March 18, 2008

One thing I forgot to mention about my race is that I won a little prime (aka prize) during my race from The Sweet Project: The Sweet Kit. I love the smell of lavender so the lotions are wonderful. It's fun to win girly primes at a cycling race. And it's nice when people donate nice products to be given away as race primes! I love hand-made products.

Posted by megabeth at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)

 
January 23, 2008

The Holy Grail of sweeteners would be one that tastes like sugar, has no calories, and was not created in a laboratory. I think you can't have your cake and eat it too. However, I have found a few sweeteners that are healthier than the more popular sweeteners such as refined sugar, honey, and corn syrup. They can be purchased at Whole Foods.

Agave nectar is clear, a thinner consistency than honey, and does not have a strong taste. It could easily be substituted for sugar or honey. I tried it this morning mixed into my plain yogurt and it was very good. Agave nectar's main benefit is that it is low on the glycemic index, thus it takes longer to digest and does not give you a sugar high immediately after eating it. For an athlete doing an endurance workout, it's good to have some of both the simple and complex sugars to get that immediate boost as well as a prolonged one.

Brown rice syrup is also low on the glycemic index. It has a nutty flavor and tastes a lot like very sweet brown rice. I haven't tried this mixed in with other foods yet, but it may have more of an influence on the flavor of whatever food you sweeten. However it has more nutritional benefit than agave nectar.

I also have been doing some research on the various oils, and like sweeteners, oils have varying qualities and nutritional content. Some are rich in polyunsaturated fats while others are high in monounsaturated fats. As usual, the lower quality oils are more commonly used, such as corn, canola, and vegetable oils. Higher quality oils are olive (extra virgin), grapeseed, macadamia nut, and almond. All oils contain about the same amount of fat (14 grams per tablespoon), but the quality of the fat varies widely. The smoke point of an oil has more to do with the amount it has been refined rather than the quality of the fats. That's why extra virgin olive oil has a low smoke point, but the cheap version of olive oil does not.

I think that the reason why lower quality sugars and oils are used in most of the processed foods you buy in the grocery store is because it costs far less for manufacturers to mass produce those foods. Even a lot of so-called 'health' foods are full of lower quality ingredients; the only way to discern is to look at the wrapper. I rarely, if ever, see almond butter as an ingredient in a processed 'health' food, because almond butter is more expensive than peanut butter by magnitudes.

For my energy bar project, I would like to use higher quality ingredients to provide myself (and others) with an opportunity to try an energy food that is truly nutritionally superior. However, I wonder if commercializing a product for longer shelf life requires a downgrade into the usual ingredients, or if manufacturers do this purely as a matter of saving costs. I hope this project provides that kind of enlightenment.

Posted by megabeth at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

 
December 14, 2007

I have a Delta Skymiles card and I don't know why, since it is difficult to use airline rewards nowadays, unless you book a flight ten years in advance. This site helps you shop for a new card based on your spending habits.

Posted by megabeth at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

 
September 26, 2007

I've been on the quest to find the best pizza in Birmingham. So far, I haven't found it. The search has become difficult, like I'm trying to find the Holy Grail. I concluded that the pizza in Birmingham, overall, must suck. There is no Pizzeria Uno to raise the bar for competition. Like most people in Birmingham, I prefer the independents over the chains, but in this case, I'm close to declaring Papa John's the winner. Sad, yes.

New York Pizza - This is an average pizza, sometimes above average. They have a few good specialty pizzas like the Southampton. Toppings for a large are too expensive to order more than a few, because a lot of their toppings are "doubles". So, theoretically, with about 5 or 6 toppings you can have yourself a large $40 pizza.

DaVinci's - They put their toppings under the cheese. Instead of calling them toppings, I'd call them "soggy hidden surprises", aka SHS. Still, you get the best bang for your buck at DaVinci's. Their pizzas are loaded with SHS and cheese. After one or two pieces, I'm full.

Salvatore's - This place smells like a cornucopia of delicious, hot Italian food. Everything on the menu is good. Pizza is above average especially when right out of the oven. However, don't save any for leftovers. The cheese becomes hard and rubbery, and consistency doesn't change when reheated.

Rocky's - Located in the university area, that should have been the warning for me to stay away. Worst pizza in B'ham, hands down. Canned sauce, tasteless crust, and no cheese or toppings on the outside 6" of the pizza.

Baker's Famous - I've given them one chance. They put this garlic sauce on their pizza (you can omit it by request), which made the pizza taste, um, not so good.

Davenports - Really good, thin crust pizza, but rather expensive for what you get. Profit margins must be around 500,000%.

Dave's - I've tried Dave's several times and just can't get into it. Some pizzas are better than others.

Cosmo's - The problem I have with Cosmos is getting accosted by a few shady characters after spending half an hour looking for a parking spot. Scratch. (Speaking of this, I'm wondering why there are any businesses in Southside left? Since the police have all but abandoned the area?)

Tortugas, Bettola - Haven't tried either yet. Tortugas due to distance. I am pretty sure Bettola is going to be very good, but being a gourmet restaurant they aren't the traditional pizzeria where you choose your pie size and toppings.

Papa Johns, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Little Ceasars - Papa John's is the best of the chain deliveries. I do think it's better to spend $10 on mediocrity than $20.

Freschetta, Tombstone - I can do a pretty good job with a frozen grocery store cheese pizza by adding my own toppings and seasonings. Some of my creations have been very good.

Posted by megabeth at 11:04 AM | Comments (4)

 
September 14, 2007

It's been a while. Somebody mailed me some salsa this week, so I wrote it up.

Posted by megabeth at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

 
July 17, 2007

A while back I asked the two (ha ha) readers of my blog what phone service they use and if they like it. Everyone that used Verizon had positive things to say about it. I switched about three weeks ago from AT&T to Verizon and haven't had any problems, and my calls have been clear and completed when desired (instead of dropped). I got my first cell phone in 1999 with BellSouth Mobility and stayed with them through the Cingular years, but when AT&T bought out Cingular, that was a warning sign of bad service to come. I don't like telecom companies whose primary product is land lines; they typically have zero customer service. Think about how much fun it is to press 1 1 4 5 2 1 5 2 5 6 2 5 6 8 2 1 6 6 3 2 5 1 1 1 1 1 2 only to find out that you have to hang up and start over because you pressed a wrong number somewhere along the way.

This got me wondering if there is a pattern with #2 companies having better customer service and sometimes a better product than #1. Is being a customer of #2 better because #1 often gets complacent, oversized, oversold, or overextended? Will Toyota (for example) start having product quality and customer service issues?

Posted by megabeth at 08:23 AM | Comments (2)

 
June 15, 2007

I took a leisurely walk down the cereal aisle at the grocery last weekend. I've been eating Kashi cereals and granola for breakfast, and I decided to compare the sugar content to kids cereals such as Corn Pops and Cap'n Crunch. In general, you are not any better off eating some of the so-called healthy cereals because they have just as much (or more) sugar content than those Froot Loops you wish you could eat every day, but are too embarrassed to admit that you buy them sometimes.

Another surprise I found was that some of the "healthy" cereals don't have much fiber content, either.

This research project justified my purchase of Kix, which has only 3 gm of sugar per serving.

Posted by megabeth at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

 
June 11, 2007

There are several Hispanic grocery stores in town, but a larger one opened recently with a restaurant nearby, so we decided to try out the restaurant and take a look in the grocery before eating. The rationale was that a Mexican store would sell good (fresh) salsa, but lo and behold, this place had NO salsa for sale. I like food adventures, though, so we decided to try something new. The meat counter displayed some things I did not recognize, and had the potential of ruining my appetite for the upcoming meal. We selected some cinnamon cookies for purchase, a safe choice which turned out to be very good. And I decided that the experience should include an adventure, so I selected some watermelon chili lollipops to try out. I like spicy foods, so perhaps there was something delicious about chili powder and hard candy.

Hahahahaha.

Here is the candy, which looks like dog poop on a stick. Sorry for the bad photography but you get the idea. The stick is covered in chili powder as well. Finger lickin' good.

Here is the wrapper, which implies that there is a delicious, juicy watermelon-flavored goodie inside. The stick, however, provides the warning of poop-flavored hell about to roil your taste buds.

The taste was so, so very bad. If you took a teaspoon of chili powder, soaked it in water, then left it to sit and dry out (and age) for a couple of weeks - that is what this atrocity tasted like.

Someone else agrees with me.

(Aside to Magic City residents: the restaurant name has the word "Iguana" in it. The decor was very nice, but the food was mediocre.)

Posted by megabeth at 03:03 PM | Comments (1)

 

A few weeks ago I went over to Atlanta with some friends for a trade show called CoffeeFest. We attended some classes... I chose business-related subjects because I think it would be fun (and scary) to start a small business. I had no idea how much capital investment is required to get a coffee shop or small cafe going, but the speaker dude said somewhere around $200-300K. I see why the failure rate for businesses serving edibles/potables is so high.

That was the kind of boring part. The EXCITING part was the expo. I assumed we would be walking around trying samples of various coffees and teas. Then I find out that the CoffeeFest is joined with the Great American Dessert Expo. YEEE-HAAA!! I had died and went to heaven.

The expo started at noon. I skipped lunch to save room for the myriad of samples offered at the expo:

Gelato, various chocolates (coffee-flavored, dark, milk, fruit fillings, etc), smoothies, candies, creme brulee, custard, ice cream, various cakes, biscotti, mints, cookies, pastries, coffees, espressos, teas, flavored sodas and beverages.

By three o'clock I was in a drunken sugar haze, and had a serious craving for salty foods. (So we visited the sushi bar that evening for dinner.)

I tried some things that weren't good, but most everything was tasty. Some of the more interesting items:

• almond milk made by Pacific Natural Foods (very good)
  
• maté (tastes like tea)
  
• matcha green tea
  
• Dr. Smoothie (which has no added sweeteners and tasted better than any other blender drink offered at the expo)
  
• Hint Mint - These mints are POTENT. The way mints should be.
  
• Wine ice cream - High quality ice cream, and it does taste like wine, and has 5% ABV. I tried all four flavors.

All in all, loads of fun, and I brought home samples to try to get people to like me. Ha ha.

This weekend I went on another food adventure and I'll write about that soon.

Posted by megabeth at 09:00 AM | Comments (1)

 
February 27, 2007

I just bought some Edy's slow churned ice cream. It claims to have 1/2 the fat and 1/3 the calories of regular ice cream. The consistency is thick and creamy, and I think it tastes better than most any other ice cream I've bought at the grocery. Yummy!

I need to eat some more ice cream. The stock market mega-tanked today.

Posted by megabeth at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

 
December 20, 2006

One thing I've learned from driving a car for nearly 100,000 miles is that the tires wear out at the same rate regardless of the "quality" of the tire. I think the original factory tires (typically of middle to low quality so the manufacturer saves some money) lasted the longest of my tire purchases (all of which were Michelin 75,000 mile tires). Part of this is my fault because the roads in Alabama are full of potholes and I did not take my car in for regular front-end alignments.

So my tires needed replacing recently and my latest purchase was a mid-range tire. The guy at the tire place was an excellent salesman because he talked me into paying $20 to fill the tires with nitrogen. I left the tire store feeling like an idiot, as if I had just bought twenty bucks worth of air. But after driving on the nitrogen-filled tires, I can see what my money paid for. The ride is smoother. The air inside the tires does not expand and contract with temperature changes, and the tires do not need rebalancing because the nitrogen doesn't leak out. This means I don't have to worry about stopping at a service station to fill my tires with air, the tires won't wear unevenly, and the properly inflated tires will improve my car's gas mileage.

Of course this led me to wonder if anyone in the world of pro cycling uses nitrogen to inflate bicycle tires.

Posted by megabeth at 08:34 AM | Comments (5)

 
December 17, 2006

Kashi GoLean Instant Hot Cereal

I read an article in Runner's World about certain bad foods to avoid. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was listed, but sugar wasn't, so I can have all the candy I want unless it's made with HFCS. Hahaha. Anyhow, it did get me looking at ingredients in the grocery store before I buy things. I like to have a hot cup of coffee and some hot cereal for breakfast before a bike ride on a cold day. The instant oatmeal products like Quaker contain HFCS solids and little to no protein. When I ate Quaker instant oatmeal, I would throw out about half the sugar inside the envelope before adding the hot water. Then I found the Kashi GoLean hot cereal, flavor Truly Vanilla. It's just a little bit sweet and has 9 gms of protein per serving, 7 gms of fiber, and is sweetened with cane juice. It also contains whole flax seeds, which doesn't make much sense considering that those things, er, pass through undigested. Oh well. It tastes good and is good for you - that's a major fait accompli for a manufactured food.

Megachef

This time of year I always get the cooking bug, and I managed to score a precious ham bone for making soup. I can never find those at the grocery store. And it reminds me of my college days when I spent afternoons watching cooking shows on pilfered cable TV. Then I would make what I learned in an old kitchen that I think had the original gas oven from the 1920s. It's a wonder we didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

So the ham bone is cooking in the stock pot right now, and my house smells marvelous. In college, I would pick off the scant meat remaining on the bone and put it back in the soup. Meat was a luxury on my slim budget. And I can't say that I spent my food money on beer, because women in New Orleans drink free.

I think I had a healthier diet in college, because my budget (and the extra free time I had for cooking), allowed for the purchase of low cost whole foods, especially beans and rice. For a short period of time, my roommates allowed a hippie chick with dreads who worked at a local whole foods market to crash at our 1920s rental duplex in exchange for the food and meals she provided for us. We ate well. The flavors of New Orleans inspired me in the kitchen, and I preserved what I learned during that time in a recipe scrapbook that I didn't lose in transit to the adult world. I'm glad I learned how to cook in college, but wish I had more time to use those skills.

Posted by megabeth at 03:55 PM | Comments (3)

 
October 11, 2006

A lot of cyclists like their coffee since they tend to get up very early to beat the heat. My internal clock is kinda messed up so I'm usually in a stupor until around 9 am. However, I have mastered the art of stupored (stuporous? stuporen?) cycling. One of my friends who works at a local shop suggested I start drinking coffee before rides. The suggestion finally registered in my head, and I made a conscious decision to increase my dependency/addition to caffeine. If you could pick something to be addicted to, this one's not so bad, right? I'd rather be hooked on caffeine than sugar.

I bought a french press for work and my coworker gave me some Starbucks Caffe Verona. Then Farmboy scoffed at my support of the corporate entity that is trying to put Lucy's (a local shop) out of business. Thus, Starbucks no more. (Though I would buy SBUX, but the gains have already been made from their 40,000 store growth plan.)

He ground up some beans for my press and I drank it this morning and it was very good. I'm certainly not a connoisseur, but the good stuff (aka "Kind Bean") from Peet's makes me want to drink a lot of coffee.

Posted by megabeth at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

 
August 27, 2006

In one of my race packets was a free sample of Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem, which is a powder that is mixed with water and provides energy for endurance workouts (over 2 hours). It contains a small amount of protein, which seems to be beneficial towards muscle recovery when doing long workouts. An alternative to drinking a mix containing protein would be to snack on a bar containing protein, such as PowerBar or Clif Bar.

This flavor of Perpetuem is "Orange Vanilla" or "Creamy Dreamsicle Flavor". DreamSICKle is correct. When you are in the middle of a hard workout in 90 degree heat and humidity and your body is dripping with sweat, do you want to drink something that tastes like orange flavored MILK? I think not. I know not.

I thought about barfing on my ride today, but instead I chose to become dehydrated until I had access to some water.

Posted by megabeth at 03:57 PM | Comments (1)

 
August 05, 2006

I've choked down quite a few energy bars in my life; none of them taste that great. Sometimes I'll eat a few bites before my evening rides to stave off hunger pangs until I'm done with my ride. Otherwise I won't eat them unless I'm going on a three or four hour ride on weekends. The protein in the energy bars helps to keep the muscles from getting fatigued on long rides and also aids in recovery after the ride. One can circumvent the eating of such not-so-tasty foods by using an energy drink with a small amount of protein, such as Accelerade.

My energy bar of choice is PowerBar. Many times I have jokingly called it a PowerTurd. It's basically a block of solidified mush in various flavors such as wild berry, vanilla crisp, chocolate, and peanut butter. None of which are all that tasty, but I like the smooth texture of the bar. They don't make a mess when sitting in my cycling jersey pocket, melting in 90 degreee heat. I used to eat Clif Bars quite a bit, but they tend to get really dry, and it's hard to eat a dried out hunk of ground up oats and soy product.

The local bike shop, Birmingham Bicycle Company, started selling an energy bar that is much more palatable, even delicious. It's called Cup of Gold, and it tastes like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Yummy. It has 11 gms of protein (PowerBars have 10) and generous potassium, sodium, and of course, calories (195). I also found the bar sold at Alabama Outdoors.

The difference is not only in taste, but also price. If you want something to taste good, you probably have to pay more for it. I can get PowerBars for less than a dollar at Wal-Mart or Academy Sports, but Cup of Golds are sold for $1.99 each.

The problem I'm having with Cup of Gold is that it's too good and thus I want to eat it for a snack at times when I don't actually need the protein, potassium, and sodium. A sedentary snack when I'm sitting around on the couch reading or working. So, there's a good side of buying only the poopy tasting energy bars. They're around when you need them. I also found Jelly Belly Sport Beans to be a failed experiment, because those things are so freaking good that I ate them when I was having a sugar fix. I'll stick with the nasty tasting Hammer Gels and GUs since I have no willpower.

Cup of Gold may go the same route of the Sport Bean, since I lack the ability to restrain myself around yummy food.

Posted by megabeth at 04:06 PM | Comments (1)

 
November 30, 2005

OK, so almonds don't have a direct link to triathlons. However, the athlete's diet is always of great importance. And almonds are an excellent, healthy snack. Low in carbs, high in protein, and full of vitamins. Almonds are the healthiest nuts that you can eat.

I've become addicted to Ranch flavor Sunkist Almond Accents. I can eat most of the 5 ounce bag in one sitting (because I am insanely in love with the taste). I call that a square meal. I love to eat foods that are high in carbs, so I'm excited that I have become crazy about almonds.

Around here, they can be purchased at Publix and Bruno's in the produce section.

Posted by megabeth at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)