Frozen Meals Connoisseur

I never thought I’d be one of those people who eats frozen meals. I’ve always thought they were disgusting looking. And the idea of them pretty much grosses me out. In general, I’m not a big fan of frozen food, especially frozen vegetables.

But in an effort to spend less money on lunches and eat fewer calories, I’ve begun bringing frozen meals to work for lunch. In the past few weeks I’ve found a few that I don’t like at all and others that are actually not that bad. I tend to stick to the low cal ones like lean cusine and healthy choice. But my favorites are smart ones. I think smart ones have the best choices, while healthy choice is probably my least favorite.

What I don’t like about healthy choice is the addition of vegetables. There is nothing worse than  puny  frozen vegetables. They just look so unhealthy, even after they’ve been cooked.

In all, I prefer real food. But if you’re going to buy frozen meals, I recommend Smart Ones’s chicken enchilada suiza or three cheese ziti marinara.

Oh, and NONE of these brands look like the picture on the box. I guess that’s typical for any kind of food though.

 

Tipping

My friend Nathan posted a blog yesterday about a recent experience he had in a New York bar and it got me thinking about tipping.

When I was living in Paris I got my haircut and didn’t know whether it was customary to leave a tip. So I asked the hairdresser if it was allowed and she said yes. I tried to hand over five euros but she declined, saying it was far too much to tip. My haircut cost 35 euros, so by American standards a five euro tip wasn’t too much. She’d only accept 1 euro.

I can’t even imagine this same scenario happening here, where the service industry now has some sort of entitlement complex. They act as though they should be tipped regardless of whether they refilled your water or left you high and dry through the entire meal.

My boyfriend always leaves a tip, even if we get terrible service. Usually I’ll leave a few dollars, but I’m not one of those people who leaves a tip no matter what. What do you guys think?

 

Grounds for your garden

There are a lot of corporate giants out there that people love to hate — Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Starbucks — and it’s for good reason. These big chains flood the market with their product and make it nearly impossible for small retailers to compete.

But recently I’ve decided Starbucks really isn’t that bad. See, the thing about Starbucks is that even though they’ve taken over the coffee market just about everywhere, they at least try to be responsible about the environmental consequences of that. Unlike McDonald’s, which had to face a great deal of protesting before getting rid of styrofoam (which they still use outside of the U.S.), Starbucks uses recycled cups and encourages their customers to be earth-friendly. The other day when I was in there I saw a new FREE product of theirs: “grounds for your garden.” They were giving away their used coffee grounds for people to use in composting or as soil, rather than just dumping them in the garbage out back.

I realize this is probably because they have more environmentally conscious customers than some of the other corporate giants. Perhaps environmentalists are just finally getting through to people. Maybe I’m just making excuses for my chai latte habit because I hear Wal-Mart is going to start carrying green products too. And they have provided bag recycling for some time but I don’t plan to start shopping there anytime soon…

 

Making Padt Thai – And other stuff

I’ve been going to Sophia’s Thai Kitchen for months to partake in their $1 drink specials, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually tried their food. I’ve only had Thai food a couple of times so I always try something new when I go because I want to know what types of things they offer. At least that was the case until I discovered Sophia’s infamous Padt Thai. Mmmmmm….this stuff is so delicious. I’ve gotten it the last two times I went there and I was in heaven.

I was craving it again this weekend, but I didn’t want to spend $9 on a meal, plus I wanted to eat at home. So I taught myself how to make it, and it actually turned out really well! I made Asaparagus, pot stickers and Padt Thai with tofu. It ended up being a lot of food, but made for great leftovers the next day.

If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it. The recipe is pretty easy, even though it looks like it’d be hard to make. You can make it steamed or fried (I did fried because I don’t own a steamer).

All you need are pad thai noodles, one egg, tofu (you can use chicken, shrimp or beef instead, but I like it best with tofu), vegetable oil and sprouts. Most people add peanuts too, but I’m not a big peanut fan. You can also make the sauce yourself or purchase it with the noodles. I was going to put a recipe on here, but I can’t find the one I wanted online .. The recipe I used was on the back of the box of noodles and Im sure most brands are the same.

Also, I won’t be online nearly as much because I don’t have fast internet anymore after the move this weekend. I miss all of you though and will try to keep up as much as I can. Oh, and I’m only $250 from going to Costa Rica now. I’m SO going! Thanks again for all of you who donated to my fund. I appreciate it and will be sure to update my blog with tons of pictures and adventure stories while I’m gone (they said we’ll have internet access). I can’t wait for the adventure to begin!