Sometimes you forget about things for a while. Things like smoothies. After years of not making a smoothie, I recently rediscovered this delicious blended treat. So give it a try, make a smoothie again for old times sake, make some for your friends and family! If you dont know how to make one, theres a million ways, but here is a recipe for one I made today:
Fresh Bananas+Fresh Strawberries+Strawberry Yoghurt+Vanilla Ice Cream+Splash of Orange Juice+Ice+Dash of Sugar= Smooth Perfection
So after a little Christmas break, I was reading this article about the new war on chocolate milk. The basis of this story is nothing new, it is infact a new target in the same direction as the fight to get unhealthy food out of schools, ban vending machines, and try to sue Mcdonalds for everything. And it got me thinking, is chocolate milk really that bad?
The issue at hand is chocolate milk in schools, and the push to remove chocolate milk from schools across the United States for health reasons. I grew up drinking chocolate milk, granted I drink a little less nowadays than what I used to, but the fact remains, I am not overweight and unhealthy because of my chocolate milk consumption. So I personally take offense to movements such as this, not only for their false evidence, but also for the greater issue of a total lack of personal liability. In this artcile Ann Cooper, director of nutritional services from Boulder Valley School District in Colorado states that:
If a child chooses chocolate milk instead of regular milk every single day for a year, she says, they’ll gain about 3 lbs. because of the extra sugar and calories. “Over the course of a K-12 education, that can add up,” says Cooper.
If Cooper’s statements are correct, if I drank a glass of chocolate milk everyday starting say when I was 5 years old until I was 24 years old, I will of gained 57lbs of chocolate milk weight hanging around my middle section. Well that’s scary! I wonder how much weight I’d gain if I ate one sandwhich everyday for a year, maybe we should ban sandwhiches too? Fact is, there is a total disregard for the nutrional value of chocolate milk, and the amazing ability of human beings being able to burn calories through their daily life.
The deeper issue to this health blame game that has erupted over the past decade boils down liability and responsibility. When will we draw the line in the sand and realize that there is only so much blame that can be diverted from yourself. There is no physical force making you buy chocolate milk and drink it excessively until you become overweight. The old rationalizations that fast food is cheaper to buy than healthy food simply does not fly anymore. Nowhere is it cheaper to buy 10 dollar meal combos for each member of your family at BK or McD’s than what you can buy at a grocery store for that same amount of money spent at the drive-thru window. By placing regulations on what foods we can and cannot buy we are slowly chipping away out our right to choose, our freedoms even. We are slowly creating a society in which we are told what to consume and what not to, a society where nothing is your fault, but rathery societies fault. If it comes to that, heck, why don’t we just line up and have the government hand out are designated rations of food we are supposed to eat each day, it would save us all some time at least!
All sarcasm aside, is this what we really want? I just hope everyone thinks about the bigger picture when they are faced with these decisions. And for the record, I am in no way being compensated by any National Dairy Council to write this, but if you are reading this and would like to, please contact me. Rather I’m just a big kid who loves chocolate milk. Drink up!
Love to cook or maybe you hate to cook, doesnt matter today it’s a cooking blog entry! If your a busy person its nice to be able to make a meal thats delicious, healthy and fast. Heres a dish that I just made this evening that really is very quick to make and really only required a few ingredients. Ive included some photos I took during the process as well just to help with the visual aspect.
First, what you’ll need. Please note I never use actual measurement when I cook, so Im not about to list them in a recipe, haha!
Boneless Pork
Nuts or Seeds (I used Pine Nuts I had left over from a previous dish, you can use sesame seeds or any type of nut)
Honey
Vegetable Oil
Soy Sauce
Green Beans (Or any vegetable, be creative, that’s what cooking is about!)
Rice or Noodles
First, you’ll need to take the nuts that you have chosen, in my case the pine nuts, and crush them into a coarse consistency. If you have a mortar and pestle, this could be a great time to actually use it, or just use the back end of a spoon, crushing the nuts in a medium sized bowl. If your using something small like sesame seeds, skip this step, just put them directly into the bowl.
Once you’ve got that finished, go ahead and pour equal amounts of dark soy sauce, oil, and honey into a mixing bowl. If you only have creamed honey, just heat some up in the microwave to liquify it. Stir that concoction up well, getting it to a nice consistancy and then set that bowl aside, after a quick taste of course, go ahead, its good.
Now hopefully you have thawed your pork, or if you always buy your meat fresh, your good to go. Slice that pork up into fairly small pieces, something a bite or two in size. As soon as you are finished, go ahead and toss all the pork into your bowl of oil-soy-honey marinade. Stir that up, making sure all the pieces of pork are completely coated. Let that sit for a minute and absorb the flavor.
Now is a good time to get some rice or noodles cooking, I also cooked up the green beans at this time. Turn your stovetop on medium heat, and get your skillet or frying pan ready. Pour some oil in there and set it on the burner. Have your bowl of marinated pork ready to go, along with your bowl of crushed nuts or seeds. Now here comes the fun part, pull out the peices of pork one by one and lay them flat in the crushed nuts, flip it over to cover both sides, this coating is going to give the pork a tasty crunch. Repeat this process with each piece of pork, laying them in the pan ensuring not to splash hot oil on yourself.
With all your pork in the pan, let it cook for a good few minutes, turning the pieces over so they are cooked and browning on both sides. You don’t want to overcook your pork, it will give it a tough texture, a common mistake by many.
Your almost done! Prepare a bed of the rice or noodles in a bowl, and once your pork is cooked, start laying some pieces ontop of the bed of rice or noodles.
From here I quickly sauteed my green beans in the same pan that I cooked the pork in, making good use of the rest of that flavor. I then scooped some beans ontop of the pork and rice.
And that’s it, your done! Garnesh that dish with some fresh herbs if you’ve got them, some coriander would go well. Grab your chopsticks, or fork if your chopstick inept, and dig in. Its a healthy and tasty meal that should only take you 15 minutes to make. Be sure to cook up a little extra for tomorrow incase you don’t have time to cook!
|
