Asha Anujeeva

Stopped by the little K-Mart near my house to check out their prices on plastic bins. I want to buy 6-8 plastic tubs with lids to store some clothing and household items in the basement. I don’t like to use cardboard boxes because of the risk of mildex or even absorbing any water if there was to be any kind of leak or minor flooding in the basement.

While walking down the aisle with the tubs, there were two young men walking toward me, looking puzzled or out of place. As they approached within speaking distance, one of them spoke to me, in a very heavy accent. I think it was Russian or maybe Czech. He asked, “Where is there bread in this store?”

I pointed to the end of the aisle and told them the bread is usually on the shelves on the end. He said, “No – there is no bread there.” So I guess they were sold out.

Then he asked where else could they buy bread nearby? I told him that the gas station and convenience store across the street should have bread. He was astonished. “They sell BREAD at GAS STATIONS here?”

With tomorrow the first day of September, our summer is about over. Actually, Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer for this area.

I decided to buy some Planters and try to extend the vegetable growing season. By putting the vegetables into containers, I can move them inside the garage at night to protect the plants from frost, then move them back outside in the morning to take advantage of the sun.

Last year I tried this using one Planter and it worked very well. I had two different crop cycles of tomatoes. By planting some of the tomatoes in the containers, I was enjoying fresh, vine ripened tomatoes well into October.

I have also had great success with my Window Box Planters and am learning about raising geraniums. I especially love the bright orange red geraniums and this is my second year planting and nurturing these flowers.

My cousin just sent me this recipe for cooking Tilapia. I have never even tried this fish, but I see it on menus and in the seafood departments all the time. So I’m going to take her promise that this is delicious and buy some Tilapia fillets next time I’m at the grocery.

Tilapia That Melts in Your Mouth

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Mix together 1/2 cup each of Duke’s mayo and Kraft grated parmesan cheese.
• Place 4 Tilapia fillets in a 9 inch x 13 inch glass dish.
• Salt and pepper the fillets according to taste.
• Spread the mayo and parmesan cheese mixture evenly over the fillets
• Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

Something that seems so easy to prepare but something that I never make at home is the breakfast burrito. At home, I don’t even think much about breakfast during the week. I just want my coffee and maybe a muffin or piece of toast and I’m out the door.

This morning I had to drop off a friend to get a rental car before work. I decided to wait around and make sure that she got it with no problems. So I drove across the street to the Sonic and ordered a breakfast burrito with a Route 44 cherry limeade.

Fifteen minutes later my friend drove away in her rental car and I had chewed my last bite of the breakfast burrito. It was actually very tasty and a nice change of pace.

I have never been a big fan of the Pringles that have become so popular lately. The texture of their chips just don’t float my boat. I like the traditional chips to go alongside a sandwich at lunch. If I have some dip on hand, I like the Ruffles with the ridges.

I do have to say that they other day I had the pleasure of tasting their sour cream and onion chip and was surprised that I actually liked the darn thing. Life is full of surprises!

Most days I bring my lunch to work and either make a sandwich or just reheat something so I don’t have to go out to eat. This saves both money and time.

Today I am going to try a new frozen dinner. This is a new brand to me – an entre by a company called Boston Market. It looks delicious on the box – I hope it is filling and tasty.

Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to try out the chicken salad sanwiches from several big chain fast food restaurants. I’ve tried the Subway, the Chik-Fil-A, the Tropical Smoothie, and the Arby’s chicken salad sandwiches. For my money, I like the Arby’s one the best. I don’t like Arby’s roast beef sandwiches, or their sweet tea though. I prefer the Roy Rogers roast beef sandwich – but there aren’t any Roy Rogers restaurants near where I live. For my money, I’ll go to Arby’s for the sandwich, and then drive through the nearby McDonald’s for the large $1 sweet tea. Get the best of both worlds that way.

I was very aggravated today when I went to the local McDonald’s drive through and ordered a McNugget value meal with a large sweet tea for the drink. Normally buying a large sweet tea only costs $1.00 and it lasts me all day long. I was only given a medium sized tea, and when I told the lady I didn’t want a medium, I wanted a large, she told me that her pick ticket says to give me a medium, so that’s what I got. Then she shoved it at me and closed the window.

So I pulled off to a parking spot and took my meal inside. I explained that I wanted a large tea, not a medium tea to the lady at the front counter. She took away the medium tea and gave me a large tea. Then I told her that I saw on the receipt that I had been charged $1.60 for the medium tea, and a large tea only costs $1, so I wanted a refund. She told me that the large tea is only $1 if sold separately – if it is sold as part of a meal it costs almost $2! How exactly is that a value meal?

So now that I know that is the game that they are going to play, I will go to Arby’s for a chicken salad sandwich and then go to McDonald’s and order only a sweet tea. I like Arby’s sandwiches better anyway.

Guest post by Terrell House

I love eating at Maria’s Mexican Restaurant. It is located in Platte City, MO and is an authentic Mexican restaurant. It is much better in atmosphere, service, and taste than any Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to. They have a wide variety of foods to choose from. My favorite is the enchiladas, or the fried ice cream.

On my birthday I went to Maria’s to eat. It was about 6 o’clock in the evening. I made sure to set my adt Security alarm before I left the house to go out to dinner, because you can’t be too careful these days. Once we sat down, the employees sang Happy Birthday to me and had me wear a special birthday sombrero hat, which is extremely large and colorful. Then they took my picture with a polaroid camera and put it on their famous Sombrero Wall. The entire wall is covered with people in photos wearing the special sombrero.

Maria’s is very quick to serve you and they are always accurate and friendly. You couldn’t ask for a better Mexican restaurant. I absolutely adore the place.

Guest post written by Richard Downer

After working an extra shift at work, getting home and cooking was the last thing I wanted to do. I had heard of a family restaurant down the street called Jay’s Family Restaurant, so I decided tonight was the night for me to try Jay’s out for myself.

Since I didn’t want to eat alone I invited a co-worker to go along with me. As I put my new shoes on I stumbled across the room to set the ADT home security alarm. We met at the restaurant. It was a Friday night, and as usual, Jay’s was packed. Upon walking in you are met by the hostess who seats you, but not before walking you right past a cooler of delicious desserts.

My friend and I decided to order a meat and three plate, since this is what makes Jay’s stand out from the rest. I ordered meatloaf, turnip greens, and macaroni and cheese. My friend had pork chops with a salad and green beans. We were both pleased with the food. It was very flavorful, and the portions were more than enough to satisfy your hunger.

Since we had been tempted with the dessert cooler, a banana pudding and slice of chocolate pie were in order. Both homemade, the banana split is some of the best I’ve ever tasted.

The service was a bit slow, but they were very busy. The food was enjoyable and it doesn’t cost a lot. I plan to return to Jay’s very soon to try out the other great menu items.

Today I decided to try my hand at baking some banana bread.  We had three over-ripe bananas that no one wanted to eat.  They were pretty black!  Well, I hate to throw away food, so I looked up a banana bread recipe and decided to give it a try.  Most of the recipes I found only called for two bananas, but after some digging I found one that called for three.  It was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be!  It sure smelled heavenly baking in the oven!  It was hard to believe I had to let it bake for a whole hour!

Well, it was worth the wait – it came out perfect.  I let it cool for a few minutes and then sliced off a hunk, slathered on some butter (yes, real butter) and gave it a try!  A big thumbs up, but I think I would have enjoyed it better if I had thrown in some nuts!

I see many people who eat something (for example yogurt) because they say they are trying to lose weight.  I look at the caloric value of the yogurt and it is about 200 calories for the container.  Then I look at the caloric value of a Little Debbie Nutty bar – a wonderful chocolate covered wafer with peanut butter filling (yum!) and find that it has the same caloric count!  So if I’m hungry for a sweet snack and have a choice between yogurt and a Nutty Bar, it is going to take a lot of will power to get me to chose the yogurt!  I much prefer a sweet flavor and a crunch!

Lately I keep hearing people talking about a turducken.  The say it is a turkey stuffed with a duck that’s been stuffed with a chicken.  I guess maybe the chicken is a cornish hen?  I just can’t imagine that.  I mean, what is the point?  It’s not like you can just slice all the way through – there are way too many bones!  So other than the novelty of playing with the poor dead birds like they are russian nesting dolls, what really is the point here?  I”ve heard that they are really expensive, too.  Seems to me that there are better ways to spend money than to waste it on something that silly.

With the economy as bad as it is, I have cut way back on luxuries like eating out. But I have been invited to join some friends (at their expense) at the local Red Lobster for dinner tonight. They are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary and want me to join them in a small dinner party. So, I was MORE THAN happy to say YES YES YES to the invitation! I haven’t eaten at Red Lobster for about seven years, I really LIKE it a lot, there just isn’t one that is really close by where I live, and my budget is tight, so I don’t go often. Our friends are picking me up and taking me there, so I am thrilled with the arrangement!

I LOVE lobster AND shrimp, I plan to order a meal that has BOTH!

Growing up in my parent’s house, when presented at the dinner table with a new or unfamiliar food, the household rule was that you are expected to (at the very least) try one bite. If you don’t like it, you force yourself to swallow it without a lot of drama or facial contortions and politely say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t care for that.” You were (and still are) to always respect the fact that our mother made a huge effort to shop for, prepare, cook and serve a variety of wholesome and tasty foods, day after day after day just for our benefit and enjoyment. And our mother respected that fact that trying to please the tastebuds of seven people every night was a daunting task, especially when little sister announced out of the blue that from here forward she would be a vegetarian and refused to eat meat, poultry or fish. But I do appreciate the fact that my parents exposed us to a variety of foods at the family dinner table and it not only enriched our lives but taught us to appreciate and respect each other, as well.

I was just scrounging around the kitchen, looking for a snack to eat that would not be a “horrible, bad for you” type of snack. I decided on an English muffin. Every couple of months I decide to buy a package of English muffins at the store and bring them home. I like them from time to time with some orange marmalade on them. When I prepare them and put the marmalade on them I often wonder who invented these fine items and who decided to pair them up together? I often wonder who discovered or invented different things we could eat. But don’t even get me started on scrapple! Once I found out what was in scrapple, I vowed never to eat it again!

I always think of my now deceased aunt and uncle when I eat English muffins with marmalade. They would always prepare them for us as a snack when we would go over and visit them. Funny how foods remind you of certain people, isn’t it! They taught me to use a long handled ice tea spoon to take the marmalade out of the jar, to control how much you got, and then to spread it with the back of the spoon. Funny how so many people I know use knives for their jams, jellies and preserves! I don’t know many who use spoons!

I invited a friend over for supper tonight. I invited her because her hubby is out of town for the week, and I didn’t want her to be feeling lonely the whole time. She accepted, but declared that she would bring the supper because she loves to cook! Well, that surprised me to no end, because the last time we talked about cooking, she told me that she didn’t know how to cook anything and NEVER cooks – just eats those Jenny Craig dinners all of the time! So, it is with much anticipation that I await her arrival. I don’t have a clue what she is planning to bring! I’ll let you know if its edible or not!

A co-worker brought some candy to work today and put it in a candy dish to share with the rest of the office.  Talk about immediate popularity!  There were a few types of candy in the dish that I’ve never had before; it was interesting to see and try them out.  There were some caramels with creamy centers that were really good!  And some jelly beans made by Starburst that were sour fruit flavors.  I didn’t think I’d like them at all, because I’m not a fan of sour things, but I tried them and thought they were great!  Is there a difference between “tart” and “sour?”  I don’t know, but the next time I buy some candy I’ll be looking for them in the store!

I am not a person with a “sweet tooth” by nature. I usually don’t eat dessert after meals. But every now and then I get the urge to treat myself to a piece or two of Dove’s milk chocolate. I used to eat Hershey’s Kisses, but one day a lady gave me a Dove chocolate, and now I have been spoiled for life! I was just treating myself to a piece of Dove chocolate, and thinking about coupons, and decided I would go online to see if I could find any Dove coupons to print off. Alas, my search was in vain, but I did find some Dove recipes to share!

I can’t remember what day it was, but recently I was watching a morning news program for a few minutes and they were talking about healthy food.  The expert of the day was telling the audience that the 100 calorie snack packs were not good for you..  I don’t remember what the reason was because I immediately started remembering how a couple of months ago on the same show there was a different food expert who was raving about the 100 calorie snack packs.  I don’t know if they are good or bad, I’m no expert, but I don’t make a habit of buying a lot and eating a lot of them.

Having said that, I DO keep some in the house for the rare occasion that I have the craving for a small snack.  I know the unit price is more expensive, but in the long run it is better than buying a large bag of something and then only eating a little bit and throwing the rest away because it goes stale.  And it’s better for you than opening a large bag and eating the whole thing because you don’t want to waste food by letting it go stale!  So, I think that the 100 calorie snack packs are a good thing if used in moderation.  I just enjoyed a 100 calorie Hostess carrot cake snack pack.  It was yummy and I don’t feel guilty at all!