I love eating spicy food. Spicy food is eaten all over the world in even fed to newborns in some regions. The spices in food can help to bring out the food’s flavor and add more pizazz to the meal. Cayenne pepper is even added to some chocolates to help open up the taste buds so that the flavor of the chocolate can be fully experienced. Experts say that spicy foods can even have several health benefits. Spicy food can help to alleviate the pain felt from arthritis and make you body less hospitable to viruses and bacteria. I personally love spicy foods, but I wasn’t always able to handle the heat. Fortunately I found that is is possible to increase my tolerance to spices! The key is to find the flavors of spices that you find the tastiest and start from there. Gradually increasing the level of heat you add to your food helps to not feel overwhelmed by a flood of flavor. If you get a little over-zealous with the spices it’s helpful to keep a glass of milk to cup of yogurt handy. Milk works better than water because it washes away the spicy oils better. After you have built up some heat tolerance to the spice of your choice, experiment with other flavors that you might have been leery of before. Despite popular belief, spicy foods do not aggravate stomach ulcers and may actually help to reduce their occurrence. Oils from spicy food can always burn sensitive areas if transferred via hands, so it’s important to wash your hand after eating or preparing peppers.

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Everyone likes cheese. I love it, but I’ve always been leery of dairy products labeled as “cheese food” or “cheese product” What the hell does that mean? Is it cheese or not? American cheese, Cheese Whiz, and Velveeta are the first things that usually come to mind when I think of “cheese food”. Cheese food doesn’t even sound like a tasty, healthy option, so I used to try and stay away from the stuff. Turns out that as far as nutrition goes, it’s not that different from most types of real cheese.
Cheese food/spread/product is sold under these names because it does not meet the legal definition of cheese according to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations and cannot legal be called cheese. To be considered “cheese food” the product must contains at least 51% natural cheeses by weight, have a moisture content of 41%, and a milk fat content of at least 23% according to U.S. regulations. Cheese food may contain one or more different types of cheeses to comprise 51% of the product. Depending on the different percentages of cheese and moisture a product contains, it may be called cheese spread or cheese product.
Cheese food and it’s smooth, creamy, not-quite-real-cheese brethren usually tend to melt more evenly and does not separate like real cheese. While it can contain a higher percentage of vegetable oil and fat, the caloric difference isn’t that far from real cheese. Efforts are now being made to infuse cheese food with calcium and other minerals found in higher amounts in cheese.
So all and all, cheese food and the like aren’t so bad. They just got shafted by the the federal regulations that gave them unappetizing names.

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Humans weren’t built to consume cow milk. Most babies come with lactose digesting enzymes built in because milk is all they eat, but as we grow up and sprout teeth, we no longer need to receive all of out nutrients via boobies. In non-pastoral societies, many people become lactose intolerant as they grow up but in cultures where dairy is a common dietary component, the lactose digesting enzyme sticks around. Before pasteurization was implemented, not a ton of people consumed milk since it had a very short shelf-life and developed the tendency to infect the consumer with bovine tuberculosis. No body wanted TB, so long ago, the general public started shunning the opaque beverage. This caused a problem. The problem was that people stopped getting enough calcium to maintain healthy bones. The solution was pasteurization. Bada bing! No more TB and people could once again enjoy milk and calcium. The problem with this was that people still didn’t trust cow milk yet. Dairy farmers were suffering. While all of this leeriness towards milk was going on, the industrial revolution began to take place. Kids were heading into factory jobs before the sun came up and going home after dark so they were not receiving any sunlight. The problem with no sunlight is that the body is not able to produce Vitamin D. The problem with not making Vitamin D, is that the body is not able to synthesize calcium and maintain solid bone structure. Rickets is the disease that is suffered when bones become soft due to lack of calcium. Rickets can deform the legs, pelvis and any other weight-bearing bones. This leads to becoming crippled or even death. No one wants Rickets. The Dairy companies came up with a solution that saved everyone. They infused milk with synthetic Vitamin D and encouraged folks to drink boat loads of it so that they would once again get calcium and Vitamin D, even though they didn’t get a lot of sunlight. People swarmed out to buy milk and rickets became a disease of the past. The end.

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Outside of Dumas, there is a small town called Cactus. When ever you go to Cactus, it feels like you are no longer in America. Everything there is written in Spanish, and the houses are completely different. They have an elementary school there, but all the kids who continue with their education have to go to Dumas to go to school because they don’t have any thing else. Cactus has some of the best Mexican food that I have ever had. Most of the places are hard to find, because they are in houses or connected to gas stations or something like that, but once you find a good one you are sure to find some excellent home cooked food. My mom and I head that way when ever we want to eat lunch and have a little more time on our hands. My favorite one is right off the high way, connected to a gas station. Neither of us even know what it’s called, but we know where it is and that’s all that matters. There’s another on in town called El Rancho that someone from Dumas owns that we go to a lot, but they also own a restaurant in Dumas that is close to the same. It seems like every time we go, one of them has closed down and something different is in it’s place, but it never matters because it’s always good food that we couldn’t cook at home. So, if you happen to be heading north out of Texas, you just might run through there. Just give a little look around and maybe you’ll find your favorite new restaurant.

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My boyfriend and I were eating at McDonald’s the other night when a thought occurred to me. I was looking at the wrappers and bags that contained our burgers and fries and I noticed that they are now putting nutrition information on the food items. Along with the nutrition information, there is an ad campaign telling me that McDonald’s food is comprised of wholesome goodness plucked from Mother Nature herself. Okay, they didn’t use those exact words, but the point was still there. Someone was wanting me to believe that fast food is good for me and totally natural. I’ll eat the stuff every now and then, but I’m not buying into that “wholesome” garbage they throw on the wrappers. How can someone try to convince me that my quarter pounder with cheese is good for me when the nutrition information is smeared right there across the box? Hmm? One of those suckers contains half the amount of sodium you need to consume in a day. Couple that with a large fries and your already off the charts! One value meal from McDonald’s contains more than half of the calories you need to consume for the whole day as well. I’m sure it’s gone up by now, but for a while in the 90’s McDonald’s was buying it’s ground beef for around 10 cents a pound. Okay, I can believe that maybe they use 100% real beef, but no body can convince me that is a decent quality of meat.

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One of the best parts about cold weather are all the foods that you can make. There are a lot of foods and meals that just don’t work in certain types of weather, and when it gets cold I start to crave them. I love beans and corn bread, but when the weather outside is 90 degree it doesn’t sound too great to just sit around and eat a hot bowl of beans and then go outside in the blistering sun. But, when it cold, it feels good to come in and fill your belly up with something really warm and filling. Tonight, I think I am going to make Stew. Stews are great to make when it is cold, because it makes a bunch of food and you usually don’t have to worry about cooking the next night or going to the grocery store to get something else to make in the cold. And, just the fact that it takes several hours to cook on the stove, it’s warm in the kitchen and is nice to be in there when you’re cooking. It’s completely understandable that people would be gaining weight during the colder seasons because of all the more filling food, and it’s just a good feeling when you’re cold to be full and then just sit around and not work out. I think I better get a work out in before eating my six servings of stew for dinner tonight!

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When I lived in the dorms, I was close with all the girls on my floor. We would always get together and do fun things, and one of our traditions was to go to Rosa’s Café on Tuesday and enjoy Taco Tuesday as a group. That, in 2005, meant you could get three tacos of your choice, either chicken or beef, soft or crispy, tortillas, and beans and rice as a meal for only $3.33. Get a glass of water instead of a coke and you got a meal for under four bucks that is more than enough for one person. This is one of those luxuries that I haven’t done in so long, mostly because I don’t have the big group of girls to go with that make it so fun and remind me that it’s Tuesday, also because I have a kitchen now and cook a lot, and a little portion because I found out how many calories one of those meals has in it and it’s hard for me to not think about it while I’m trying to enjoy my meal. Very delicious, but eating that plate of food is more calories that I would eat the rest of the day put together. I’m not going to tell you, because I don’t want to ruin you love for the tacos if you go to Taco Tuesday, but feel free to google it and find out for yourself if you feel tortured. Enjoy!

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So, before I left on my amazing exciting trip to Ft. Worth to see my sister and the Red Raiders play at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, my cousin and I decided to make a stop and Bonzi, the sushi place that I’m always talking about. He had never been, and we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so I told him we should go ahead and make a stop even though we were only an hour into our 7 hour drive. So, we googled it, got the address, and entered it into the GPS because I didn’t know how tog et there on my own. It gave us a number, and my cousin called it before we got there to make sure they were open. Instead of them answering and saying “Bonzii”, they said some other name, like about a kings palace or something. We went to the address given anyway, only to find out they Bonzi is no longer there. It’s been replaced, and I don’t even know what to think. It is still a sushi place, but they weren’t open yet so I couldn’t try it to see if it was the same place with just a different name. So, not a good start to the trip. Now, I’m going to have to make a special trip to Canyon to make sure that it is the same people that own the new named restaurant, or I’m going to have to find a new place to eat. I really hope they just thought the new name would help with business and have the same food, or I’m going to be devastated.

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Maybe it’s because I have lived in New Mexico for the last couple of years but I gotta say, I think green chilies have jalapenos beat. As far as chilies go, green chilies have more to offer. They can range from not-even-a-little-spicy, to snake-bite n-your-mouth-hot, but maintain a nice, consistent flavor on any level of hot. The favor of green chilies is earthy and crisp and never over powers of changes the flavor of food. Green chilies can add a kick to any dish, or just give your food a nice texture and color combination. Roasted green chili fully embodies the fall season with it’s natural, warm flavor and light smokey aroma.
Jalapenos are nice too, don’t get me wrong, but they have their time and place. I don’t think of jalapenos as an all around, everyday kind of pepper. Japs have a stronger flavor and more pungent odor that can overwhelm food’s flavor. I like spicy foods, but not all the time. Jalapenos tend to be a little too got for certain foods. Soup is a good example of a dish you wouldn’t want to kill by adding jalapenos too. The hotness of japs is one that sticks to your mouth and stings for quite a while. No one likes to get jalapeno in their throat. All you can do is cough and sweat till the spice wears off. There are a few instances where jalapenos are a better option, but all in all, green chilies make a better day to day pepper.
Another benefit of green chili is that when ripened (red chili), it contains very high levels of vitamin C!

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There’s a pretty small chain of restaurants that I’ve noticed in a couple small town up in the panhandle of Texas called “K-Bobs”. I’ve only actually eaten at two of them, but when ever I noticed one I get really excited. Now, the food is alright, and the atmosphere and decor haven’t chanced since I was born… but they have this awesome creation they call a salad wagon at the one in Dumas. It’s a giant old school wagon that’s been taken apart and turned into their salad bar. It’s huge, and always stocked with the absolute best salad stuff. They also have a different soup of the day at the end that is great. We always call ahead, because my entire family loves the potato soup and, sometimes, whether or not that is the soup fo the day can effect whether we go that night or the next. It’s like two bucks to add on the salad wagon to any meal, and around six bucks to just get the salad wagon, so every time I go I get the kids meal which is like four bucks and then add the salad wagon, so I can have some French fries and shrimp to take home for lunch the next day. I can make three trips to that wagon and totally stock up and call that my meal, then have another meal for later. So, if you are ever cruising around the panhandle and make a trip through Dumas, I would suggest you stop and get something to eat, because the salad wagon there is one of a kind.

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