time, dear friends’ house. Their mother greeted us that morning with pancakes and this strange orange juice concoction. When I tried it I was blown away and had to ask what it was. The answer was orange juice, banana juice (I’m not sure how you can get juice from a banana), and strawberry juice (again, not sure how that works) and apparently you could just buy this stuff at the grocery store! Then she showed me the other bottle that they kept in their refrigerator, this one was mango and orange juice and it was my favorite of the two.

Now that, as you may know by now, I have a job in food sales I know how much of what we sell and I was surprised to learn that we sell just as much regular orange juice as we do orange juice mixes, and for good reason. I feel that they taste better and also the addition of new fruits to the juice adds nutrients that otherwise may have been missing. So as someone who works in the food business I would say to give this a try and get on board with the new fad.

If this was a thing before more than just a few years ago please let me know so I can delete this post and not feel stupid.(479 words)

Wendy's Review

Today I thought that I would shake thing up a bit and do a review of the newly redesigned Wendy’s on 42^nd street.

Before the remolding this eating establishment was about even with any other Wendy’s I had ever been to in my life, but their game was really stepped up. They completely tore down the old to make way for the new, at first this was a little bit scary because nobody knew if they were closing down or going to reopen, but when word got around it was a very big relief. The scariness came from the fact that that Wendy’s is one of the few places that is close enough to our school (I am not going to specify what school because of the predators on the internet) that you can go to, eat at a conferrable pace and return to school with in the lunch period.

One of my favorite additions they made to the Wendy’s is the drink machine. This is a shiny box that has a touch screen allowing you to pick for dozens of different types of pops. Not only does it make the drink getting experience much better, it also helps to add to the modern atmosphere of the restaurant.

Speaking of the atmosphere, I need to talk about the improvements made to it. They added a small area to socialize or drink coffee while watching television and enjoying the non existent heat of the fake fire place that was installed. They also put in a fogy glass wall type of a thing between the area where you wait in line for your food and the dinning area.  

Now that I am thinking about lines I have to talk about the way they redesigned how you order and wait for your ordered food. Before (and this is the way that it is in many fast food restaurants still) you would stand in line and there would be lines to your right and left. Once you ordered you would just sort of stand in between the lines as you waited for your food to come. Wendy’s took more of a subway approach, once you have ordered your food you move down a counter and you from into a waiting line, rather than just a waiting jumbled mess of people.

I think that the remodeling was a very good idea. It gave a new, more modern look to the place, gave it a better flow and even improved my drink getting experience. It is safe to say that this had made me want to eat more Wendy’s.(439 words)

Break Time Meals

So today I will be discussing the less gourmet side of food…break time food.

This type of food must be easy to prepare using only the limited tools provided to you in your break room, this food must be something that can be prepared quickly (because you don’t have a long time on break, normally), and like always it must taste good. I will now tell you a little bit about what I like to eat.

My first break time love was a microwave bacon cheese burger. This treat heats itself up in just two minutes and costs only one dollar and twenty five cents. This was introduced to me by fellow coworkers on my first week, but after a little bit my microwave bacon cheese burgers got old. So it was time to find a new meal.

Next I found what would end up being a very big mistake. I discovered the microwave Monkey bread. This was a family size monkey bread that cost an arm and a leg to get, six dollars and forty nine cents. When I took my first bite I thought I was a genius for finding this great tasting meal, but that was short lived. When working an eight hour day, illegal as it may be, we receive a twenty minute break. When you take away the six minute cooking time you are left with four teen minutes to eat a family size meal…and I regrettably did. The rest of the day I was just praying that I would throw up just to make my stomach ach the rest of the day. Needless to say I never tried that again.

Next I found the healthiest thing yet. The Cesar Salad Kit. For a mere three dollars and fifty nine cents you get a bag that is full of lettuce, has a packet of Cesar Sauce, croutons and some cheese. Although I did have to take some harassment for my friends about eating salad for lunch, it is very delicious. But to much of a good thing can get old, so once again I was forced to find something new.

Then I found what I am on right now. My self and a group of fellow employees all pool our money and buy milk to put in the break room refrigerator and also to buy some assorted cereals. This always allows us to never have to eat the same thing twice in a row.

So if you want my advice on what to eat at work find some buddies and pool your money. (431 words)    

My Brushes with Death

Through out my life I have had several brushes with death because of the substances I have ingested.

My first near death experience occurred in the fifth month of the fourth year of my life. On this day, according to the account of my mother, I had happened to find my way into my parent’s room where my father had irresponsibly left his bottle of Calvin Klein Obsession open and with in my reach. As a preschooler should be, I was curious about this strange liquid that smelled good. Throughout my short life I had learned that if something smelled good then it usually tasted good, so based on that logic I took a swig. I quickly learned that everything that smelled good did NOT taste good so I when to the kitchen where my mom was and asked for a glass of water. I didn't finish the glass so I handed it to my mother and she took the cup and smelt the cologne and quickly asked what I had been drinking. When I told her she promptly called poison control. The operator at poison control instructed my mother to call Calvin Klein who for some reason has a nurse on call 24/7. The nurse told my mom to give me orange juice and keep an eye on me to make sure that I didn't die. I end up fine, but it is now a “funny” joke in my family to talk about how I received brain damage from drinking cologne.

The second time that almost died, I didn't really almost die, like many times my mom over reacted. The story goes like this. In the year of our lord 2011, my mom started getting some very delicious gummy vitamins. Not only do I like things that taste good, but I also just want to best for my body. So I figured that I could do both by eating a large quantity of vitamins. I consumed an estimated fifteen vitamins, it would have been more but I was caught in the act and stopped by my mom. She told me that contrary to my belief, eating large quantities of vitamins is actually dangerous and then called poison control again. Lucky, according to the lady a poison control, the vitamins were of very poor quality and didn’t contain any of the vitamins that can be dangerous in large quantities.

In these stories I never really came THAT close to dying, but I could have and I didn’t and now I am thankful for every day. Thank you for your time. (437 words)      

Billion Dollar Idea

So today I am going to talk about an idea that’s so incredibly great I could potently be the world’s youngest billionaire. I am about to post this in good faith that no one who reads this will steal my idea…so please don’t steal my idea.

Here is my pitch.

I don’t know about you but my second favorite part of eating cereal is drinking the delicious milk that is left in the bottom of the bowl and that absorbs all of the delicious flavors of whatever cereal you have been eating, like the rich honey flavor when eating honey nut cheerios, of the amazing fruity flavor the results from Fruit loops. So now just imagine a world where you can get a jug of this milk with a bright label on it that reads “Parker Steffen and Companies Flavored Mild Co. Inc.”. That world could be reality, if I get the funding that I would need that is. Think how easy it would be to create, all you would have to do would be make a partnership with Kellogg or another large cereal manufacturer, create large tubs of mild and soak cereal in them. Then after that the soggy cereal could be sold to farmers to feed their animals with or something of that nature, so basically you get to make money twice. Then just think how easy is would be to sell, according to a recent survey that I conducted both my mom and my sister said that they would buy this product.  So the economics are there, the demand is there, now you are probably wondering “but Parker, what about the health risks? Surly this delicious sounding idea may be bad for you.” You may be somewhat right, but you have to ask yourself, how is this any different than feeding children sugary cereals every day for breakfast? The only difference is that Parker Steffen and Companies Flavored Mild Co. Inc. would give kids about the same amount of sugar, but also with the benefits of milk like calcium, vitamin D and many more.  

So you now realize that this a billion dollar idea because it’s healthy…ish, the demand is there and it would be easy to profit from, but now you want to know what my business plan is. Well here it is. I like the philosophy of 50 cent, he says “get rich or die tryin’” and that is exactly how I plan to run my business. My plan is to be in a grocery store in every state in the continental U.S. by the end of year one but aggressively advertising and paying to put it in stores. Yes, this will cost a lot of money but the potential pay of will be well worth it.

Now that you know what I am all about, I am looking for an investor who wants to give me twenty five million dollars for a 2.5 percent stake in Parker Steffen and Companies Flavored Mild Co. Inc.. For those of you who are good at math you will know that asking for this means that I value this idea at exactly one billion dollars. If you would like to join me in business simply contact me. Thank you, God bless.  (544 words) 

How to be a Good Server.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to create this post, but I will as a service to mankind.

How to be a good server:

1

.       Make an attempt to be enthusiastic - I am not going to enjoy myself at whatever restaurant you work at if I can tell when you talk to me that you would rather be dead than working there. I am perfectly fine with and understand if you feel that way, just don’t make it that apparent.

2.       We don’t need three hours to choose what we want- I understand that you don’t want to rush us and that you may have other tables to wait on, but when everyone at my table has been sitting there with their menus face down for the last twenty minutes…it’s time to take our orders.

3.       Don’t mess up our orders- I think that I am an understanding guy, and I get that you may make a mistake or two, but when you don’t even write down anyone’s order because you are so confident in yourself to remember then end up getting everyone’s order wrong…I am going to be a little bit annoyed.  Do the world (and the people you’re waiting on) a favor, and write down the order.

4.       Ask us how we are doing- don’t let the only time I see you be when I order, when I get my food, and when I pay. While I am eating come up and ask how I am doing, see if I need a refill and ask me if my steak was cooked correctly. Please don’t let me get thirsty while I watch you talk with your friends at another table.

5.       Come back in a timely manner- when I want to pay don’t just leave the bill and never come back. In general if I am paying that means that I want to leave, so don’t make me sit there and wait for you. I have places to be.

Perhaps I am just  high maintenance, but these are just some thoughts that I thought I would share with the internet.  

Sunday Tradition

My family, like the typical American family, enjoys spending Sundays together after attending church. One thing that I particularly enjoy about my family is how we incorporate food into that.

The whole day start for me at about 10:00 in the morning, when my dad wakes me up. Every day he does it exactly the same way, whether on purpose of not I don’t know, he knocks lightly on the door, this wakes me up, and then says “we’re leaving in 40 minutes, there are doughnuts up stairs when you are ready”. This begins the day of eating.

Every Sunday the first meal the whole family wakes up to is doughnuts. A very long time ago these doughnuts would have been picked up from Krispy Kreme, but ever since the tragic closing of Krispy Kreme the doughnuts have been from the Hy-Vee bakery.  

The name of this meal is a hotly debated topic in my family. My father grew up in a small farm town that had a population of about 200 people and out there they call the noon meal “dinner” the afternoon snack “lunch” and the night time meal “super”.  So just about every time we sit down for a meal my mom and dad playfully fight each trying to get the most people to call it what they want.  

The next meal (lunch/dinner), during the warmer parts of the year is almost always something grilled. Typically when my dad is out getting the doughnuts before we wake up he will also pick us some steak or hamburgers or pork along with maybe some stuffed peppers on a good day. This feast of sorts is enjoyed with family friends we meet up with at church or with only our family.  During the colder months of the year we will typically stop at a restaurant after church to enjoy a meal together.

If you have read my blog before you already know what’s for dinner/supper during the football season (if not, check out that post), but that leaves the rest of the year to nice home cooked meals. My Mom will normally make spaghetti, meatloaf or something else hearty. Sometimes we are asked to vote on who’s meal was better, my mom’s or my dad’s. For this meal my favorite thing to have would be tacos, even though they aren’t really a “hearty” food.

Finally, if my dad is in a good mood he will make shakes for us before we go to bed. This special treat happens about once a month and is always well received. (428 words)          

Eating healthy…is it worth it?

This to me is a very important question because it’s no secret that everyone needs food to live, and most people have certain foods that they like. The only problem is most of the food we like doesn’t like us back, and by that I mean I could kill us. And for me this brings up an interesting dilemma, should you enjoy life while you have it by eating the foods you like even though it could shorten your life, or do you eat healthily (and in most cases miserably) but possibly extend your life?

I think that this all depends on what you want your food to do for you. For example, if you’re planning on running a marathon it probably wouldn't be a wise choice to stuff yourself full of Big Macs, but if you don’t have any plans for the day that would require extreme energy output then I say go ahead and eat it. The philosophy that I try to go by is that life is short so you should do what you want to in order to make sure it is a good life. So let’s say the marathon is very important to you, then you shouldn't let your eating get in the way of that.

The next thing I would like to talk about is the health risks that are associated with eating whatever you want. It would be hard for me to justify dying at 30 because you decided to eat what ever you wanted, you must find a balance. It is up to everyone to decide how much life eating what they please could potentially be worth. Another that I am going to group with health risks is quality of life because I feel that they go hand in hand. The whole point of the blog is try to inform you to make your life better by not worrying so much about what you eat, but in some cases it can make your life worse. If you have ever seen the show “My Half Ton Life” on TLC you know just how awful it can be to live a life that is dominated by obesity. Most of us will never make it one thousand pounds plus, but what they go through could be exactly what you got through, just to a lesser extent. Obesity has also been linked to several different types of cancers as well as diabetes and many more ailments, all of these could have serious effects on your life.

Now its time for me to attempt to make the argument for eating healthy. Like I mentioned before, eating healthily can be a great thing if your life revolves around being super in shape, or you absolutely love sports. In these cases eating unhealthily could cause these parts of your life to suffer because you’re not fueling your body the way that in need to be fueled. The last reason, which I could think of to eat right, is simply because you enjoy it. Most people, my self included, can’t stand the idea of eating things that are good for your body for pleaser, but some people do and to them I say “good job”.

So to rap up this blog, I say weigh the risks and do what makes you happy. Don’t listen to what the rest of the world has to say about what you eat, eat what you want because after all, life is short! (593 words)

How to make Greek Yogurt Better

So you’re eating your Greek yogurt and you finish the cup and you enjoy the small amount fruit that comes in the bottom of the cup, but you find yourself feeling unsatisfied.

This is a problem that I used to face all too often before I discovered how to make the yogurt into a more substantial snack, and now I will give you this piece of knowledge for free in this brief blog.

What I enjoy doing is taking a bowl and dumping two to the same kinds of yogurt into it. As you may imagine this gives you twice the amount of yogurt, helping it to fill you up more. Next you add some granola, thus adding more protein to the concoction and according to a fact that I think I heard on a Kashi commercial, protein helps keep you full longer. Lastly I like to add another fruit on top of it like blue berries or some cut up strawberries, this helps to give the yogurt some more nutrients. This whole things ends up being more like a small meal than a snack, and that’s okay in my book.

So not only do you make the Greek yogurt more filling, but you give it more nutrients and you give it a great new texture other than just mush. Enjoy! (223 words)

Help be the Solution

I will start this blog out by saying that this may turn into a rant, so if reading ranty blogs isn’t your cup of tea I would recommend clicking away now.

I have a job at a drug store near my home where I stock food onto shelves (that is how this relates to food) and at my place of employment I occasionally have to deal with customers who are extremely angry for what ever reason. Normally this doesn’t faze me, but today it was different.

I had taken part of a dear friend of mines shift in addition to my own giving me a ten hour work day (I know that for someone with a real job that doesn’t seem that bad, but it is for me). So I’m on the last half hour of a shift that had everything go wrong in it. Then this woman comes in with her five or six incredibly rude children. They are all very angry that we are out of a certain item that has a particularly good sale, when they ask about the item not being in stock. I could sense that it would be an interesting confrontation because of the way the mixed English and Ebonics to ask the question. When I very politely told them that we were out of it she and all of her children began verbally assaulting me using second grade sentence structures and vocabulary as well as many profanities that a second grader wouldn’t know. This continued on for what seemed like fifteen minutes but in actuality was probably closer to five minutes, all the while I was apologizing (as I am required to do) and asking if there was anything I could do to make it better for them (also as I am required to do, but at this point I didn’t even want them to get anything they wanted). Keep in mind that I am not allowed to correct them or point out the flaws in their reasoning.

So now that I have a place to discuss this, I though that I would. DO NOT yell at the stocker for something that they have no control over. Did they really thing that I was the one who didn’t order enough of the product to put out on the shelves? The answer is no, I am not in charge of that. Even if I had been in charge of the ordering process, which just to say in again I’m not, yelling at me like that wouldn’t have solved anything.

So if you ever find your self shopping around for something to eat and the item that you want isn’t on the shelf, don’t take it out on the poor stocker who had nothing to do with it. If you know someone who does this then send them this and together we can stop this problem. Thank you. (494 words)

Game Day Food (Player)

Hello Readers,

Following my post about game day food, I thought that I would make a post about real game day food, which is the food you should eat when YOU have to play today.  The first thing you must understand is that all good food is essentially made up of three things, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Getting the proper amount of each of these things will be key to ensuring that you can play your best when you need to.

Proteins are something that you want to avoid for the most part on game day. There is no doubt they are good for you, just not when you have to play soon. Proteins take a long time and a lot of energy for the body to digest. So not only will your body not have gotten the energy out of the protein by the time it’s time to play, but you will actually be taking away energy that could be used for playing and using it for digestion. So in short, try to stay clear of proteins on game day.

Fats get an extremely bad reputation that’s not always completely deserved. As long as you are eating the right types of fats, and not too much of them, they are great to have in your pregame diet. Arctic peoples have eaten seal fat for thousands of years because it is easy for your body to get energy from and that energy arrives quickly, all of this makes certain fats an essential for your game day (in moderation of course)

Carbohydrates are another great thing to eat on game day. Like fats they are quickly and efficiently turned into energy that can be used by your body. But be careful, sometimes the energy can be used to quickly leaving you feeling sluggish if you ate a meal that had almost all carbs and no other sources of energy.

Serving size depends on your size, how soon you will be competing in comparison to when you eat and the level of intensity of your sport. Your last mean should be eaten about four hours before competition and snacks are okay between your competition. All of these things should help to ensure you preform in the best way possible! (379 words)

Game Day Foods (Spectator)

Hello Readers,

I am writing this blog after just spending an afternoon with my family watching some great football games and enjoying some great game day snacks that I thought I would share with the few people that will read this. The foods I will be talking about will be fatty, calorie filled, and what my dad calls “heart stoppers”. For those reason I would advise anyone who has a lack of self control when it comes to food to stop reading now…or your heart might be the one stopping.

The first food I would like to discuss is a personal favorite of mine, bacon wrapped lil’ smokies. These little pieces of heaven are, as the name suggests, little smokies that have been wrapped in candied bacon and attached with a tooth pick sticking through both of them. I will admit that I have never prepared this delicacy, so I am not as informed as I would like to be on how to cook the smokies, all in know is that it involves a crock pot. I apologize for my lack of knowledge. I do however know that to candy the bacon you simply sprinkle brown sugar over the strips. When these two delicious things come together they create quite possibly the best game day snake ever. When you bring this to a party it says “I made the most labor intensive snack, therefore I am the best one to invite over for the next game".

Another essential for any game day party are wings. I would go into detail about how to prepare wings, but I normally just buy them or someone else brings them so I really have no idea how to make them. Of the people who bring  the best wings by far is Matt, a family friend. He has perfected his “super-secret seductive $awws”, giving it exactly the right amount of spice and tang. This sauce could easily go up against any Buffalo Wild Wings sauce and destroy it. The only place that wings fell short to bacon wrapped lil’ smokies is the messiness factor. The smokies have a tooth pick to grab allowing you to check your phone of grab the remote without getting everything dirty. I think that everyone knows that you aren't going to eat wings without getting everything you touch dirty.

There are many more foods to eat on game day, some that are unique to my family and some that are universal favorites. A description of some of the foods that my family and I enjoy and that are not so well known may be coming in a later post. See you then!

PS-if anyone other than Ms. A reads this and thinks they have a better sauce than the  super-secret seductive $awws (and you’re not creepy), send me some and I’ll be the judge. (477 words)

Large Chain Restaurants v. Family Owned Restaurants

Hello readers.

Today I will talk about a topic that I feel I know enough about to discusses in this blog. That topic is the differences and similarities between large food chains like the Olive Garden and Pizza Hut and smaller family owned operations such as Zio Johnos and Bob’s Your Uncle Pizza Café (located in Iowa City). I tried to pick restaurants that served food that was similar to each other to help keep one variable the same, the type of food.

The first difference that comes to my mind would be the budget for décor. When you walk into these two different types of restaurants you can immediately tell if you’re in a nationwide chain or not. The large chains tend to have more of an identity, by that I mean their name is on everything and with Pizza Hut for example the color red seems to be everywhere. Also the little things have more detail in them, everything from simply have higher quality menus to having nice booths/chairs and decorative things on the walls. With the smaller restaurants they may have booths that aren't attached to the floor, or a less strict dress code for their employees, or perhaps a color scheme that doesn't seem to work as well. 

Another very important difference is the food. With the larger restaurants there are normally more options to choose from and in some cases those options are more competitively priced. This is because, as you may expect, they sell more food which in turn allows them to lower their prices. Also, because they are serving a larger number of people it makes it more economical to serve things or add things to dishes that wouldn't make sense financially for smaller operations to serve. For an example, let’s say the large chain serves one thousand people per day (I am making these numbers up) and ten people order the special dish and at the smaller chain they serve one hundred people a day, but only one person orders the dish a day. Even though the ratio of people being served to people ordering the dish is the same (100:1) the larger chain has ten times the reasons to keep that item on their menu.  

Throughout this post I feel as though I have made to small of an arguments in favor of the small family owned restaurants, and that’s not what I intended to do. Typically I feel like I am a more valued customer when I go to small restaurants and I think the people who work there are nicer and make me feel like family. The food in some cases is even better than the large chains, it has more of a home feel. And if those aren’t reason enough, it is very important to patronize local businesses.  If people stopped going to the family owned stores then all we would have to eat would be the large chains and we would miss out on all of the great things that I mentioned before. A similar situation has happened with Walmart, they have become so large that no ma and pop store can compete with them because they can always be under sold. This is good for the consumer to get the best price possible, but it eliminates diversity and I think that would be a tragic thing to happen to the food industry.

So in conclusion, I think that large chains offers better prices, more options and a more complete décor, small restaurants can still compete. This, in my opinion, is because of the food, and the friendly feeling you get when you arrive. Even if you prefer the large chains, it may still be a nice change of pace to try a local place, and also it is a great way to support your local economy. (649 words)