tejon

Ah, but you are quirky in a very lovable way, Andie. Besides, look at what amazing things come out of your kitchen! I think you have latitude to arrange things however you see fit, if the resulting food is that good

Well, at present I make lunches for my five and seven year old sons. I do take into account their preferences, but in the end what goes in is my choice - and often my choices are far healthier than what they would choose, given their own devices. I have no problem at all with this. Teaching healthy food choice is something that happens as a process as they grow, but the ability to make good food choices out of cafeteria fare would be tricky for most adults, let alone small children. Personally, I wish the tide would swing back towards having children bring their own lunches instead of buying at school. Though I guess that just opens them up to Lunchables and cold fast food, so perhaps there really is no better answer. Meanwhile, I'll keep packing whole wheat, carrots, water, and home baked muffins and know that the boys eat pretty well while I'm not there.

I often exercise late at night as well. I usually just make sure that dinner had some carbs and that I drink a lot of water. Otherwise, I wouldn't be too concerned one way or another.

My older son's school has the same rule. Drives me crazy, but I understand their reasons. If even one child got food poisoning or had an allergic reaction and parents could pin it to the school, they'd be in a world of hurt legally. Thankfully, my younger son's preschool has no such rule, so I bring in cupcakes and cookies and other goodies with great glee :-).

Now that just goes without saying.

I usually do Pilates and pretty hard-core yoga, so pre-workout eating tends to be high in protein with some carbs to keep me going and lots of water for hydration. The form that all takes depends on the time of day and what I feel like and how much time I have. I really try to avoid anything heavy before a workout, but don't stress too much about specifics.

Ahem - metal spatulas on the left, silicone on the right, thank you very much

The tea kettle lives on top of my stove, but for good reason as I have tea pretty much every day. I do have two utensil caddies on either side of the stove, and they hold two very separate (in my mind) sets of utensils: wooden and safe for scratchable surfaces go on the right, and metallic utensils and tongs go on the left. Makes sense to me, anyway

I'll second that recommendation! I know, it looks scary, but the feeling of getting the gunk out is just wonderful and it helps increase circulation and healing in the sinuses. And, to keep this food related, a clear nose means you can actually taste what you're eating .

Try something with raw garlic (bruschetta, perhaps). You should be able to taste something , and the raw garlic helps kill all kinds of bugs quite effectively as well.

I'm so happy to see a food blog from you, Meagan! I've been enjoying your additions to the Dinner! thread for quite a while and can't wait to see what this week brings.

A friend of mine's mother was actually one of the post-menopausal women in that study. She did eat a low-fat diet during the study, but it consisted almost entirely of overly processed "lowfat" products like Snackwells cookies, etc. This was evidently typical of most of the participants as well. I have to wonder if the study results would have been different if all the participants had eaten more nutritionally balanced foods, with one group eating a higher percentage of fat than the other.

That's because so few people like the slimy stuff.

Don't feel bad about doing so poorly on the tasting game at the baby shower. I have been roundly laughed at when I scored worse than almost anyone at three different baby showers ("hey, she loves to cook, why can't she tell what any of this stuff is?"). I made my own baby food when the boys were little, so I *still* do poorly at that game. Just says you have good taste

If I want something to snack on during the movie, I usually bring whatever sounds interesting along with me in my purse. Often I'll bring a small water bottle as well. If I had any interest in the food offered at the concession stand, that'd be one thing, but aside from the occasional craving for Bon Bons, I can't stand most of the stuff. And hell if I'll pay $3.00 for a bottle of water that I could bring from home for pennies.

Stratas are lovely things when done right! They come out of the oven puffed and golden, with a rich, creamy interior. Even better with some form of pork in the mix

Off to Michael's I go, then! Thank you

How do you all transport cupcakes? I just made up two dozen to take to my son's preschool (nothing special, so no pictures), and ended up taking them in the baking trays so they wouldn't fall over in the car on the way over. Any better ideas?

That's exactly what I thought when I saw it - intestines!

There are other acceptable ways to scramble eggs? Sounds delicious!

Any thoughts on what to do with a bunch of egg whites? I have 10 sitting in the refrigerator, waiting for something interesting, and I'm just not up to quite that much meringue.

This link doesn't go to the Super Slaw recipe, by the way. Unless of course I am missing something here... ← Agggh! Went back and fixed the link, which should be this.

The Super Slaw recipe over at Epicurious is really, really good. All peanut and ginger flavors and crunch. My mayonnaise-hating husband adores the stuff, as do I. Ahem. Fixed the link.

Let me guess - placenta? Oddly enough, this would not be considered odd in any way among most of my friends.

Taco Bell is "Toxic Smell" I also like to call cinnamon cinnaminimon