Snacks

As I sit here and try to think of something to blog about I decide that I should get something to eat for a snack. I’ve been good all day, why not? This gave me an idea to blog about all of the different option that you have to eat…so I figured to would write about it.

The first option that is always a good one is the classic M&M. I was watching a National Geographic thing on TV, because I am that cool, and for whatever reason they were talking about M&Ms. They started out as a snack for soldiers in WWII, because there was a problem with original chocolate and that problem was that chocolate has a melting point just under your body temperature. This means that they melt in your hand, what just causes all sorts of problems. So the smart people over at M&M decided to add a delicious candy shell to the outside and thus the M&M was born. Other than trying to keep your hands clean so you can kill people more efficiently, they have many practical uses in the home. For example, if you are trying to write a blog and eat, you no longer get chocolate all over the key board, or you can use your phone without getting it all nasty, the possibilities are truly endless.

The next one I take a lot of crap for eating. That would be the cold hotdog. According to every member of my family, this is gross. I do not understand why because they are precooked, and back in the good old days my ancestors would have eaten cold meat strait off of the loin that they just killed with their bare hands. The cold hotdog is quick and healthyish, I am not sure what else you would want in a snack.

Something else that always satisfies is the chunky peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If you prefer creamy you might be a woman. This is a lot healthier than most people give it credit for and it is awlays good, it is pretty hard to mess up making. The only thing about this delicacy that make me hesitant to put it is the assembly, while pretty easy, does take time more so than M&Ms or a cold hotdog

If you have not been able to tell already, the best snack is so easy that even with someone with a negative IQ can figure out how to make it, good enough that you want to make it, and hopefully clean enough that you can be productive while you enjoy it. (436 words)

Tacos and Burritos

In my mind there is no question that this generation is one that will be remembered for its mass consumption of fast food tacos and burritos, why is this? I will conduct an in depth investigation in this blog to uncover what is driving this lust for quick Mexican food.

One of the main reasons is how fast and easy it is to eat there. Let’s face it, unless you are trying to have a sit down meal at a nice restaurant eating it kind of an inconvenience. If we didn’t have to eat we would have, by my calculations, we would have like an hour more to do things. That is not to say that I don’t like the taste of food, so if I could get a quick meal that also tastes good that would be awesome. Well I can with tacos and burritos. Another down side to eating is that it tends to cost money, money that someone with a low paying dead end job doesn’t really want to spend on food. Tacos that cost under a dollar are perfect, and for the amount of food you get with a burrito the prices for one of them is not too bad either.

Another great thing about them is that both of the establishments that they are served in are open pretty late, this means that if you are up late doing whatever it is you do and you want to go somewhere to hang out, you almost always have a place. But then that begs the question why do young people flock there rather than to places like Wendy’s that are also known for being open late? While people still go to other places like Wendy’s, I think that it is the same as the reasons that I listed above like the cost and the taste, but I think that a main reason is that it is just what everyone is eating.

I am by no means trying to say that the kids of this generation do not eat any other foods, lots of people love places like Perkins, McDonalds and other fast food places like McDonald’s, I only feel as though kids flock in more numbers to places that sell tacos and burritos. (377 words) 

Food Day

Today in one of my classes we got to bring in food. We got to on this day because it was a special occasion, and now I would like to take some time to tell you fine people why this is such a good idea.

The first of many reasons is because it helps to develop team work skill, a skill that will help you more in life than the particular class that we got to bring food into. This was kind of like a potluck in that everyone brought food and then put it all together then people got to just go up and get what they wanted. To coordinate something like this takes team work and leadership. To get twenty something teenagers to all remember to bring something to eat is no small task.

The second plus to this is that, as simple as it may seem, it helps to teach responsibility, the whole thing doesn’t really work unless everyone is responsible enough to bring everything. I get that it is not too hard to remember to bring one thing, but every little bit helps.

Another great benefit to this is that is gives the students something to look forward to. Other than knowing that your year is basically over a month early when you take AP classes there really is not anything to look forward to. That is where snack day comes in. I had been looking forward to a day of not doing anything but eating other people’s food for a week and when it finally came it was wonderful. During this day with no learning my class mates and I discussed all that we had learned over the past year and all of the fun tikes that we had had.

So just to conclude this argument, snack days after AP tests are a good thing for a number of reasons. For one it helps to develop real word skills like team work, leadership, and responsibility. Having a snack day also helps to give students something to look forward to, because let’s face it, there is not much to look forward to in school these days. Also just for the relaxation it provides, after a long couple of weeks dealing with AP test and worrying about how poorly you did on them, it is nice to just have an hour to eat and relax. (398 words)

Bugs

Why do we not eat bugs? We eat plants, we eat just about every animal that we can legally, but we do not eat bugs. Most people all around the world eat bugs as a part of their daily lives, both because they are prepared in the right way and the taste is pleasurable and because it is a necessity to survive. In Japan flies are prepared using soy sauce and sugar, in Mexico people mix worms with alcohol and in places like these all around the world people enjoy bugs everyday, so why in America is it so taboo to eat them? It is certainly not because they are not healthy, in fact they are grasshopper is a better alternative than hamburger. Hamburger is about 18 percent fat and 18 percent protein while grasshopper is around 60 percent protein and only 6 percent fat. Not only is it healthier, but it is more efficient to farm. 100 pounds of food can produce about 45 pounds of insect flesh but the same amount can only produce 15 pounds of animal flesh. This leads me to believe that people not wanting to eat insects is purely a cultural thing. If you were to see an insect on the menu at restaurant you are not going to be thinking about how much better it would be for you or how much more efficient it is to raise them, the only thing that is going to be in your mind is that it is a bug and that eating bugs is gross. 

American Food

I just ate a hamburger and that got me thinking about what foods are the most American, and I had to think of something to write about so I figured that I would just write about that….so here goes.

First on the list (in no particular order) we have that classic hamburger, or if you are truly American the cheeseburger. Like much of the food we call American, it doesn’t actually originate from the United States. As the name suggests, they originally came to us from Hamburg Germany via German immigrants where they truly became American. By this I mean that no one just orders a plain hamburger, you always end up getting a burger loaded with bacon, or deep fat fried onion rings, or something else that takes any hint of it German heritage out of it and turns it into what ever it is that you want it to be.

Next is a personal favorite of mine, the Twinkie. This little guy has become so popular over its life time that even as I write this Microsoft Word corrected my spelling of it and told me that I should capitalize it. However, one thing that makes me question just how American it is, is the people who make them. I am talking about the Hostess strike that left the world in a Twinkie shortage and even prompted people to sell their existing Hostess products on the internet for crazy amounts of money. Striking is un-American because striking is for socialist, and by default if you are a socialist you are fundamentally un-American. Sorry socialists.

I think that I would be pretty hard to argue that French Fries are un-American despite the fact that the name of another country is in the name of them. Much like the Hamburger, we Americans stole this delicacy from another culture and called it our own. We simply could not resist not having a food that requires a deep fat fryer to prepare and not calling it American.

Another prime example of American cuisine is a hotdog. As I have shown you, America steals food from the little guys and calls it our own and the hotdog is no exception. As with its brother, the hamburger, it was “borrowed” from Germany, but two other things help, in my opinion, to make it more patriotic. The first being it prevalence in baseball, pretty American if you ask me, and the second being the ideology of lets make as much money as we can. As you may know, hotdogs more so than other meats are made up of all of the left over animal parts that companies cannot use in their other products, so rather then throwing it away they but the meat into eatable plastic sock type things and sell it to the American people knowing that as long as it tastes good and is cheap the consumers of American would care what is in it.

Bringing up the rear of the list we have the “taco”. Same as everything besides the Twinkie, the taco was stolen and then Americanized. If you ask any real Mexican (person from Mexico) they will be discussed to know that the items sold to us by companies like Taco Bell and Taco John’s (whether or not Taco John’s is still a thing I do not know) are marketed as tacos. The tacos that are sold in American are basically hamburgers in a shell, meat, cheese, lettuce, and if you are feeling adventurous you might even add a Mexican inspired topping to your taco such as salsa. Another thing that may anger a true Mexican is that according to Taco bell’s new breakfast menu any thing that is wrapped in anything is a taco, like their waffle taco.   

I hope that in this I have been able to demonstrate that hardly any food is truly American. Nearly ever food that you eat is the American version of some food from some there country, even of you think you are eating the authentic version…you’re not. Take spaghetti for example, hardly anyone that I know eats it with out meat sauce, but that’s how they do it in Italy, despite that fact people will still say that they are eating Italian. I’m not trying to prove a point or anything like that by writing this, I am just talking about foods that I think, and the majority of American’s think to be American. (743 words)

Look Good

With the summer months quickly approaching I was reminded of a problem that many people have while they are trying to enjoy a day on the river or lake or at the pool. That is the problem of eating too much during a meal and looking fat. What most people will do is just eat one big meal at around noon, eat until they are full, then spend the next couple of hours trying hid their food babies from the ever judgeful eyes of the rest of the people. I have a simple solution to this problem that has been plaguing people ever since Eve ate the fruit. This solution is to simply eat less, but eat more often. Not only will this help you look better for bikini season, but it is actually healthier than eating the way that we do nowadays. Back in the good old days when people were hunter/gathers the wouldn’t just sit down three times a day and eat, they would eat when ever the opportunity presented its self. This meant eating little and often, and this is how our bodies were evolved to function. So by using this simple little trick you can not only look better shirtless, buy you can feed your body the way that millions of years of evolution have designed it to eat. (224 words)

Survival

Recently I was trekking through the wilderness with a close acquaintance of mine and the topic of what we would bring to survive in the out doors to survive with. The reason that I felt like this should be on a food blog was because almost everything that I said I would bring had to do with obtaining or preparing food. I would like to point out at this point that I am not any survivalist so if I say something stupid, it is because as I was thinking about this it seemed like a god idea.

1.)    A scoped .22 rifle with ammunition. For me this one is a no brainer because I will provide food and entertainment. Having this weapon will allow you to make a meal out of any small game that you see, but not completely blow their brains off. By this I mean that it is not too much gun for squire as lets say a 12 gauge. The 12 gauge was suggested by my acquaintance, but I pointed out to him that you will see more small game that large game and even if you take down a buck you would have no way to keep the meat so you would only get one or two meals out of it.

2.)    Matches. This is another one that came pretty easily to me. The guy I was with was trying to sound tough and suggested flint and steal, but I am not that manly and I am not trying to impress anyone so matches suit my needs. These will come in handy for preparing meals and also making water safe to drink. That leads into number three…

3.)    A pot. I feel like this would get over looked by most people, but having a fire and water does not do you much good if you do not have anything to boil it in.

4.)    A knife. This one also seems pretty obvious, it would come in handy for cleaning game and fish.

5.)    Rod and reel. If you are not having a great day of hunting them you could always throw a line into the water and hope that you get lucky. For bait you can just use a bug that you find of if you catch a little fish you can chop him up (using you handy knife) and put some pieces of him of the other end of your line.

So there you have it. With your rifle, rod and reel, knife, matches and pot you should have all you need to feed your self in the woods. You may even eat pretty well if you know how to cook over a fire. (442 words)

Skiing

So it seems like whatever the weather is like at the time of my blogging inspires me to write about the opposite type of weather. Today it was beautiful so naturally I want to write about what I like to eat while I ski.

So unless you are a high roller, or just do not go skiing very much it is very stupid (in my opinion) to buy things at the slopes, regardless of where you find yourself skiing. I say this because no matter where you are it is always a safe bet that they will jack the prices up. So now you have to sneak some food in…the question is, what do you take?

While skiing may not be the most physically strenuous thing in the world, it still takes some work so I like to try to avoid really greasy things like McDonald’s and Wendy’s. Instead I would rather bring a foot long from subway or bring a couple of double decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. If you are not aware of what this is, it is a creation that I thought of (and millions of other people I am sure) in which you use three pieces of bread and to layers instead of the more conventional two pieces of bread and one layer.

Another thing that is a good one to bring would be leftovers. It does not get much better than enjoying some cold spaghetti with some hot chocolate. The only time that this is not such a great idea is when it is crazy cold and you just want to get warm food in side of you when you come in.

Let us say some time you decide to buy food there, now what do you eat? Well. It is pretty safe to say that you will not be getting any food with out grease, so I say go big or go home. Go ahead and get your double bacon cheese burger with mozzarella sticks and bacon cheese fries. (339 words)

HyVee

Today I thought that I would shake things up a little bit and do another restaurant review. So as I am sitting here trying to think of a restaurant to review the first on that comes to my mind is HyVee. I know what you might be thinking, but to many people including myself it is. The best part about going to HyVee to eat is that unlike going to a regular place to eat, you are not limited to one part of the world to eat at. By this I mean that if you feel like pizza, you can get some pizza, if you feel like Chinese food (also known on the streets as “hichi” [HyVee Chinese]), you can get some of the best Chinese food in all Iowa. If you want some home style food (like chicken or Oreo salad) then you can just go get some. The way that you can do is by investing in a fairly priced ticket that entitles you to as much of whatever you want. This I commonly known as a buffet. One of my favorite parts about the HyVee experience is the fact that you don’t have to pick up your own stuff, that is someone else’s job. Something else that makes it nice is that it is conveniently located in side of a HyVee, so if you want to get something else to eat along with your meal you can just go get it. But that typically is not an issue because of the generous portion sizes, and also the fact that it is a buffet and if you know what a buffet is then you know that that doesn't really matter. There is however one thing that I don’t really like about it, that is that I do not get a discount. People who work there do, the problem is that I do not work at Hyvee, just not the one that has the places to eat. So that means that when I go with friends I get to watch them all get discount while I have to pay full price. Another thing that make it hard to resist is that great prices. On top of the already low prices their Italian section had “dollar slice Thursday”. As you may expect on Thursdays a slice of pizza costs only one dollar, and this really attracts people. The way that you get there on Thursdays within your lunch period is to leave right away, get some pizza and eat it on the way back to school. The distance between the high school and the location of the establishment is another thing that I don’t like, but I suppose there is not as much the store director can do about that issue. (427 words)

Pre-What Ever You Are Doing

The problem that I always seem to run into is that I have to be at a practice or lifting session pretty early, but I need to find something to eat. As most people who play any sort of sport (real sport, that is, not golf, bowling, etc.) can tell you that going hard on an empty stomach is absolutely awful. Not eating before you exert your self is the quickest way to make yourself throw up, and throwing up is the quickest way to make you not want to work out. So not the important question, what can I eat that is good right before practice that is also very quick so that I do not have to get up any earlier that I have to?

One option that I am very fond of is a Zone bar. These are made for this purpose and they come in lots of awesome flavors. The flavors are so good, in fact, that there was a point that I didn’t want to eat them because I assumed that there was no way that they were that good and also good for you. I eventually asked my doctor about them and she said that they were good for me, so now they are one of my favorite snacks and pre-practice food item. The only problem is that with like most things, you get what you pay for, by this I mean that from what my parents have told me, they are pretty expensive.

                Another very good option is Muscle Milk. This is supposed to be a post workout protein shake, but I have found that it is great for pre-work out as well. The protein makes it very filling and I get the pre made ones that come already in liquid form (rather than coming in the powder form that requires you to mix it with water in a water bottle). They come in a re-sealable container which makes it great it great to drink while you are driving to practice or running out the door because you are running late.

                The last one that comes to my mind is the humble peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The only down side to this one is it take a little bit of time to prepare, but it is always nice to have that familiar flavor. Another great thing is that the sandwich had sugar, protein, and carbs, all of which your body need to help you perform at you highest level.  (417 words)

Sick Food

Lately I have been feeling a little bit under the weather and that got me thinking about what I like to consume while I am not feeling my best.

I don’t know what is about soup, but for whatever reason I love it when I am sick, but I strongly dislike it when I am feel well. One of the best has to be the classic tomato soup. It might be the simplest thing (other than water) in the history of mankind to prepare. But if you really want to get fancy with it you can make a grilled cheese sandwich and dip it in the soup. The grilled cheese sandwich is relatively advanced and to be completely honest, I do not know how to make one. In know there is something weird with putting the butter on top or something like that. So I only get to have grilled cheese if my mom is home. Another favorite in the soup category is chicken noodle. What I like about this one as opposed to tomato soups is the chicken noodle has some mass to it. By that I mean that it doesn’t just seem like heavy flavored water like tomato soup. In Chicken noodle soup, as the name suggests, you get small chunks of chicken as well as some noodles.

The next one I feel like I have mentioned on here before, but where on here I do not know. That is the pot pie. All you have to do to enjoy this little guy is pop him into the microwave for six minutes. The only bad thing about pot pies is that I am always too eager to eat them so when the some out of the microwave scolding hot I am always inclined to take a nice big bite. But I guess that you cannot really blame the pot pie for that, that’s more user error.

My last pick is nothing. I think that we have all been there when the instant you try to put any substance into your body it just comes right back up, for these situations I think that we all can agree that is is best not to eat anything. If you are in this situation and you feel like you absolutely need to eat something, then about the best thing that I can recommend would be a sugar cube. (397 words)

Food and Kids

Food play a major role in the life of a teenager. As teenage I think that I can give an interesting insight into how big of a deal food is to a teenager, for hunger suppression, social gatherings, and trying to get bigger.

The first of the things that I listed, hunger suppression, is one that impacts me in a large way. My problem, along with many other teenage boys, is that I am always snacking. I literally eat about six or seven meals a day and according to my mom “[I am]...Eating her out of house and home”. Everywhere that I go I need to know that there will be something there for me to eat so that I don’t go into a spiraling “hunger depression” and that is not very much fun.

There is, however, a problem. The problem is that I cannot seem to gain very much weight. To some people this might seem great, but to me it isn’t. I am trying to gain weigh for sports and my high metabolism is really making me mad. This brings me to the third thing that I listed, trying to get bigger. At this point in my life, and the lives of most of the people that I know, getting bigger no longer means growing taller as it used to. Now getting bigger means just adding mass to your body. Most people prefer to do this by working out and gaining muscle, and to gain muscle you need to eat. Another way that you can make yourself bigger is by adding fat, this is the least preferred way. Right now I am just trying to get bigger no matter where the weight comes from.

Lastly, Social gatherings. Restaurants are the place where you go to meet up with your friends and plan out your night. You may discuss whose house to go to over a burrito or perhaps what bridge you heard was fun to jump off of whilst enjoying a Big Mac. Or maybe the food itself is what you are doing that night. Maybe you just want to go to Casa and eat chips for a few hours before actually ordering any real food.

All of the different ways that food can impact the life of a teenager is why I believe that it is such a major part of this nations youths today. (398 words)

Weight

It seems to me that America’s weight problem is much deeper than just eating unhealthily. It is the state of mind that Americans are in, the thinking that you don’t need to do anything to have the body type that you want. Just watch any channel and you will be bombarded with pills and things that “will help you lose weight” without dieting or exercising. For the most part, this weight is water weight and doesn’t really stay off, but even losing that weight doesn’t help you. The people that I have talked to at least that are trying to get to a healthier weight are not trying to do it because they just want to look better, for the most part it is because they want to live longer and/or feel better about themselves. If you are trying to lose weight for health reasons, these pills are not going to anything for anyone’s health, except maybe your scale…and that will be short lived. The other reason, to feel better about yourself, also will not work with pills. Cheating to lose some extra weight is not the way to feel better, jogging every morning or pumping out some sit ups or hitting the weight room before school or work will give you way more confidence than just popping a few pills. If neither of these reasons appeal to you and you are just looking to lose a quick ten pounds for swimsuit season, then by all means just take the pills and gain it back again in a few weeks.

Another problem is the number of people who have just given up on trying to achieve a healthy body weight. I will admit that my whole life I have been a pretty healthy weight (with the exception for from the time I was born until I was about three) thanks to my metabolism and active life style, so I may not know what it like. But it astonishes to me how many people can just sit around and not even try to live a more active life style. Not only can you lose weight, but you can also get some muscle tone and get into better shape (this is why exercising is better than just eating healthier alone. Exercising can even be fun if you get someone who you can do it with and do thing you enjoying doing  like swimming or playing basketball.( 405 words)   

Summer

The recent worm weather has gotten me thinking about how great the food I eat when the weather is warm as opposed to the things that I eat when it is cold out. When it is cold out I eat a lot of thing that are home made. Things like casseroles, pies and Italian favorites like Lasagna and spaghetti. Also things from deer season like jerky and sausage. However when summer rolls around, things become quite a bit more outdoorsy. We take out the deer brats that have been sitting in the freezer all winter and throw them on the grill along with any other meat that you can think of.  If it walks on two or four legs and is not on the endangered animals list, then is has been on our grill. Everything from the classic cow and pig, to things like goat and buffalo, elk and a lot more things, they are not always good, but it’s nice to be about to say all of different animals that I have eaten. We don’t just eat things that walk. Some of the most delicious things on this planet swim or fly. Some of the most fun meals to eat are the ones with everyone that you have after a very successful day of fishing. The moms stay inside and fry up the fish while we sit outside and talk about the one that got away using extremely exaggerated numbers to describe its length and weight.  

Another meal that is fun to have is the one after a long day of boating. Everyone has the faint smell of sunscreen on the and is trying not to move around in their shirt to much because we didn’t uses enough of that sunscreen. It is typically enjoyed at my grandparents’ house or on the road on our way back home.

One of the best summer meals has absolutely nothing to do with the heat or the things that you can do in, just the summer time itself. That meal is the one that you just send out a group text and see who is up to go out to eat out. Just a spur of the moment idea to hangout. Then there is always the friend who brings bottle rockets then an impromptu bottle rocket fight breaks out in the parking lot. Then whoever is hit is treated to an apology ice cream cone. (403 words)

Local Shopping

Buying things locally, food included is very important. Just imagine a world where you cannot go to a street corner and find a unique and delicious place to eat, or a family owned shop that is eager to help you out or fix a broken product. Imagine a world where the only reason that people do business is not because they love what they do, rather because they are part of a larger chain that is being pushed to make money and cut corns to do so. Which one of those options sounds better? For most people that answer is probably the favorite, but the important question is how do we sustain these precious local businesses when at times it can seem so much easier to buy from or use the services of a large chain.

I believe that we should be passing legislation that helps to support smaller businesses, and if there are already some in place then I think that they need to be more prevalent or enticing. By this I mean that perhaps we could try to give tax breaks to people who regularly buy local businesses products and services.

Some people may say that implementing these legal helpers or just shopping somewhere because it is local is threatening American capitalism and is communist. To this I would say that you are stupid. Growing small businesses creates more competition and there for lowers prices and, in most cases, increases the qualities of the items being made. All in all helping theses small businesses ends up helping the consumer.

The next argument that I can think of is the one that giving shoppers a legal incentive to shop at smaller businesses will ultimately kill of big businesses and just leave America with a bunch of small businesses that cannot support them selves. Once again, this is stupid. If something like that ever started to happen (and this is very unlikely) then these laws can always just be repealed.

So in the end of it all, shopping locally, or passing bills that help local businesses thrive can do nothing but help the economy and the people running the businesses. All of these people who now have an incentive to shop locally may encourage others to start their own businesses and help the economy grow even more. (387 words)

Africa

I think that many people will agree with the idea that we need to help the people in Africa that do not have any food, but the main question is how to do that. From what I understand, we are going about helping these people all wrong. I think that the idea of teaching a man to fish is better than just giving him a fish is a great idea and it is an idea that I think needs to be implemented in Africa. The majority of the aid that had been sent to Africa has been food, and I think that is not the best way to go about solving the hunger crisis.

I believe that the best way to get our moneys worth is to teach them how to be more self sufficient and/or give them things to help them be more self sufficient. I think that we should be teaching them how to plant their own crops and dig their own wells and treat their own illnesses. But now you may be asking “well how are they going to do that if they don’t have the things they need?” That is where the second part comes in. We would also give them the materials that they need to do all of these things. So now the African people have the skills and the tools to do what they need to do, but now there is one last thing. I think that we should give each African citizen (as I type this I am realizing how expensive this is going to be) a little bit of currency. This will allow the Africans to start businesses and buy things from those businesses and help to grow the African economy. This is another thing that will help Africa succeed in the long run. (304 words)

Fast Food

I would venture to say that fast food may be one of the best inventions in the history of mankind. Some people might try to argue that it is the wheel, or irrigation systems, or something else stupid like that. Those people have probably never had a Big Mac. Think about how many times fat food has helped you out.

You are on your way to go skiing and do not want to stop for a real meal?

Fast food

You are too lazy to make your own food?

Fast food

Think about the last time you ate at a fast food establishment, if you are like the majority of Americans then it was probably pretty recently. Fast Food restaurants provide the perfect place to get good and relatively cheap food. As the name suggests, the service is fast and typically you get what you ordered. These restaurants are the perfect place to meet up with all of your friends and get a good and quick meal in before a night of fun.  One thing that fast food restaurants have brought to us is the idea of driving your car to a window, ordering your food and getting you food all wit out leaving your car. We call this a “drive through” and it has revolutionized how we put bad things into our bodies. This is the epiphany of fast food. You can get your food do quickly that you don’t even have to get out of your car. On a slow day it is very possible to order and get your food within sixty seconds.

Since I am a teenager many of my friends have minimum wage jobs, also known as fast food worker s. so it is always fun to go and see if anyone that you like is working and is willing to give you some free food or perhaps a senior discount. Also, if it is a slow time of the day you can often times socialize with them. This is especially useful if you are waiting for them to get off so you can go do stuff with them later. (355 words)  

     

Boating

All of this crazy cold weather got me day dreaming about boating again, you I figured to make myself feel better I would do a blog about boating food.

My family and family friends all enjoy boating on the Mississippi, the reservoir and any other body of water that allows for it. Anytime that you drive all of the way out to a body of water you want to stay out all day, and that means not coming home to eat, and that means you either have to bring your own or stop at a very greasy dinner on the water.

The point of boat food is to be more like snacks, not be to messy (as to not mess up the boats interior) and very unhealthy. All of those things are more like guide lines though, because there are exceptions to all o them.

One of my favorites is caramel chex mix, as the name implies, it is chex mix that is coated with a caramel. It is made on a cookie sheet and is one of those foods that once you start eating it, you cannot stop until the whole bowl is gone. A great advantage to this food is that you don’t have to refrigerate it, this leaves more room in the coolers for things like pop and beer.

Another thing that is wonderful to have on the water or on a sandbar is deer. Most of the people with whom I boat love to hunt, that means that even if I didn’t have a great deer season, someone else always has some deer sticks or deer jerky to pass around. Unlike the caramel chex mix, this does require refrigeration which is the only draw back.

Chips are also a great way to slowly give yourself diabetes while you are boating. They taste great, require not cooler space, and everyone loves them. The only down side to chips is that they break apart and get every where, thus breaking the rule that they cannot be messy. But the mess is made up for by how convenient they are and also how you don’t have to make anything or kill anything to get them…they are just easy. (369 words)   

Eggs

With college coming up faster than I like to think about I have been improving my egg making game. So I thought that I would share my knowledge with anyone who will read this.

Fried- This might be the easiest egg to make in the world. If you can mess this up, you have some issues that you need to work out. You turn the burner on and you crack the egg and let it fall into the pan. Next you break the yolk, and some salt and pepper and wait or it to solidify. Then you flip it over for a few seconds and you are good to go.

Over Easy- once again, you first have to turn the burner on. Quite similarly to the fried egg you have to crack the egg into the pan and add some salt and pepper. But then it starts to get crazy. This time, don’t pop the yolk, leave it be. Continue to cook it as if it was a fried egg until the white part starts to become solid. Now it gets tricky. Gently flip over the egg, being sure that you do not pop it. Let it cook up side down, but only for a very, very short time. If you let it sit up side down for to long then the yolk will not be runny and you will feel stupid. A small disclaimer, you may or may not get semolina from cooking it like this...so be aware of that.

Scrambled- This will probably be one of the more difficult things that you will ever try to cook in your life time, so pay attention. First you want to crack your eggs ..IN TO A CUP. I know that this is getting crazy so try to stay with me. Then you are going to want to add some milk to the mix to give it some fluff. There is not really a set amount of milk to add, so you will have to try it a few times until you get the ratio that you like. I prefer a quarter cut for every egg, or about an eighth of a cup per egg. Then it starts to follow like the rest, put it in the pan. Then simply let it cook until you have the consistency that you want, then enjoy. (393 words)

Taste

A question that has been on my mind for a long time is why such few children seem to like vegetables but like almost every sweet thing. It turns out that there is a scientific reason for this.

In nature when things are not very good for us to ingest they typically like to let us know. By this I mean with there taste. Think about it, if you are a poisonous plant it does not do you much good to be eaten and killed and also kill what ever ate you. You would much rather have the animal take a bite, taste your poison and spit you out. Not only do you get to live, but that animal probably won’t try to eat you or anything that look like you. But this only works if the animal that is eating you can taste and can recognize that you are not a good thing to be eating. Poisons do, or at least did, taste like the things that small children do not like. Unfortunatly for us, some plants that are not bas for us, but actually good for us are also not very attractive to children (like broccoli or some other green vegetables).

The reason that children are drawn to sweet tasting things like candies is because fruits were (and still are) a great way to get many of the different vitamins that your body needs. Because of this you have evolved to crave the taste of sweet things so that your body can get the nutrition it need (today however, this love of sweet things does more bad than good). But now you may be asking your self “if being sweet causes the organism to be eaten, why would anything want to be sweet?” The reason is because they want to be eaten. You heard right, they want to be eaten. Let us say that a long time ago one of your ancestors eats a strawberry. They eat many more because they are just so good then they go back to there cave and go to sleep. The next morning, as so many of us do, your ancestor drops a duce behind a tree and goes about his day. Inside of his droppings are the reminisce of the strawberries, including there seeds. Now the seed have a new place to grow, a nice pile of fertilizer and not have to compete with their parents for resources (since the guy probably did poop right under the strawberry bush).

As you should now be able to see, disliking the things we do and liking the things we do is an evolutionary advantage. It not only helps us, but also the species of plants that eat and do not eat. (458 words) 

Chick Fila

For the longest time the only place that you could get authentic Chick Fila was at the mall, but recently a new one has opened near the mall. It was the biggest news in Cedar Rapids for the six months leading up to it being built and is now a popular place to go to eat. The things that make it such a nice place to grab a bite to eat are the little things. For example when you are sitting there and there are not customers keeping the staff busy they will come around and ask you if everything is alright and offer to get you a refill. Also another thing that really makes me like the place is that they have a cow walking around sometimes. Speaking of animals that walk around in there, they have this manager who has the name of Gator. Gator is always very friendly and very willing to make sure that I am enjoying my visit. Another little thing that they do is use real flowers in there vases. At first I thought they were fake until I found water in the bottom and discovered that they were not made of plastic.  Something else that I very much enjoy is the fact that they have a play place for kids in the back. Not because I like it (they always kick me out) but because all of the kids who want to play in it sit in the back together so there is only one part of the restaurant with a bunch of shouting kids. They also did a good job picking their employees. All of them pretend to be super happy to be working there and they always say “my pleasure” with a smile. Also the employees take you seriously no matter what you say your name is (because I think we all know that it’s really fun to say your name is Lavarious or something like that). One last thing that you cannot forget is how great the food is. Everything that you order is great, unless you don’t like pickles. One thing that I like to get is get a sundae that is half strawberry and half cookies n’ cream. I like to call it “a Matts blood”, it’s an inside joke so don’t feel bad if you don’t get it. So to conclude this bog, I would highly recommend Chick Fila to anyone who likes good food and nice people. (411 words) 

Drinks

Food: any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/food?s=t). When I saw this it made me realize that I have almost completely forgotten about the other half of food that is not really thought of when you think of “food”. Dinks.  So I will do just that.

When I was trying to think about what to write about on the topic of drinks the first thing that came to my mind was the age old debate of skim, one percent, two percent, or whole.  I personally prefer skim and based on some not very scientific research that I did while working last night (I stock milk amongst other things) I determined that skim milk is also the preferred milk of the people who shop at hyvee drug store number six. There is only one or two arguments for anything except skim and they are “it tastes better” and “it has more vitamins in it”. Neither of them are very good. Taste is just an opinion and skim milk is almost always vitamin fortified. Plus skim milk has a lot less fat in it.

The next thing that came to my mind was how annoyed I get when people talk about how they do not like water. Water can be the best tasting thing in the world if you want it to be, for example if you go outside in 90 degree weather and do wind sprints for an hour I guarantee you that when you’re done that water will be the best tasting thing in the world. Another way to make water taste better is to imagine a child from a third world country standing next to you when you say “no thanks, water is to boring”.

The last thing that I would like to speak about is the difference between Poweraid and Gatorade. There is a difference. Gatorade is owned by Pepsi and Poweraid is Cokes attempt to get in on that market. I have had quite a bit of both and I think most people agree with me that Gatorade is definitely better tasting, but what I didn’t know until I took a class was that Powerais is actually better, in terms of what’s in it. It has more sodium, a large part of what you sweat out, and also it has more potassium which helps prevent cramps. So I suppose Poweraid is actually that more intelligent choice. (415 words)

First World Food

One of the great things about modern America is that, unlike in the old days, you can now just eat for the heck of it. By this is mean that food is no longer seen as a means of survival, we no longer eat because we need to in order to survive, now we eat because we want to. Think about the last time you ate something, what was going through your head? Was it “I need to eat these skittles so that I can survive and reproduce” or was it “I really like skittles so I’m going to indulge even though they are very empty calories”(https://www.google.com/search?q=define+empty+calorie&oq=define+empty+calorie&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.8370j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.)? I am going to take a shot in the dark and say that is was more than likely the latter of the two. This is thanks to how much cheap food we have in this country and dates back to the begging of the industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution people and products were moving faster than ever before thanks to inventions like the rail road and the insulated rail car that allowed meat to be shipped anywhere in the US from cities like Chicago that were very big in the meat business. Meat and other foods were becoming easier and easier to get and at cheaper prices than had ever been seen before.

All of this incredibly cheap and easily accessible food has led to another problem, obesity. Today in American an estimated two third of adults are overweight or obese and about one third of children are overweight or obese. The problem is (for the most part) not that healthy food is not easily accessible, the problem is that it is much more expansive than less healthy food and also healthy food (at least in my opinion) doesn't taste nearly as good as unhealthy food.

Another problem is how much less people are doing these days. Way back when people would eat a pound of bacon for breakfast and other bad things like that all day. They would die at about fifty from heart attacks but for the most part people weren’t obese. Why is that? I have theorized that it is because people back then were working on the farm for eight teen hours a day, or working in the steel mills or doing some other strenuous job that burned a lot of calories. Unfortunately for them these jobs didn’t help them with their terrible cholesterol levels. (407 words)

Tomato/tomoto

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. Perhaps it is because the parent plant is a fruit, then they just add a chromosome to make it infertile. So if anyone knows anything about this topic and would like to enlighten me, please feel free to. ( 370words)

Wild

I am going to talk about a category of food that doesn’t get nearly as much love as it deserves, the stuff you catch or kill your self. My once told me something after I had killed a deer with him the really stuck with me, he said “that’s more organic and healthy than any of that ‘organic’ sh*t you can get at the store” and he is right. Nothing beats a deer that you shot that has only eaten grass all of its life and that has never been given steroids like most cattle. This isn’t as true about fish because they are only as healthy as the water that they live in, and unfortunately in many cases that water isn’t very good. But that is all made up for by the great taste of a fish that was caught and cleaned only a couple of hours ago. Another great part is the fun of catching or killing it. One of the best things in the world, in my opinion, is to fall asleep shirtless in a lawn chair in the sun with a pole in your hand and being woken up be a fish tugging on the line. Sure I may regret it in the shower the next day (because of the terrible sun burns it tend to get) but its all worth it.

School Lunches

There is a problem with our lunch system. Because of all of the obesity in this country people like Michel Obama felt like they should "help". One way that she thinks that she is helping is by ruining school lunches and making them healthier (which I can see why) but also reducing the serving sizes so that seventh through twelfth graders do not exceed 850 calories per day. I have a problem with this because not everyone is overweight or obese, in fact the minority are, only one third. I don’t understand why if two thirds of the country’s children are a healthy weight we should cater to third, and that third, based on what I have seen, don’t like those changes either.

I am alright with trying to add more nutrients to school meals, but I think that the idea of reducing calories is stupid. I especially don’t like it after I get done lifting (everyday) or when I have an intense practice or game after school. Based on a reliable looking online calorie calculator (http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=17&csex=m&cheightfeet=6&cheightinch=2&cpound=170&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1.725&x=78&y=11) I need over thirty two thousand calories a day to maintain my weight and over four thousand calories to increase it, which I am trying to do. If we assume that for breakfast you eat one sixth of our calories, for lunch one third and for dinner one half. That’s means for lunch I need to get about thirteen hundred thousand calories (and I think that guess is low). That means that I need to buy two lunches daily, and that doesn’t make my mom very happy.

I have an idea that I think could help this problem. We shouldn’t pretend like all students are the same because even Helen Keller could have seen that they are not. Some people have higher metabolisms than others, some people are bigger or taller, and many people have different weight loss goals than others. I think that part of the decision should be up to the student, if the want to eat unhealthy or more calories that their bodies need we should just let them. We should also have a line that is dedicated to active students, this line would serve meals that are very high in calories and carbs and help to give the athletes that fuel they need and are some times not getting with the current system.

Another idea that I have that I think is pretty darn smart is one where coaches and gym teachers rate how hard the kid is going on some sort of scale that has yet to be created (perhaps color coded) and you can only get the meals that correspond to your color and up. Some may say that this would make the kids with salads feel bad when they sit down and see all of there friends eating a juicy hamburger, but to that I would say first of all quit being so sensitive and second, that is just motivation for them to try harder in there gym class or sporting event.

Fishing

A hobby of mine that takes advantage of things wanting to eat is fishing.

As you may know to catch a fish by presenting it with something to eat, something that looks like something to eat, or something that seems to be threatening. When the fish attempts to eat of attack what ever it is that you are dangling in front of it you set the hook and hope that the hook(s) sang him in the lip and doesn’t get swallowed. Once the hook is in the fish, as you may expect, you reel it in and get a net if it feels like a big one.

So you have your fish…now what?

Now you finish up the food chain and eat the little thing along with all of his friends. You put it out of the cooler that you placed it in and clamp its tail onto the clippie part of your filleting board and try not to feel bad about what happens next if it’s still flopping around. You start at the tail and cut under the side meat being very careful not to go to deep and pop the guts you cut all of the way up until right under the side fin. Then out just cut up and separate the piece of meat from the rest of the fish. If you are not stupid, you should get two filets off of each fish. Next you can either remove the skin with your knife or leave it on and eat the fish off of it. I prefer to take the skin off and fry the fish in a mixture that my grandma has perfected. The last step is to eat all of the fish you caught with all of the people you caught them with. This meal is, in my opinion, best enjoyed outside and near the body of water where the fish were caught possibly around a fire. (322 words)

Cannibalism?

If you are anything like myself you have probably wondered what a person would taste like, and then been called "weird" or "disturbed" for even thinking that.

The first thing you need to know is that is would not be even close to eating a nice juicy steak because the area of the cow that steaks come from is the lower back. Because cows walk on all fours this muscle doesn’t get worked very much, however in people these muscles are used to keep us standing up strait so they get used more meaning that a human sirloin would be much tougher than a cow sirloin.

Another thing that would make me hesitate to eat human is the health risks. In the 1950s a tribes from Papua New Guinea routinely ate there dead. A favorite part of the person to eat was the brain, this was bad because of a type of pathogen called a prion.  Prions are misfiled proteins that typically occur in the brain, this is the thing that caused mad cow disease and also Kuru. Kuru is the prion that ravaged the tribes in Papua New Guinea until officials banned and punished those who partook in the eating of the deceased. Kuru was nicked named the laughing sickness and was only one mutation away from CDJ, CDJ is the human equivalent of mad cow disease.

The reason that scientist think cannibalism isn't more common in nature is because typically pathogens are only affect one species, so if you eat a dead thing of your same species and it died of a pathogen there is a pretty good chance that you are going to die as well. Thanks to natural selection, this quickly eliminated individuals who wanted to eat there own species, for the most part.

So basically the whole point of this article is don’t eat a person. Not only is it dangerous, but it would not even taste good enough to make the risk worth the reward. Also, beware of searching for facts about cannibalism on any cannibalism forums, there are some really messed up people on them. (352 words)

Ship Wreck Murder

I heard a story recently that I would like to give me input on. It was about these three men who were ship wrecked and they were quickly running out of food, so they decoded to play a game. They all agreed to the terms and those terms were that the loser would let the other two men eat him so that they could survive. They were going to draw sticks (because straw are a pretty scares thing on a deserted island) and who ever got the short one got eaten. The problem arose when the man who lost decided that he didn’t really wanted to be eaten, so the two men killed him and ate him against his will. The man who was killed sustained the other two men long enough to be rescued, but unfortunately for the ones rescued they were convicted of first degree murder. Some people didn't agree with the conviction, and I would like to make my argument in favor of the conviction.

I think that the situation really sucks for the two guys, but I have to say that I agree with the conviction. Sure the killing of the man kept the other two alive long enough for help to arrive, and it may have been the only way for then to survive, and he may have agreed initially to the conditions to the game, but that still does not change the definition of murder: “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/murder?q=murder), which is exactly what happened. If we begin to bend laws depending on the circumstances, the question has to be asked “where does it end?” If they were not convicted it would open the flood gates for all sorts of loop holes, for example, let us say that you do not like someone so much so that you want to kill them. You and a buddy could just recreate what happened, kill the person you do not like, and then arrange for someone to ‘find” you. I know that that is a far fetched example, but it was the best that I could think of. Some people might argue that none of the men would have survived if the one man had not given his life (even if it was involuntary), so rather than one person all three people dying only one had to die. To that I would say you are absolutely right. However, no set of laws can account for every single situation and if we have the laws, even if they are flawed, we need to abide by them. Like I said before, you need to ask yourself, where will the exceptions end and how dishonest people take will advantage of it. Another important question that needs to be asked is was there even consent in the first place? For all we know the two surviving men could have killed the man, and then just completely made up the consent and just have strait up murdered him. As much as I hate to say it, I think that I would have made up a story like that is a friend and I killed someone on an island. (535 words)