Ratin’ Fast Food
 by: Ed Williams

Sometimes I get the strangest emails. A couple of days ago, I had a woman write and ask me if I’d consider writing some restaurant reviews. She said she felt that most restaurant critics are highbrow types, and that it’d be a nice change if “a regular person” wrote some reviews. She then went on to suggest that I should start with the fast food chains first, then write about more locally based restaurants later.

Hmmmmm. Her idea is intriguing, but, to be honest, I genuinely wonder if ya’ll will give two flips as to what my opinions are regarding some of the fast food chains. On the other hand, the only way I’m gonna find out is to write about a few of them and see. So, without any further ado, here’s my take on some of the major fast food chains and their offerings:

Ci-Ci’s Pizza: If you don’t want to pay $19.95 for the “Bum Fights” video, just shell out around four bucks and check out the “all you can eat” buffet at Ci-Ci’s around dinner time.

Dairy Queen: The most underrated hamburger/fast food chain of them all. The burgers are great, plus, look at all their soda fountain choices – all kinds of sundaes and shakes. On top of that, these people make the best banana splits in the world. If you want to go to a particularly great location, try the Dairy Queen in Forsyth, Georgia. The food is great, and one or two of the women there are so good lookin’ that they’ll make you lose your religion. A close second is the McCrae, Georgia DQ, the only problem there being that the women don’t flirt as much.

Hardee’s: The worst hamburgers in the world, they’re even drier than a KMart shoe. Their milkshakes used to be the one thing that made them worth an occasional shot, but they’ve even screwed those up now. For all you teenaged guys out there who want to break up with your girlfriend but can’t figure out how to do it, just take her out to a Hardee’s to eat the next time you go on a date. When she finishes eating, she’ll beg you to both take her home and get out of her life.

Krystal: I adore Krystal, but getting some ketchup packets out of ’em is like stealing gold from Fort Knox.

McDonald’s: The food sucks, the decor is worse, and you’d better get ready to inventory your bag if you order more than two items utilizing their drive-thru. My money says that McDonald’s will end up being the Edsel of the fast food business.

Nu-Way: The best hot dogs in the world, and really shouldn’t be included in this list. Anybody knows that a Nu-Way is a gourmet treat, not a fast food offering.

Sonic: I love the Sonic! First, the old drive-in concept appeals to me, and they have some monster foot long hot dogs. They cover ‘em up in chili, add on a ton of fries, and will even bring a bucket of ketchup out to you if you want it. You also have the advantage of being able to sneak a smooch from your sweetie if the mood hits.

Steak and Shake: I love their food, but the one I patronize just got a bad health department rating because most of the cockroaches in middle Georgia seem to be congregating there. It shalt be a while before I return.

Subway: Great food, lots of choices, and you can actually watch your sandwich being put together. The only thing is, be careful when you ask for the jalapenos – they’re mega hot, and will cause your stomach to sing like Kate Smith just a few hours after you’ve eaten them.

Taco Bell: I love the food, and the prices can’t be beat. The only thing I don’t like about Taco Bell is when you pull up to the drive-thru, they’ll say something to you like, “Hello, welcome to Taco Bell, would you like to try our Gonzo Burrito?” If you’re not paying attention and forget to say “no,” you’ll end up with some very strange items in your bag.

Folks, I’ve got even more eatin ‘places I’d like to talk about, but, columns can only be so long, and I’ve about met my word limit for this week. Just remember, these are my opinions, just my opinions, and I’m sure some of ya’lls differ. But, as for me, as Ed Jr. says, if it quacks like a duck, and has feathers like a duck, well…..

About The Author

Ed’s latest book, “Rough As A Cob,“ can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll-free at: 877-408-7078. He’s also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: ed3@ed-williams.com, or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com.

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I know you are making these fat loss mistakes because I did too! Based on my experience from losing over 80 pounds and finally keeping it off, here are some tips for avoiding these common dieting mistakes.

YOU ARE TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH TOO SOON

Trying to go from Sedentary Slob to Super Dieter on a Monday morning? Not so smart. It is a great way to ensure you will be back to the couch by mid-day Wednesday. You can’t expect to undo years worth of damage overnight.

If you typically eat three meals per day, start slowly by adding a snack – either before or after lunch, then ease your way to six smaller meals every 2-3 hours. This approach to fat loss is called kaizen, a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. Making a small change once a day or once a week leads to a constant state of improvement.

YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE QUICK FIX

I was convinced I had a Loch Ness Monster in my colon and that was making me fat! But the colon cleanser I purchased only left me with a very sore butt, some leafy-looking things in the toilet and not a single pound lost.

Now I was convinced that I needed a deluxe fat burner – one that would melt away the fat while I sat on my butt doing nothing!

After thousands of dollars and lots of false hope, I realized that the only way I was going to achieve the lean body that I desired was to come up with a solid nutrition and exercise plan, and to add supplements that were backed by solid science.

YOU ARE LETTING OTHERS KNOCK YOU OFF-TRACK

My family is full of enablers – they mean well, but they were not sensitive to the fact that I was trying to stay on track with my fat loss efforts. “C’mon a little bit won’t hurt” or “you can diet tomorrow” was all it took to convince me to eat. Within 30 minutes I had eaten myself stupid and undone all of the positive progress that I had spent the past week achieving.

Let those around you know how important it is for you to lose weight and what it means to both you, and them, if you do not achieve your goals.

YOU ARE NOT GETTING BACK “ON THE WAGON” IMMEDIATELY AFTER FALLING OFF

I would usually fall off my diet toward the end of any given week. It was at that point that I rationalized that, since I was “off the wagon” I would wait until Monday to get started again!

This probably won’t come as a big shock, but science now has proven that weekends can wreak havoc on your waistline. That was the conclusion of Washington University researchers, who found that even people on strict diet and exercise programs lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends.

The verdict: People do not need a holiday as an excuse to eat more; they tend to do it every weekend because human lifestyle patterns can be very different.

There were two key takeaways for me from this:

1. The best time to get back “on the wagon” was at your next meal – do not wait until you’ve done more damage.

2. Do not let the weekends be different than any other day – stick with your plan whether it is a Saturday or a Wednesday

YOU ARE TRYING TO BE PERFECT EVERY DAY

Life is not perfect – and your diet plan shouldn’t be either. You can’t expect yourself to follow your program to the letter every second of every day until you reach your goal. If you do, you will ultimately fail. That is why you need to apply the 90/10 rule to your nutrition and exercise.

The 90/10 rule is very simple – if you are on your program 90% of the time, then you will not be hurt by the 10% of the time you are not. Your weight loss diet should include a minimum of 5 meals per day, with 6 meals being ideal. Following the 90/10 rule with 6 meals a day (or 42 meals a week) means that you have 4 meals a week where you can go off your program without halting progress, as long as those meals are reasonable.

Same rules apply to exercise. Let’s say your schedule permits you to work out 4 days per week. In a month, you would have 16 workouts – and following the 90/10 rule, you can miss 1 or 2 workouts without derailing yourself. However, you should save your “skips” for times when you really need to skip – like a poor night’s sleep, illness, or hectic travel schedule.

YOU ARE NOT SETTING REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

It took you your entire life to get to this point, and you expect to reverse all of the damage in 3 weeks? That is what a lot of diet products would like you to believe.

You absolutely MUST set goals, but they MUST be realistic. What is realistic? one to two pounds of fat per week is a reasonable goal. The more you have to lose, the higher you can set your weekly expectations. But if you are approaching double-digits with your expectations, you will ultimately fail.

About The Author

Matt is a fat loss authority and author of The Burrito Diet, the diet plan that helped him lose 80 pounds in only 8 months and maintain his low body fat level for over 3 years. Matt conquered his life-long struggle with his weight by harnessing the power of the burrito – find out more about his amazing story at http://burritodiet.com

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Restaurants With The Best Salsa?

If you ask anybody that loves Mexican Food, they’ll tell you, without any doubt, their favorite place for salsa. I know I have my favorite spots. Some like fancy restaurants and others like taco shops. I prefer taco shops. Here, in San Diego, you can find hundreds of Mexican Restaurants (if not thousands) and they all have different tasting salsa. The shady taco shops have this orange type salsa that is delicious. These taco shops with the orange type salsa tend to end in “to’sԅlike “Roberto’s”, “Alberto’s” and there is even a “Albertacos”, which seems to be a combination of “Alberto” and “Tacos” and their food is out of this world including their salsa.

You can find Albertacos in Orange County and San Diego. The one characteristic that is true about any good taco shop is that it will be busy (and I mean a 20 minute wait in a long line) around 2am (when the bars and clubs let out). If you go to a taco shop and there isn’t a line, keep on driving. A favorite late night spot in San Diego is El Cotixan…called Coti’s for short. If you go there, get the California Burrito (a carne asada burrito with either potato chunks or french fries) and the Nachos. Isn’t this story about salsa? So, back to salsa, the restaurants tend to have chunkier salsa with big chunks of tomatoes and onions. Probably healthier and definitely very tasty. Everybody has tried taco bell salsa and I guess people like it. Have you seen Taco Bell hot sauce at the grocery store? Isn’t that strange? Is Taco Bell hot sauce really so good that it should be bottled and sold at the grocery store? Same goes for El Torito salsa. I think some of these salsas from taco shops would do quite well in grocery stores.

However, we should make a distinction between salsa and hot sauce. I tend to like hot sauce more than I like salsa. You can’t really eat salsa with a taco or with a burrito. It’s too chunky and not hot enough for my liking. Hot sauce is definitely lighter and tangier and definitely hotter. There are stores that specialize in hot sauces. There is the “Tears of Joy” hot sauce store and The Sweat Shop, which both can be found online and many others on the web. Since San Diego is so close to Mexico, I’ve heard of people driving down to Tijuana and eating at the taco carts on the street. I’ve never done this, but i’ve heard they are really good and cheap. There is a pla
1000
ce in San Diego (National City) where they specialize in pork stomach tacos. I can’t remember the name now, but if you know it, please email me.

I’d probably have to have extra hot hot sauce with my pork stomach taco, but i’ve heard they are really good. I’ve heard Mexican food on the east coast of the United States is not very good. I wonder if it’s good, but different or just not good at all. I know that Mexican food varies from region to region within the United States, but I haven’t tried Mexican food outside of California. Please write me and let me know what’s good in your neighborhood. Regardless of where you are from, hot sauce and salsa are probably one of your favorite condiments.

By: Razvan Jr

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Michael K. Sasaki is the founder of RecipeMatcher – www.recipematcher.com where you can find delicious salsa recipes , crock pot recipes, barbecue recipes and many more.

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How to Wean Your Kid from the Junk Food Joneses
 by: Phil Goglia

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “Keeping up with the Joneses.” It used to mean creating a life-style that had quality, pizzazz, and followed the “trends.” But what if you live in a culture where “the Joneses” our kids see every day on TV commercials and Read the rest of this entry »

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Habanero’s Mexican Kitchen

869 N. Mayfair Rd.

Wauwatosa, Wi

This new restaurant just opened in Wauwatosa. It’s an independently owned restaurant that serves traditional mexican food and beverages. It has an outside patio and a full bar. Look on the floor once you go in, it has a hole in the floor covered with glass. In the hole are lighted shelves with liquor on them. Read the rest of this entry »

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Breast Cancer Treatment: Surviving Chemotherapy
 by: Melissa Buhmeyer

Chemotherapy is a word that strikes fear into most of our hearts. We’ve seen the movies and heard such horrible stories about undergoing this difficult treatment for a disease that could very well kill us. I underwent chemo for breast cancer and know that, in some cases, the cancer isn’t hard Read the rest of this entry »

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I hope you’ve been enjoying my posts lately. I thought I might do something different today and rustle up a few bits of info from around the WWW. These are some of the news items and blog posts that have been popular over the last few weeks. Leave me your thoughts.

Kid Friendly: Burrito Pie « What’s 4 Dinner Solutions

When I create my weekly menus, I always make Friday Read the rest of this entry »

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By the time you finish reading this you will be shocked by the calorie, fat ad sodium content in the popular fast food items you may order. You will also know the best fast food items to order if you stop for fast food.

The hectic life people lead forces even the healthiest of eaters to eat out every now and then. When you eat fast food how bad or good are the things Read the rest of this entry »

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1. Using Beans in Slow Cooker Recipes

   by
   
   KC Kudra

   It might interest you to know that beans played a major role in the development of the crockpot. This was because beans take a long time to cook and many people resort to buying pre-cooked beans rather than cooking their own.

2. How to Make Souffle in a Crockpot Read the rest of this entry »

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All You Need To Know About Mexican Cooking Equipment And Utensils

Perhaps you have eaten Mexican food in a top quality Mexican restaurant or even in a Mexican home. If you have, maybe some authentic Mexican cookware or utensils were used to make the dishes. Mexicans use a range of different cooking methods, including baking, slow roasting and deep-frying and Read the rest of this entry »

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