Domestic Geek

They tell us breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it is. Unfortunately, I can't make myself eat first thing in the morning. Food consumption right after I wake up makes me want to hurl.

I've been keeping oatmeal packets to eat in my desk drawer at work (nobody has found them and stole them yet), it's better than nothing, but it's not really a balanced breakfast. Sometimes I'll eat dry Frosted Mini Wheats on my drive in since milk in the morning makes me sleepy.

That's one thing I really miss about college...the cafeteria. It was usually still open after my first class, so I could scoot in and get a variety of breakfast foods without cooking.

Wouldn't it be cool if work places offered such a thing for their employees?

As Colleen reminded me, one of the biggest problems we Americans have with our food is portion control. Eating good, healthy, fresh foods is a step in the right direction, but not if you eat three times more than your body needs.

It didn't help that I grew up in a household where we would have competitions to see who could keep up with eating with dad. We also medicated hurt feelings with ice cream..big four scoop with chocolate syrup on top bowls of ice cream.

I remember watching The Biggest Loser during the first season it was on when they were talking about portion sizes to the contestants. I was thinking then that my perception of how much to eat at any one time was really out of whack, yet I couldn't be bothered to research how big portions should be.

I have been better about not gorging myself and Marcus and I don't make a habit of going to all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants like we did when we were poor. I can tell my stomach has shrunk as I can't eat as much in one sitting as I used to. It's definitely something I need to educate myself about.

I've been reading that average Americans consume over 100 pounds of sugars a year. The problem is that most of these sugars are processed or refined sugars, not naturally occurring ones such as those in fresh fruits and juices.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact damage that a diet with too much sugar causes as many other poor dietary problems usually accompany the sugar indulgence. We do know for sure that it causes all sorts of dental problems (as I can attest) and diabetes as well as being a contributing factor to heart disease, arteriosclerosis, mental illness, depression, senility, hypertension and cancer.

This article outlined some of the other undesirable effects of sugar on the body:

~ Increases overgrowth of candida yeast organism
~ Increases chronic fatigue
~ Can trigger binge eating in those with bulima
~ Increases PMS symptoms
~ Increases hyperactivity in about 50% of children
~ Increases tooth decay
~ Increases anxiety and irritability
~ Can increase or intensify symptoms of anxiety and panic in susceptible women
~ Can make it difficult to lose weight because of constantly high insulin levels, which causes the body to store excess carbs as fat

I remember watching the Dr. Phil show a couple of years ago where his wife, Robin, talked about how she's totally gotten sugar out of her diet and the amazing effects it had on her health (specifically menopause related symptoms).

Have I mentioned how much I love the Internet?

Wednesday, I decided to make a big fruit salad for Marcus' BBQ he was having over here. I've been really craving fruit since I had a good fruit salad at breakfast over at the Flying J truck stop when we went out last Sunday. Well, we went to Target for groceries and wouldn't you know it? No honeydew melons (which I was really craving) and no decent cantaloupe. They had some really tiny "organic" ones for $4 a piece. Um, no thanks. Well, Marcus drove me to King Soopers and they had cantaloupe (and some good looking green grapes), but still no honeydew. WTF? After we got home, I went ahead and braved Walmart by myself. Not only did I find the honeydew, but they also had cherries for $1 a pound. I was shocked! They've been around $3-4 a pound, so I haven't had cherries in forever. I grabbed a bag and now wish I had gotten more.

Well, as I was putting the salad together, I realized that I don't own a cherry pitter. I tried using a knife and ended up making mush of a couple of cherries. What was a girl to do? Google. I found a site that explained how to make a cherry pitter out of a household paper clip. With a little practice, it worked quite well.

I was a little irked because I had taken a watermelon from a bin at Target marked seedless, but I was obviously not when I cut into it. I personally like seeded watermelons better, but I really hadn't wanted to have to pick seeds out for my salad. I was hoping to find some good peaches or maybe throw in some mandarin oranges, but the peaches were hard (I guess it's too early still) and I totally spaced the oranges. Oh, well.

Anyway, my fruit salad finally consisted of cantaloupe, honeydew, green grapes, red grapes, cherries, strawberries, pineapple, apples and watermelon. I was even a good girl and tossed my apples with a little bit of lime juice so they wouldn't turn brown as fast. In addition to serving it at the BBQ and sending some home with Dad, I've had it for lunch the past two days at work, too. Yummy!

You know what service would be really cool? A place where you could rent specialty baking pans.

I'm on several recipe mailing lists and I got an email for a really cool cake pan that I would love to have. It's from a company called Baker's Secret in the shape of those awareness ribbons.

The problem is: How many times would I really use this pan? Probably not more than once or twice. That's the problem with these novelty cake pans. I have a Winnie the Pooh one and a teddy bear sculpture one that I've used only once each. I don't know if I'll ever have use for them again, but I don't want to get rid of them, either. I've wanted to make special cakes for Marcus' birthday before (like a Scooby Doo head), but talked myself out of it because it would be a one-time thing and then it would take up space in my cupboards.

It would be great if I could just get them for the one time I needed it and return it.