Archive for Lifestyle

The Great Pyramids in Egypt Have Nothing on This Pyramid

I like to live my life in a structured manner… So much so that my psychological makeup is determined by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and physiologically I live by the FDA’s mighty Food Pyramid. Now, I am not feeling structured enough to go through it here, but I would recommend that you get yourself a refresher on this important hierarchy of necessary foods and their groupings by checking out this site: http://www.lifespan.org/services/nutrition/articles/usda_pyramid.htm

Next week, the mighty Dietary Sphinx!

-h

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“Keep It Simple Stupid” (or “Silly”, for the easily offended)

During my undergraduate days, the KISS method was highly used by my professors.

It was their recommendation to us students.  Being idealistic and bright-eyed, we were all willing to go the extra mile to make the grade.  A lot of the time our efforts were rewarded, yet sometimes we found ourselves trying to take on too much, or just making something difficult for the sake of it seemingly needing to be difficult.

Now that I am a little older and a little wiser (translated: LAZY), I find that I am looking for simplicity in everything.  I am a bit of a gadget hound, and I have 5 components in my living room hooked to my Star-Destroyer class television.  All of them have their own remote.  But, in the attempt to make life easier, I use the universal remote capabilities of one of the devices to program them all to use just one remote.  Simple.

Also, now that I am a little older, I find that health and exercise are more and more at the forefront of my mind.  And isn’t it convenient that the American Heart Association has employed the KISS method in their recommendations on how to limit our fat intake, especially trans fats.  The story is online over at Yahoo! News.  Check it out: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060619/ap_on_sc/diet_guidelines.

.:Chow:.

-h

http://www.celebrityfoods.com/
http://www.celebrityfoodsbeef.com/

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gastronomic cyberspace

With all the food blogs on the Internet, cyberspace has a full belly.

FatMan Seoul says “Burp Me” instead of “Email Me.”

 Nathasha's Tasting Journal has yummy looking photos of all the foods that blogger Nathasha has tasted. And she thinks this food blog is cool enough to link up.  

Ismyblogburning.com is a blog dedicated to tracking online food blogging events. So, if I eat a burger and write about it on this blog, is it cool enough to be an “event”? I mean it’s an event when my Dad eats but that’s a different story. Well, I suggest reading the Beginner’s Guide on Ismyblogburning.com to see the exact description of a food blogging event.

Chef Wayne’s Recipe Blog also thinks this food blog is cool enough to link up to and not only contains a diverse collection of recipes, but food news.

 Amateurgourmet.com features not only recipes and forums about food, but food films and songs about food. Started in January 2004, The Amateur Gourmet has been featured on CNN and will have its first book published in Spring 2007. Click on   to learn about The Amateur Gourmet.  

For more tidbits of food bloggin, check out the Boston Globe article on those so obsessed with food that they have to blog about it.  Geez. I don’t know anybody like that……

  

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fast and easy meal

It’s springtime & that means it should be time for a picnic. With the recent unpredictable weather, I thought you’d agree that more time should be spent on choosing the location of the picnic than the food to be enjoyed there, so here’s some suggestions for a fast and easy meal for the occasion.

Menu

Sliced Smoked Turkey

Sliced Smoked Salmon

Sliced Tomatoes Herb crackers

Fruit salad

Oatmeal cookies

Smoked turkey or smoked salmon with tomato on a herb cracker tastes divine.

Preparation I

In the Morning

Cut melon, peach, plum, and bananas or your favorite fruit into bite size pieces. Put fruit into a plastic container and seal it with a lid. Cut the sliced smoked turkey and salmon into squares. Place the sliced smoked turkey, the sliced smoked salmon, and the sliced tomatoes each in a separate Ziploc bag. Place each bag in the frig. Cook the oatmeal cookies. (see recipe under Recipe section)

About 10 minutes before leaving for the picnic, place each Ziploc bag, except the one containing the cookies, “in an insulated pack”. Then place the pack in the picnic basket, along with the cookie bag, your choice of beverage on top, and the crackers. Place a trash bag in there too for clean up later. And don’t forget the paper and plastic – plates, napkins, cups, and silverware.

Anyone have any other ideas for a fast and easy picnic meal?

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celebrity foods

What are celebrity foods? What makes a food so special that a celebrity requests it be served at their event or a celebrity quotes it as their favorite food? Does the food strut around like a carrot on a catwalk? Here’s what I found out on the Internet about what some celebrities enjoy most, food-wise. Why is up to speculation.

 

Lindsay Lohan – Chinese

 

Mariah Carey – Pasta and salad

 

Elvis Presley – Peanut butter and banana sandwich, baked apple and sweet potato pudding

 

Woody Harrelson – raw, vegetarian foods

 

David Gahan, Depeche Mode – Thai & Italian

 

Willie Nelson – tex-mex food

 

If you’d like to see some celebrities caught eating, look at this funny website,

http://www.celebrities-eating.com/. Ah, I love the Internet.

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Spring Cleaning

It’s about that time of year when we hear about spring cleaning. Probably like most of you, I don’t own enough stuff to do much cleaning. And I just don’t generally like cleaning. But this year the buzz phrase “spring cleaning” made me think about cleaning out the fridge, cleaning my George Foreman griller, and cleaning my stove tops. Mainly because there’s more beverage than food in the fridge……, George Foreman’s griller is startin to look kinda rough for company, my stove tops seem to have become a permanent grease color, and also because since I devote several hours of work to caring about quality food each day I think I should start caring about my own food. So, I dove into my Internet research, and here’s what I found for us –

 

Cleaning Out The Fridge

General Rules

  • If it smells, trash it quickly. (What a date killer…)
  • If it looks like a Science experiment, trash it quickly. (It’s not cool to play with your food anymore.)
  • If the date of expiration on it is before today, trash it at your own pace…..(It may have become a creature by now and eat you. Or you may become an alien if you drink/eat it.)

Extra Thoughts

  • Stains from soups or beverages not sealed so well create harmful bacteria.
    • Lining the shelves and drawers of your fridge not only keeps the inside of it looking sparkling clean.

Reference

Linda Cobb of DIY Network

Cleaning The Grill

General Rule

  • Old food on the grill doesn’t add just a unique flavor, but bacteria.

Reference

Derrick Riches, grillin enthusiast on About.com

 

Cleaning Stove Tops

General Rule

  • Stains from grease or water overflow while cooking can become flammable if they stay around too long, kinda like my Dad’s temper……I believe in spontaneous combustion.

You do anything special for spring cleaning? Like take out the trash?

 

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Kitchen Gadgets

Ever wondered what would make life in the kitchen easier and more enjoyable? I have and millions of other Americans must have too.  Just look at the food channel or all of those crazy gadgets in the mall stores.  Still, I hate cooking which is why I love to eat out. Someone else is doing the cooking. No clean up, no burned dinner, and no shopping.

 
Even though working at Celebrity makes it pretty easy to cook, I think you should still have some special tools, gadgets per se, in the kitchen to make the cooking experience even easier and more enjoyable. That’s the only way I can enjoy cooking when I decide to be nice & cook for someone. I say – let the Inspector Gadget inside you, out. Let the geek out! The OC version of punk rock has made it cool now.

 
On the web, there are a few fun sites featuring gadgets to explore. Most seem a bit absurd, but for the ultimate gadget geek, I’m sure they would come in use. There’s some weird cooking gadgets on cooking-gadgets.com including “color changing microwave spoons” which change color when the food is done cooking if you stick them in the food while it’s cooking in the microwave.

 
Kitchencontraptions.com features a Truffle Slicer and the Fizz Keeper Pump & Pour, which keeps soda from going flat.

 
What kitchen gadget can you invent in your head? Do share. Seems there might be a market for it these days. And we’re all food geeks here.

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Take A Bite & Heal Thyself

With the cold and flu season upon us, we’re told by friends and families to take all sorts of medicines and vitamins to stay healthy or get well. But there’s a natural medicine cabinet in our refrigerator and freezer – food. As an employee at Celebrity Foods, I have a variety of meats to choose from that are rich in iron which helps prevent fatigue, like USDA Prime Midwestern Angus beef.

 
Some foods that boost the immune system are:

 
                         Broccoli – contains antioxidants, immune system boosters

                         Poultry – contains zinc which boosts the immune system

 
The healing properties of various foods can be seen at WholeHealthMD.com.

                         

A rainy day remedy is just a bite away.

 
Have your own special concoction of foods or ingredients that keep you from getting the sniffles or the office bug? If so, reply to this post with ‘em. I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me yours.

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Adjusting Your Weight

It always seems that beginning around New Year, discussion here at Celebrity Foods seems to turn toward fitness goals.  Most indices determine one’s healthy weight in relation to one’s height. Does that me that fitness goals are specific to one’s height as well?  Recently, with our height in mind, the crew and I talked about what foods were in our diet and how much we exercised. Diet or exercise, we wondered, which should get more focus in achieving one’s ideal body weight?  I found my answers online of course, in Forbes Magazine’s latest issue. I thought I should share my take on this with you. It turns out that my co-workers and I should share the same fitness goals in spite of our differences in height.

 

Diet

 
We often eat for enjoyment, but we obviously eat to survive as well.  In order to maximize our health there are certain nutrients we need for our internal organs and bones to stay healthy and strong. Some fat should be included in our diet, just the good stuff though, like omega -3-fatty acids, which help reduce strain on the heart, blood clots, and heart beat irregularities. This good fat can be found in fish oil from common fish like my favorite, Celebrity Foods Alaskan Salmon Fillets. If you drink coffee or tea, drink just as much water. Water helps process or metabolize stored fat, contains natural antioxidants, and our bodies need it to resupply the percentage of water our bodies are made up of.
 
If it’s energy you need more of, switch from candy and coffee to vegetables. That candy bar snack doesn’t taste good because it has good fat in it. That’s the sugar content talkin. That quick jolt in the afternoon that soda gives you which makes you crash a few hours later. Many better choices, like asparagus, contain the natural energy boost – Vitamin C.  Carrots might help you stare at the computer screen better too, providing the vision health booster, Vitamin A. Crave longevity over a taste quick fix. You’re still hungry when you’re not getting enough nutrients in your body.
 
When it comes to maintaining strong healthy muscles, eating meat in moderation gives you the protein needed for that. Eating meat in moderation also helps prevent fatigue. My favorite protein is my habitual Friday night treat, Celebrity Foods’ protein and iron rich Porterhouse Steak, with its mouth-watering flavor (okay, that was a shameless plug).

 
Exercise
 
Work at Celebrity Foods definitely feels like exercise sometimes, hustling and bustling from one office to the next, but I’m just as busy when I sleep. Getting at least 8 hours of sleep each night is exercise for my body. It rejuvenates as I sleep, processing nutrients. While I’m awake though, I plan to go to the gym and meet with a fitness expert on creating a 3-4 day workout schedule. While my legs and feet are getting the workout when I’m hustling and bustling from one office to the next, the rest of me is not.

 
Forbes.com mentions in their latest issue that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta states that “60% of the U.S. population aged 20 and older is obese.”  The “SuperSize Me” movie may not be that far off or funny…and although each person is truly unique when it comes to figuring out one’s ideal body weight, staying at that healthy weight seems to be the same process for all of us.

 
Know of any tasty and healthy alternatives to fatty foods? Want to start a jogging or work out group? Reply to this post with your ideas and suggestions. They are welcome and encouraged.

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Celebrity Foods’ Well-Being

The Fourth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary defines well-being as “the state of being healthy, happy, or prosperous.” Although we can’t pick healthy, happy, and prosperous from a tree, I think, as a Celebrity Foods Employee and human being, the fast track to well-being is simple. We just have to want it.

  

Let’s start with being healthy. I truly believe our activities and eating habits determine how healthy we are. As Celebrity Foods’ employees, we take these two factors into consideration when designing programs for our customers. However, all too often we forget that their needs are our needs too. We must remember to engage in daily activity which may be as simple as walking across the parking lot to our cars every evening after work. If that’s all the exercise we get for the day then we should also try to stretch our legs and arms a couple times while at our desks. When it comes to our eating habits, we should keep in mind the food pyramid we learned in school, then add in special brain food like my favorite, chai tea. It’s all about the balancing act, what we want to do and what we want from our bodies. A healthy body also maintains a healthy mind.

  

Happiness is in the middle. While we’re trying to reach a goal, personal or professional, my fellow Celebrity Foods’ employees, we hear a lot of suggestions from friends, family and co-workers. If we take all those suggestions, in addition to our own thoughts, into consideration, we have plenty of information to reach our goal. We just have to compromise to come up with a real solution to our goal that makes us happy and then we’re half way to well-being.

  

Our shoulders are the middle bridge connecting our arms and spine. It’s been said by many that we hold our stress in our shoulders. I say just roll that stress off. And then stretch those shoulders by raising your arms up to the sky to welcome not just relaxation in your shoulders but a new perspective on things. Adjust to stay on the road.

  

Prosperity completes well-being. Everyone at Celebrity Foods defines and measures success differently with the same main goal in common. My friend Brett defines success as having the ability to laugh all day long. Today, as a Celebrity Foods employee, I will measure success by the number of minutes I have left in my day for mindless television shows. I want to fill my days and nights with more productive time. Each of us takes some time to think about success. That’s what it’s all about.

  

Healthy, happy, and prosperous, I am, at the moment, in the state of well-being, sitting in the Celebrity Foods’ Employee blog tree.

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