Optimum Diet for an Air Fern

[Elaine]

I am on the worst eating jag I have ever been on in my adult life. :( For the past few weeks it’s been basically Root Beer Floats, Coco Krispies, chips and fresh salsa. Had to give up the chips because turns out they are made from genetically engineered corn and I never quite got the amount of cilantro right anyway. :( Needles to say, I feel like crap most days, but I am really in a rut. So, I thought I’d turn directly to the only living creature I know who has even worse eating habits than I do… Brenna Spencer. I swear she is an Air Fern… I have no clue how she survives given her diet. So Brenna, any advice? Should I stick with the RB Floats… or move forward to Malted Milk Balls. I can’t do Peanut M & M’s cause they’re made in China, :( and I don’t like red licorice (and they don’t sell the black licorice vines that come in the cardboard tray in this part of the USA. :eek: Help.. I'm leaving for the Piggly Wiggly in a few minutes. At times like this I so so so miss Larry's Market.

[andyhilt27]

popsickles.....My mother seems to thrive on them. I don't know what brand, what flavors, or how many per day. But she loves them. My father enjoys them on a slightly more healthy level too.

[doberdogsfd]

I am going to counsel both of you to go eat something that was once alive. Stop the madness with the Coco Puffs.

:eek:......Cheryl

[andyhilt27]

I am going to counsel both of you to go eat something that was once alive. Stop the madness with the Coco Puffs.

:eek:......Cheryl

I agree....Coco Puffs are subpar. One should enjoy peanut butter Cap'n Crunch.

[Elaine]

Stop the madness with the Coco Puffs.

:eek:......Cheryl

Cheryl,

It’s Coco Krispies… eee ghads… I’d never eat Coco Puffs… that’s junk food.:eek::p

SO here’s the deal… I could literally starve to death shopping at the grocery stores nearest my home. There is simply nothing edible in these stores. Not even marginally edible garbage food. As an example, Piggly Wiggly does not even carry Malted Milk Balls. I guess they are too high end. They did have a special on Lard… you could pick up that handy dandy 5 gallon bucket on sale this week. There was an end cap display of 5 gallon buckets of Lard. I kid you not. A 5 GALLON BUCKET OF LARD!!!

I haven’t a clue what you’d do with a teaspoon of Lard, much less five gallons of the goo. There are meat products for sale at Piggly Wiggly that you simply can not identify… and the produce looks like it was shipped in a month ago from North Korea.:(

In the Pacific North West we had all sorts of high end grocery chains, that carried William Sonoma cookware, and all sort of specialty meats, cheeses, pastas, deli items and produce (which was always sparkly clean and fresh). There was so much to choose from, you never left the store empty handed. Here, I walk out empty handed at least half the time. If I want anything remotely acceptable (and it is hit and miss) I have to drive into town to Fresh Market, which is about 20 miles round trip, and the selection is so small I am bored out of my mind.

[doberdogsfd]

You do strike me more as a Cap'n Crunch kinda guy Andy!


LOL!
Cheryl

[dobesign]

It's about time I got SOME sort of lauds...E1, give up on the black vines. You're a grown up now. Go invest in Australian black licorice. I do believe that, like most things we should never touch, it is weighed in grams and is probably pricier than cocaine. Then, you keep the malted milk balls in the fridge. Milky way bars stay in the freezer and the reese's peanut butter cups keep them company. As for eating something that was once alive...leave everlasting gobstoppers in your car for long enough and they actually become animated...close enough to alive. When you must exist on less than 500 mg of sodium (please note, sodium is only 1/2 of salt NaCl) in 24 hours, you develop supernutritional perception. The way I see it, with all the crap I eat, I will never need to be enbalmed. As for nutritional counselling, did you ever see Silence of the Lambs? I am a junk food Hannibal Lector. Give up being healthy! Resistance is futile! EAT RIGHT, STAY FIT, DIE ANYWAY!!!!!!!!

[doberdogsfd]

Yep....Silence of the Lamb is one of my favorites.

That's cool....I will keep eating healthy. I kind of figure as long as I am still above the dirt, I will eat clean, live as as long as mother nature allows me too and look pretty darn good while doing it!

I like folks that eat junk. I have gone so far as to buy boxes pf freshly baked donuts and give them to others so I can watch them eat them. I did that routinely while dieting down for shows. Better you then me and I get to watch!

Here is to Dunkin Donuts!
Cheryl :D

[Lou's mom]

so the green chile stew I made at the firehouse last night is too healthy? (see above post re: things that once lived)

and no cucumber/roma tomato salad with my leftovers for dinner tonight? :(


Do the (40% of RDA NaCl) frozen entrees I ate last week carry forward to balance out the above? :p

[andyhilt27]

While we are on the subject of eating healthy.

I do not like Tilapia at all. Tooooo fishy. I grilled some the other night while trying to eat light while my stomach was recouping. I don't like it. Nope, not even a little bit. It wasn't the way I prepared it either....I am an excellent cook. I make a really mean bowl of Cap'n Crunch.

So any suggestions on grilled fish? Cod, Salmon, Tuna, Flounder??? Ahhh maybe a little trout.

[katdobemom]

Andy
My hubby goes to Alaska for fishing and brings home halibut which is quite tasty for sure. Salmon as well.
Goes on some kinda excursion with some guys from work and spends 10 days fishing (boring).............but the freezer full of goodies is pretty nice I must say.
Both are pretty nice on the grill.
About 2 years ago I had a physical on my birthday and huge wake up call.
Everything was sky high, of course but my big sagging butt:)
I went full tilt on healthy eating and lost close to 40lbs.
I would love some of the candy described but just can't do it any more.

[Elaine]

See, I approach this from a whole different perspective.. all of our food sources are contaminated, so we might as well eat whatever. Though Cheryl didn't say this, I'd bet she'll agree, the Coco Krispies box is more nutritious than what is inside. And btw, Andy, Tilapia is commercially grown in polluted fish farms in China.. where something like 80 % of our fish and fish products come from (according to an MSNBC article I read about a year ago, which, like everything we read, may or may not be true :o). So, you can’t eat fish because it's only good for you in theory; in reality it’s not good for you. :( Even Jacque Cousteau warned us over 20 years ago that our oceans were polluted … fish is full of mercury… nope, can’t eat it. Now, years ago... heck, decades ago, in the PNW, we had friends who'd bring back Alaskan King Crab or fresh caught salmon. That was excellent, but I don't see anything like that quality in stores here.

Seriously, has anyone ever found mercury in Root Beer Floats? :rolleyes:

Actually, I hate processed food... hate it. I could live on fresh Blueberries and Pomegranates… if I threw in fresh Artichokes (with lots of butter), and salads with crisp lettuce, ripe fresh tomatoes, avocados and all sorts of good stuff. But we don’t get any of that here and what we get tastes like styrofoam. And most people here don’t know or care about the difference. They must be using their 5 gallons of Lard for their Solient Green.

It’s as though growers have mastered the art of creating beautiful looking produce that all tastes like Styrofoam. I miss the taste of an apple, an orange, or a ripe tomato.

[Elaine]

Btw, this is a sobering video about the future of our food sources and the impact of genetically altered seed. The link is to hulu.com

The Future of Food http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food

[Athy]

Anything but grouper or snapper:

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ciguatera/default.htm

This isn't a joke or a hoax. I haven't found tilapia to be too fishy for me, although we don't grill it. We saute it in butter, lemon juice and bit of parsley.

Athy

[Athy]

It’s as though growers have mastered the art of creating beautiful looking produce that all tastes like Styrofoam. I miss the taste of an apple, an orange, or a ripe tomato.

The daughter and I put in a small garden this year. We used a plan from bhg.com: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/vegetable/vegetable-garden-plan/

We made a few modifications. We added a cauliflower, a broccoli and a crookneck squash. It's growing insanely right now. I don't think our soil is all that great but it's amazing what a bunch of composted horse poop can do! It's been very low maintenance. We used treated fence posts to create a raised bed and we worked a pickup truck load of year-old compost into the soil. I should take a picture of it and send you, it's NUCLEAR!

So we are looking forward to some good sugar peas, some delicious 'maters, and a ton of lettuce.

Now Elaine, for you, I think the answer is right here: www.sees.com God gave us the Internet and charge cards so that we would not have to live on Twizzlers alone... I can highly recommend the lollypops. They are just unreal. The butterscotch lollypops are just delicioso!!! And the chocolates are just dreamy.

They ship fairly quickly, it's decent candy and I think it might just tide you over this spell......

[Elaine]

Back in Washington State we had a fruit orchard, over 40 trees, mostly apples (about a dozen varieties), peaches, cherries, pears, plums… we also had raspberries and blackberries. It was fantastic. I used to be able to run out to the orchard and pick a few apples, race inside, and juice them. Apple juices is actually a beautiful clear crimson red at first (if the apple skin is red). It only turns brown after it’s sat around for a while (about 5 minutes or so). Nothing tastes like “fresh from the bush or tree.”

We’ve raised Sugar Snap Peas, carrots, tomatoes, corn, lettuce and just about everything else. Sugar Snap Peas freshly picked are heaven. Enjoy the fruits of you labor. :) :) :)

I don’t do a vegetable garden here because of all the bugs and snakes. :(

[doberdogsfd]

I do not like a strong fish either Andy!

My suggestion, Chilean Sea Bass, killer on the grill!! Sword Fish ( infrequently eaten, no issues with mercury)is one of my favorites. Halibut is amazing in general! The steaks of halibut better for grilling then the fillet.

Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon grilled on a cedar plank is lovely! Never use farm raised, it is fishy and strong and not healthy for you!!

Cod/Haddock and Orange Roughy are excellent .
Make sure everything is wild caught, Roughy is best if not frozen but sometimes it is hard to get and they have to freeze it. It is still amazing. I do not do it on the grill...cod either, it is soft and flakey and tends ot fall apart.
I will use a pouch and throw it on the grill.

I am a boring person, a bit of S+P, olive oil, lemon and fresh dill is pretty much all I like on these fish.

Let me know what you try!
Cheryl

[Elaine]

Honestly, I think we should all just move in with you and Bob. We’d all have good muscle and sleek shiny coats. :D

[dobesign]

Tilapia is quite, ah, gamey....have you ever tried Swedish fish? I haven't figured out how to keep their lil red candy bodies from slipping through the grill bars, but cherry wood smoke really enhances the artificial cherry flavour and the red dye #2...I too do a lot of homemade salsa. I also make my own chip (tortilla). I do eat relatively low on the food chain. The problem is that with sodium restrictions being so tight, one never know how much is in the things we want to eat when we travel. I personally hate trying to find hospitals in a new place! So, when I travel, I stick to the stuff that I know about to avoid complications of White Coat Induced Hypertension and Tachycardia. Grab a 2 pound bag of red licorice and a 6 pack of diet pepsi, maybe a Pete's beer if we win, and I'm good!

[doberdogsfd]

I would love to try your homemade salsa! It is just a nice add on for fish, eggs, all kinds of stuff.

I have never been able to get past the strong taste od Tilapia either. It doesn't do it for me at all!


It took me forever to get Bob to eat sword fish. It is a darker meat and if not done right can be a bit stronger. He likes it grilled with the e.v.o.o. and lemon.


I hear Swedish Fish make a lovely finger food from the grill....toss them in a pouch too! :D LOL!

Cheryl

[Elaine]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31126198/

Film offers troubling view of U.S. food industry
Director hopes to show price Americans pay in health, safety for cheap eats

updated 12:41 p.m. ET, Fri., June 5, 2009