First: I saw this on PerezHilton.com. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Earlier this year, John McCain’s Vice Presidential pick, Sarah Palin, slashed funding for programs that help support teen mothers in her state of Alaska.
Second: I saw this on WhattoEatBook.com. Gotta love our Government and how it “protects” us! If you need a reason to not eat meat, read “No More Bull” by Howard Lyman…it expands on this subject below and the whole book is a real eye opener.
Court says no to private testing for mad cow
August 30, 2008
Sometimes I think we live in an alternate reality. The U.S. Court of Appeals (District of Columbia Circuit) has now overturned a lower court ruling that allowed Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct its own tests for mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE). Imagine! Creekstone wanted to demonstrate that its beef was free of BSE so it could be sold in Asia. But that would imply that other meat was not safe and force other companies to test as well. Apparently, the USDA does not think that would be fair and the Appeals Court agrees. What about fairness to beef eaters? About that, the court had nothing to say.
Third: Back to Sarah Palin. I’m watching her speech right now and I’ve come to a conclusion: She has some real nice highlights.
Okay, on to food!
Mmmmm, waffles. Not filling, but good! The blackberries I bought yesterday were the biggest and sweetest ones I’ve had all season.
I knew I’d be hungry before lunch, so I brought a snack. Cantaloupe and black grapes. Grapes make my mouth dry, so I only ate about half of them and gave the rest away to my boss.
Lunch was tofu and leftovers from last night. I also made a salad, but only ended up eating half of it as I got full quick.
I have got to get some new dishes to take to work. These “harvest” brown plates and bowls are so UGLY!
Like clockwork, I got hungry at 4:30, so I had a little snack.
I have a question: I know that this is coming from my counting calories days, but does anyone else have an aversion to nut butters due to it’s calorie density? Whenever I use it (which is almost every day) I barely smear any on and try to use no more than a tablespoon at a time. Everybody else seems to glob it on or even eat it out of the jar! As Erin would say, that makes me nervous, but also makes me extremely jealous at the same time!
When I got home and was figuring out dinner, I had a couple of chips with my FAVORITE SALSA EVER – Emerald Valley organic salsa – it’s perfectly chunky (meaning not too much) and spicy. Thinking about it is making me want more….
Dinner was another attempt with greens – only this time it was just the last of the spinach I needed to use. I just sauteed it in a little bit of EVOO and garlic. I also added a splash of balsamic vinegar at the end. I also ate some Eden Organic canned lentils and brown rice. This would be easy to make from scratch, but for the sake of convenience, I would buy it again. It was a little bland, so I added this to it:
Arielle from Couch Cubicle said that TJs enchilada sauce tastes just like Taco Bell sauce, but this sauce does too! I guess I can stop hoarding my TB packets 
Here’s dinner all together with some more of the Quorn “chicken” nuggets. I wasn’t as ecstatic about these the 2nd time around but they were still very yummy.
That was a small portion of spinach and I did choke down eat all of it only after I mixed it with the rice and lentils. It was better than Swiss chard, but I’m still not jivin’ with the greens at all!
Okay, I’m going to lay down and read and try to go to bed early again. I feel like I’ve almost made up my “sleep debt” and that another good night and I’ll be caught up. Goodnight!
Another person whose mouth goes dry from grapes! Every time I tell someone that they say I’m crazy! But its true! Your post reminds me I need to take some dishes to work too.
On the PB – I actually don’t like the taste of many PBs, but I’ve always liked the Better’n Peanut Butter company. I didn’t start it because of the calorie issue, it is for taste, but the company has only 100 cals/20 cals from fat per 2 Tbsp. Not bad in comparision. Some people don’t like the taste, but I do I guess. And at any rate, the cals from regular PB are the “good fats” so its a bit different than many other things.
Irony.
About peanut butter. Yes, I have the same issue as you. I am the rare person who can eat 1 T and be done. I know, it’s weird. I am like you though – it’s a whole lotta calories. I know it’s good fat, etc., but I too would feel nervous eating a whole glob. I measured it out a couple of times and now I just eyeball it. Taking it out of the jar that way makes me feel less like a dweeb than measuring it.
Heather
For some reason, the amount of cals in PB/AB doesn’t bother me. I’ve eaten up to 1/4 cup at a time! But it’s because I eat lots of veggies all day and I feel like there’s “room” for me to eat my fats via nuts or PB.
It’s weird how we rationalize things!
I worry more about eating too many bread products.
Love the Perez ref.
Oooh, look at those blackberries – yum!
I eat a lot of nut-butters, since they’re an easy way to get some protein, lots of healthy fats, and calories in a small amount (I need extra fuel for dance training and my other activities). Don’t fear it – it’s a healthy source of nutrients!! They DO sell those individual packs of nut-butters… you could try that?
I don’t care for nuts or nut-butters… I just dont like them much. You could put pb in front of me and a pint of grape tomatoes and tell me they had the same cal. count and i’d go for the toms ANY DAY! I dont like chocolate much either though… Or bananas (on occasion, I enjoy a couple of frozen slices though…) Ppl have told me I’m VERY VERY lucky!! lol
AND GRAPES DRY OUT MY MOUT TOO!!! I’m actually allergic to them… I get sores in my throatsy
-ps- Another conclusion about Sarah — Sarah… Sarah… Shapoops, what’s her name again??
-pps- “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” (Classy, no?)
I also don’t really fear the calories in nut butters anymore. I have come to learn how satisfying they are. Adding a tbsp or so to my oats really makes a huge difference in how often I get hungry. I used to feel the same way about lara bars too until I realized how satisfying they were as well.
I think I love you. I don’t even have time to get started on the subject of Sarah Palin right now.
I’m sorry to say that you didn’t get political, but you got personal. Sarah Palin’s daughters life should not be blasted over and over. She isn’t running for Vice President. Just my comment!
Michelle in Alaska – Ok, I admit the Karma comment was personal. I didn’t post that as an attack on Bristol Palin. It is unfortunate that her life was put front and center for the nation to see when her mom took the VP nomination and I’m sure it’s something that Sarah Palin took into consideration before accepting it. My problem is not that she got pregnant – I understand that shit happens and unplanned pregnancies can happen to someone who is 17 as it can with someone who is 37. My problem is with Sarah Palin (along with many other politicians who play the “God Card” whether or not they actually believe/practice what they preach) and that she does not support sex education in schools. If a 17 year old girl, like Bristol, who is educated and comes from an educated and loving family, has a strong female presence in her life with sisters and a successful mother who I am sure taught her the importance of self-respect can become pregnant, what about the girl in rural Alaska (or anywhere for that matter) who doesn’t have involved or educated parents, who is barely educated herself, how is she going to have the support and know-how to avoid an unplanned pregnancy? I’ll be the first to say that sex education begins at home and that you can’t have sex ed without emphasizing abstinence, but we don’t live in a perfect world, so it is necessary to provide children with the education and resources to make informed decisions.
That image is utterly tasteless and degrading to all women, both democrats and republicans.
Rebecca – I am sorry to you and anybody else who found issue with the image. Honestly, it didn’t cross my mind as I was more concerned with the quote and Sarah Palin’s stance on the issue. Again, it was not my intent to offend. I will try to a better blogger and be more sensitive to our readers
Well, I am not feeling degraded by the image, personally. But then, I am a member of the Green party, which until just this minute has been totally useless. But now that I know my political affiliation provides me exemption from feeling degraded while glimpsing a satirical image about some hypocritical republican’s pregnant daughter, I’m staying an irrelevant third party member! Weeee!
Hi Andrea, you are one of them bloggers now, which I believe precludes your need to apologize to those commenters that aren’t even your usual readers, but rather just offended passers-by
So then, what’d you have for lunch?
Andrea…I love you. And I have to agree with Holly. You’re a blogger, you are entitled to say what you want and you should NOT apologize. You are a part of a forum which means you can write freely about your opinions and if people find this offensive they can state so (which they’ve done) and move on with their lives. I’ve come across plenty of blogs with messages I don’t agree with, and I might write a comment saying such… but then I simply don’t visit the blogs again. It’s the beauty of freedom of speech!
On to Palin… I truly feel bad that her daughter is becoming an “example”. I cannot imagine what she must be going through, but in the one week that has passed since Palin was announced as the Republican VP candidate there have been far more bad things exposed than good. I Tivo-ed her speech at the RNC last night and I intend on watching it ASAP…but this morning I read factcheck.org and there is already talk that a significant amount of her statements were fabricated or exaggerated (well…to be honest McCain, Obama, and Biden are also guilty to an extent) but you should check it out…it’s the best way to get information based on actual fact. Anyway, moral of the story is people are free to express their opinions, and Palin makes me nervous…and if that Juneau poster ever goes on sell I’m gonna buy it immediately!
Whitney – I love you too! I couldn’t have written that comment better myself! I am a blogger, but a food blogger, so maybe this wasn’t the appropriate place to voice my political opinion. In my defense, I was watching her speech yesterday when I posted and getting more and more disgusted by what she was saying and how far to the left she stood on virtually all of the issues. I found her to be a warm and articulate person, but I just do not agree with anything she has to say politically. I often forget how I’m in my liberal bubble here in Oregon – which is one of the reasons I had to get out of Texas! Great – now I’m gonna piss off Texans!
From now on, I’m just going to keep my political opinions food related.