School/Work Lunches

It's that time of year again! Back to school/work (unless you work year-round then your life is one never-ending spiral/new month). It's part of the daily struggle to pack your lunch everyday (I know you could just buy your lunch but who's made of that kind of dough?). EVERYDAY. Unless you have leftovers that you are psyched to eat, the idea of packing a lunch can put you into a funk before you even leave your house. Here are some ideas if you are stuck and want to save dolla bills from eating out. Also, I'm not vegetarian and neither are these, but I'm sure you could substitute here and there.

Even though it's fall, one of my favorite lunches is chicken salad. I know, I used to think it was sick too (ie gross summer potlucks). But hear me out. It's cheap and can be made in advance so you don't have to think about meals for the whole week. A grocery store (Harris Teeter) usually has rotisserie chickens on sale at least once a week (Sunday & Thursdays) so buy one!

Take out the chicken, mix in some red grapes, some heated nuts (pecans), and a small amount of mayo (I don't like mayo, but sadly it is necessary and I will eat it in this), salt, pepper, and honey. That's it! You're set with an entree all week. Go crazy with your bread choice - the bagel thin and sandwich options are numerous these days. Throw it on an english muffin if you're truly wacky!



Some days you want to feel like you eat healthy. Caesar salad is your answer. I think you can throw anything in it? Mine includes a mix of romaine,iceberg, and spinach together with garbanzo beans (you can toast these before work with cayenne pepper/chili powder if you want more of a crunch) and then add crunched up pita chips for extra saltiness. Top with a store bought creamy Caesar dressing. This is a salt salad like you've never had and it's delicious.

This next salad option is labeled gross by some, salty and delicious by others. It really fills you up. Any type of lettuce (spinach is great), tuna, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, salt & pepper Texas Toast croutons, and half or a third of a hard-boiled egg topped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Seriously this will make you full for a week. I'm particular about salads because I do not like everything to touch before I eat. The cucumbers will get soggy and gross along with the lettuce. So this is one to tackle if you have a lot of prep time or Rubbermaid containers to separate it all out.

Let's talk prepared food. An old standby is Smart Ones Fettucini Alfredo. I get weary of the Lean Cuisine's with meat and I've found the Smart Ones actually taste better. With that said, these are only a monthly buy for me. I get sick of them pretty fast and I only keep them on hand when my brain just can't function in the morning.

Recently though I've been introduced to Amy's frozen meals. These are delicious! Do yourself a favor and go purchase Amy's Indian Vegetable Korma. Trader Joe's is also in the frozen biz. The Chicken Tikka Masala with basmati rice is good and spicy, even if it's a little small. I'm sure for some people they could eat two of these and still be hungry. Or you could pack some naan on the side. The chicken enchilada's are also good. Easy to reheat, add some salsa and you're done.



These are some standbys of the moment. Feel free to give us your best lunch suggestion!

Photos credits: chicken salad and caesar salad

I thought he always looked younger than his 71 years, but I guess I've missed these more recent pictures of him?

Tales from the Cube

When did blasting your music from your cubicle with no regard to co-workers become acceptable??? It's true - in 2011 I have a co-worker who has never heard of headphones. Today I have been treated to a playlist including Sugarland (do you know how bad this sounds across the room? BAD), Dave Matthews Band (Crash - TWICE), John Mayer, and other horrible pop-country. My ears are bleeding and I thought about putting on my ipod and drowning her tunes out, but my battery is almost gone. I turned on my desk fan to high and that seems to have done the trick. I'm waiting for her to turn up her volume to compete. If that happens it's all out war and I may have to say something to her...but it's going to be hard to not sound like a nut. Even if it was "good" music I think (very likely) I would still hate her for not turning it down.

Nice Pic

Wretched Pop Star Countdown!!!

In the words of Timbaland, "It's been a long time, we shouldn't have left you, without a dope beat to step to."

5) Justin Timberlake
You haven't released an album in five years. Sean Parker was on top with Napster, went away, and roared back as part of Facebook. Come back and take your crown!

4) Wiz Khalifa
Tell a girl that you "ain't gonna flex" and "not gonna front" and she'll slant. Slant? Yes, I can use fake verbs too. But "you know if I ball, then we all gon' strut." That's true; I can't argue with that.

3) GLEE cast
Get some original songs.

2) Britney Spears
This hurts me more than it hurts you. "Hold It Against Me" the song was OK. I like that she's going for a new sound. But the video? Where was Brit? I saw a wedding dress, some TVs, but barely any her. Single #2, "Till the World Ends", is a tacit admission that Ke$ha, the song's author, is better than her. She ain't, but to allow that thing to be thought gets you on the list.

1) Black Eyed Peas
Only a SEAL team surgical strike against all their recorded music can save us.

You missed it??? I know everyone and their mom has seen the "official Kate Middleton" site, but today might be the best it's been. Check out their tumblr for their wedding liveblog! Her dress was kind of boring, but I still loved it. UPDATE: The Hairpin's liveblog is also LOL. Will I be reading wedding stories all day? PROBABLY.

Someone needs to caption (or BLINGEE) this photo STAT:

Can we talk about Princesses Beatrice & Eugenie?? WTF. I want to like Fergie, but honestly these girls must have received the publicity hound gene from their mother. How else to explain their awful hat choices?

Some wedding guests I didn't understand:

Ian Thorpe - aka Thorpedo - the Australian Olympian swimmer. Did he used to date Kate and we missed it?



Joss Stone - singer - Her presence again confirms that Will & Kate do not have good musical taste. At least she's wearing shoes.



Chelsy Davy - Harry's on-again girlfriend. Her invite makes sense, her dress on the other hand...very mother of the bride. I know you don't want to upstage the bride, and don't worry - NO CHANCE OF THAT WITH THIS DRESS.

Celebrity Wedding Bands

gif via fourfour

What would the day be without more Royal Wedding news! 1 day guys!!!! Rumor has it that Will and Kate want Beyonce and Jay-Z to sing at their reception. I think it's the "young, hip" reception and not the one that Charles and the Queen will attend. They allegedly want them to perform "Crazy in Love". What is this - 1999??? It's a good song - sometimes I don't skip it when I'm exercising, but overall this reveals how lame Will and Kate might be. They have their pick of singers and this is what they want? She's popular and brings da hitz, but what is with Beyonce getting invites to sing at every historical gathering - Obama's inaugural ball, Qaddafi's sons' birthday and now the Royal Wedding? Is everyone else blind to how robotic she is? Personal taste I guess. Who would you pick if you could hire any singer on the planet? Another thought to consider - don't you want someone that will still be relevant when you're celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary? Your grandkids are going to wonder "What's a Beyonce?". I think we can all agree that it could be worse........aka Katy Perry!

via fourfour

gif via fourfour

Did you hear about the guy who got a tattoo of Will & Kate on his teeth? Get the man some Crest Whitestrips stat! Also it freaks me out.

Vegan Experiment Finishes

The saying goes that if you do something for 21 straight days it becomes a habit. After 21 straight days of a vegan cleanse diet, I can say I am in the habit of hating the vegan cleanse diet.

That's not quite true. The experiment is over, and the results are dramatic.

1) I have new appreciation for water-that it's there and really cheap to drink. I spent about $30/month on alcohol, money I didn't spend during the diet. Money I normally spent on soda and juice (I'm a fiend for OJ) stayed in my pocket.

2) I learned about new tasty foods. Did you know that kale is a thing? It is! The cabbage-like plant is about the healthiest thing you can possibly eat, unless you consider Cadbury Eggs a healthy thing.

And if you're going for those filling grains, many substitutes for rice exist. Quinoa cooks fast and at least three of its letters are pronounced as they should be. You can get white or red versions. Red quinoa is red in the way hair is red, in that it is not red. Couscous cookscooks eveneven fasterfaster.

3) Do not eat an entire can of refried beans with your dinner. They taste great, but your body will not forgive you.

4) I like whole grains. I used to buy white pasta and white bread, without realizing that they bleached all the good stuff out of it. When I hear "bleach" I think "Yum!" Now I will be buying strictly whole grain bread and pasta, except those rare times when I won't.

5) I weighed 174 pounds the morning I began the diet. I weighed 163 pounds on the morning it ended. That means I lost one pound every two days, without the benefit of strenuous exercise or watching the amount of food I ate. The weight loss amazes me. I didn't do the diet to lose weight, but that's exactly what happened.

Now the challenge will be maintaining that weight. Wish me luck.

Vegan Update

Five days to go on the vegan diet. The first 9 days of the diet I felt weird, off, empty. It's hard to describe the sensation. I suspect my body was used to the way and things I eat, and needed that time to adjust. Day 10 and on I felt great, with an increased pep in my step and slimming waistline.

So far I've lost seven pounds, and without exercise. At first I didn't have the energy, and now I'm still not doing it enough but the pounds melt away anyway. Word from the wise: Exercise will not help you lose weight! (The author is not qualified to make that statement.)

As for the food, well, I'm pretty damn sick of water. I need a beer! I've already started planning my reward meal on Monday when it's all over (thinking pizza).

Going vegan

In high school I called myself a "meatatarian", before Wendy's went and made the term uncool. Slowly I transitioned to what I am, as of last week, a full-fledged, card-carrying Commi--sorry, vegan.

Exhale, it's OK. I'm engaging in a three-week experiment where I eat no meat, no dairy, no eggs--no animal products of any kind. But wait, there's more! I also cut out processed foods. No chips, no bleached flour in pancake mix, no white bread. But wait, there's more! The diet is a cleanse diet, meaning get those chemicals out of me! So no juice, no soda, no coffee, no beer.

So what can I eat? Well, aside from the delicious grass growing all over my backyard and the bark trees wear, I can eat some good stuff. Tons of veggies, tons of beans, and tons of grains.

The 21-day Vegan Kickstart, created by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, publishes suggested meal plans for the entire day, each day, including a few snacks and desserts. Today is Day 9, and I'd say they're batting .950 so far. Makes Ted Williams seem like he was one-armed.

So what's to gain? Well besides losing 4 pounds in one week without watching how much I eat and without exercise, and besides feeling the increases in energy and regularity, and besides the thicker wallet because I can't buy alcohol, well besides those things I've seen no benefit.

I still have a week and a half remaining, and I'll keep JOP updated on my progress, feelings, and cheese cravings.

Happenings

I'm embarrassed (not really!) to admit that I'm obsessed with the upcoming royal wedding. I CAN'T WAIT. I missed out on Diana & Charles' wedding by being born TOO LATE, so I can't miss this one. It's weird because I don't think Prince William is cute - I think it's clear Harry got the looks in the family - but I'm still really pumped for this event. I think Kate Middleton is great though. He really lucked out. If he didn't have the whole heir to the throne thing going for him...is all I'm saying. From what I've read there are are reports that her family is of a lower/more common class and some say she has always been a social climber and this engagement represents her ultimate goal. Whatevs! Those details seem to make the story more accessible to Americans/me. Not the "seedy I have an angle social climbing" bit (although that would make for a fantastic Real Housewives of London), but the fact that she's just your "average" girl. Also I like the fact that they're getting married in my birthday month. On my dog's birthday. It's like we're practically related.

A few things concern me about this wedding though. Camilla. Yikes. I wish she wasn't going to be there, but being the step-mother and everything I suppose she has to be. This report that William won't wear a wedding band. Say whaaaaat??? His choice and all (I guess? What does Kate think about this), it just seems like a weird detail...that got it's own press release. I kind of wish they had chosen St. Paul's Cathedral. Westminster Abbey does have a certain grandness about it, but there's something sweet and understated about St. Paul's. Then again - William's parents got married there so it could have just been a way to avoid comparisons.

One detail needs to be ironed out - where will I be watching this event? It seems strange that the wedding is on a Friday. Really causes problems with needing to be at work.

4 Stories I'm Sick Of Hearing

We live in a 24-hour news cycle, where media outlets deliver stories that appeal to the lowest common denominator. So stories types get cycled every year, which you could remove the names from the stories and publish them anew every year.

1) Apple product features and, especially, defects.
Apple products are cool. They work well. People like them. Apple might have sold 1 million iPad 2s after its launch. Yay! One out of every 300 people might have one. Or will in a few weeks. It's understandable that it would sell well, because they only cost $234,867. Middle-class parents are definitely lining up. And when I hear that the backlight on the device doesn't work properly, I feel for them. I really do.

Product defects often are important stories. Take the Toyota Prius. Most people did not own the car. But if a car is out of control, you don't have to own one for it to affect you. "Apple, I can't watch my Toy Story 3 download in the maximum possibly quality." I don't care; keep it off TV.

2) NCAA Tournament snubs
Every season people fly into a tirade because the NCAA selection committee declared their team to not be among the 37 best teams that were not good enough to win their conference tournaments. Including those champions, the teams missing from the bracket probably didn't crack the top 50.

Bummer. The 45th best team is not good enough to win the national championship. This isn't college football, thank goodness, where teams good enough to cut down the nets, so to speak, get left out every season, even unbeaten teams.

"Snubbed" teams can increase their chances by winning their conference tournament. Do that, and they get a guaranteed berth in the Big Dance. Because every conference (except the Ivy League) awards its auto bid to the tournament winner, and every team in every major conference plays in said tournament, every team has a chance to win the national title by winning every postseason game. "We're definitely one of the 50 best teams," should not be a rallying cry.

All snub stories-All-Stars, Oscar nominations, etc.-should be banned. Most people will never receive an Oscar nomination. Most actors will never receive an Oscar nomination. Hell, most good actors will never receive an Oscar nomination. Not getting an Oscar nod is the norm. The norm is not newsworthy.

3) Can ____ win ____ election?
Elections are not won with talent, game-planning and hustle like sports teams win games and championships. At least, not in the same sense. It's all about opinions, and the more recent the opinion the more important it is. Still, news agencies publish stories on their front pages. For example, today CNN featured an article titled "Possible 2012 GOP Candidates."

Political predicting is irrelevant. Need proof? A May 2007 article forecasting the 2008 election called Obama the #2 Democrat who would lose to Giuliani or McCain. The author went on to say, "No one knows it yet, but the real frontrunners are John Edwards and Mitt Romney." Enough said.

4) Celeb A feuding with Celeb B on Twitter
Twitter has its uses, like announcing sales and breaking news. If you want context, intelligence, question AND answers (Twitter can deliver 1, not both), go elsewhere. You want inane banter, sniping and speech without the PR filter? Go see who's twittin' what. But please, CNN, ABC, etc., leave these nit-twits where they belong, off the air.

Another Post About Issues

This week's issue is new dietary guidelines!

One of the comments on the above article really made a lot of sense to me. Maria in Texas writes:

A lot of this started when the government put out the food pyramid. Experts said it was wrong, had too many carbohydrates (since it treats fruits & veggies as one category and breads & cereals as another, and they are they same type of food source - carbohydrates) and people would gain weight. The government ignored this because of the food and sugar lobbies, and that is exactly what happened. Double the amount of carbohydrates you tell people to eat and they get fat. This still needs to change.

The other major contributing factor is the food industry. If a company does not produce 18-20% growth, it is not "hot" or in demand by Wall Street. Therefore, companies pursue this 20% bogey at all costs.

International opportunities are limited as most of the rest of the world would never consider eating the over-processed, over-salted, and over-sugared food that is the standard diet of Americans. Population growth doesn't help much, especially since the fastest growing demographics in America is immigrants, and the first generations generally continue to eat as they did in their home countries. They can't get a lot of pricing on food either - maybe a couple percent a year, but that doesn't help nearly enough.

So that leaves food companies trying to get 10-15% plus volume growth per year in a stable population. They spend millions of dollars trying to figure out how to get people to eat more sugar, pasta, breakfast cereals, cookies, potato chips, and ice cream. The sad truth is, the food company bosses can't get their bonuses unless they come up with new ways to get Americans to eat substantially more food every year. Clearly it has worked.

Another contributing factor comes from restaurants. There is a perverse logic in food pricing. If a restaurant (and that includes all categories - from fast food to 5-star) sells you a reasonable portion size, they make very little money. They need sell you 2-3 times as much as you should eat to cover the costs of running the restaurant and make profit - especially if they can't sell liquor. Most people eat whatever is put in front of them - I can't tell you how many times I've seen a single person eat an entire pasta bowl that had enough food for a whole family, and then remark (proudly?) that they've finished the entire bowl. Then the restaurants claim these large portion sizes as great values for the consumer. Once again, in order to keep their jobs and get bonuses, restaurants must encourage people to significantly overeat.

In addition to the millions spent trying to convince consumers to eat more, there are millions spent lobbying to keep healthful, truthful information out of the reach of consumers. Just look at the sugar lobby. Study after study links increased consumption of sugar to increases in obesity, but the sugar lobby insists that eating more sugar does not result in weight gain. Really???

Of course individuals have a responsibility for what and how much they put into their mouths, and their activity level. We now have an active food culture that did not exist even a decade ago. One of the unfortunate and perhaps unintended consequences is that people now feel that they are experts in food and nutrition from all the information they get on food television channels and internet website, and many of them cling fiercely to their mis-information and un-truths with an almost religious fervor. Which will likely make the clearly necessary re-education of the American population virtually impossible.

The sad truth is, no matter how big a proponent of personal responsibility one is, one has to admit that there are a lot of very powerful forces that have strong vested interests in making sure that Americans continue to eat too much of the poorest quality food possible. And until someone has enough guts to publicly call these obesity pushers out, point out their ridiculous claims (sugar lobby, anyone?), there is very little hope that this situation will be arrested, let alone reversed anytime soon.

What do you think?

Celebrity Look Alikes II

Andrew McCarthy

Andre Breton

Ramblings

I know guns exist, but I've never thought they were close to me. This past week I've read more about guns than I care to. From the news it's seems obvious to me that Jared Loughner was mentally disturbed. I don't consider that unusual. What is maddening is that he had access to a semi-automatic Glock with a 30 bullet clip and was legally permitted to carry it. After the events of last weekend, I would think that people would acknowledge that we can work to tone down our political rhetoric, but what we can realistically limit is the easy access to firearms/the kinds of arms sold. I would expect our Congress to at least be able to put together a bill - not a bill to limit firearms within 1000 feet of just THEM (good one Rep Peter King!)- but a bill that protects everyone. Why is this so hard?? Especially important since new reports out show gun sales increasing nationwide with particular increases for the gun and magazine that Loughner used. The NY Times has an article out today to basically kill all expectations of that - New Gun Control Limits are Improbable Lawmakers Say. The NRA is too powerful, having more guns make people safer, people are scared of losing their 2nd amendment rights, etc ETC. Am I taking crazy pills? Hunting rifles are one thing, easy access to semi-automatic weapons whose sole purpose is to kill and injure people quickly are another. In an Op-Ed on Sunday, Gail Collins posed this question regarding gun control, "The difference is not about the Second Amendment. It’s about a technology the founding fathers could never have imagined." Very true! Did James Madison predict semi-automatic weapons? I doubt it. I didn't even imagine Khloe Kardashian marrying Lamar Odom! I feel legit scared thinking about weapon-laden citizens that have been overloading on partisan political rhetoric walking around the grocery store with me. This quote from the director of Gun Owners in America also stood out, "Having lots of ammunition is critical, especially if the police are not around and you need to be able to defend yourself against mobs." Mobs? What mobs do we come across on a daily basis? The mob at Target for the latest Twilight dvd??

I don't believe the argument that if the criminals are going to have guns, then we should be armed to protect ourselves too. If criminals are going to do something bad they are going to find a way around any law. I feel like that's my inherent definition of criminal. Does that mean I should be armed just because someone might do something bad in my vicinity? Doesn't it make more sense to take away the danger of excessive weapons so that a citizen doesn't do something reactionary that could have life and death consequences?

A co-worker came in on Monday and said that his laptop had been stolen. He called the police, but he felt like they didn't do a thorough job of investigating his neighbors. He had a hunch that the thief was a neighbor and that he might come back for something else. As a precaution - he slept with his gun under his pillow and told his friends not to come over because he was going to shoot at the slightest sound in the event the thief came back. Again - am I taking crazy pills? This was literally a story related to me on Monday as if the events of last Saturday never happened. I am uneasy around this co-worker now. Maybe I've been naive, but the thought that everyone has a gun in my immediate circle of acquaintances never occurred to me. It truly scares me. Not enough to arm myself though. I think that even though we're all a bit crazy at times, for the most part our rational sides prevail. Maybe I'm the one that's crazy???

Who am I?

2011 is not looking good so far. After spending my life as an Aries, I was dealt a HUGE BLOW yesterday when I realized that I'm actually a Pisces. The moon looks to be the cause of this development. Going from a ram to a fish? Are you kidding me? What am I going to do about the daily horoscope emails?? Bigger question - what does this mean about my Zodiac compatibility? Also, I'm not ready to give up being a fire sign and the first sign of the Zodiac. No offense to Pisces, but I'm not keen on "constantly trying to adapt itself to its ever-changing feelings and to the moods and whims of other". I've spent my life ruled by Mars being "energetic, vibrant, and lively". They don't even have cool tattoo designs!

The New Signs:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16

Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11

Pisces: March 11-April 18

Aries: April 18-May 13

Taurus: May 13-June 21

Gemini: June 21-July 20

Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10

Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30

Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23

Scorpio: Nov. 23-29

Ophiuchus:* Nov. 29-Dec. 17

Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
* Discarded by the Babylonians because they wanted 12 signs per year.

STFU, Parents

The New York lady over at STFU, Parents has done a fine job cataloging the craziness that is 21st-century parenting. All posts come from user-submitted Facebook updates, photo albums, flame wars, rants, etc., and some commentary on each. She does a good job reacting the way (childless) people like me would react.

Want copious photos of poop, vomit, snot? She's got it.

Did I know some stores have "expectant mother" parking spaces? I do now.

Do you know what a placenta looks like? Parents on Facebook want you to find out!

STFU, Parents offers excellent linkage to old posts. You can journey along it like a winding country road, marveling at the landscape you don't get from your urban penthouse that you can afford because you're a childless asshole! Sorry, I'm reading too many instances of Mommyjacking.

The blogger points out moments when parents (mostly mothers, it seems) hijack a friend's status update to inform everyone about the well being of their kids. The world revolves around your baby!

Ours is a sharing culture these days, at least online. Would baby boomer parents behave this way if they had Facebook/Tumblr/Blogger in the 1970s and 1980s? Or is this a generational thing?

Celebrity Pregnancy

Natalie Portman has never really held my interest. Until now. I'm more tempted to click on a People Star Tracks when she's listed now. Her pregnancy wardrobe is interesting. Her outfits before were just standard, but I feel like she's really taking some risks now...or just trying to hide how pregnant she is. Either way - she looks great!