With Spring almost here, I decided to bring the grill out of the garage and clean it up. As soon as it is warm enough to be outside without a jacket, I will be using the grill to cook dinner. I love food cooked on the grill – it adds a special flavor to the meats that you just can’t duplicate on the stove or in the oven. I also like to use marinades on the meats if i am going to be grilling. So I will have a much larger variety of flavors for all the different meats very soon.

I can’t remember what day it was, but recently I was watching a morning news program for a few minutes and they were talking about healthy food. The expert of the day was telling the audience that the 100 calorie snack packs were not good for you… I don’t remember what the reason was because I immediately started remembering how a couple of months ago on the same show there was a different food expert who was raving about the 100 calorie snack packs. I don’t know if they are good or bad, I’m no expert, but I don’t make a habit of buying a lot and eating a lot of them.

Having said that, I DO keep some in the house for the rare occasion that I have the craving for a small snack. I know the unit price is more expensive, but in the long run it is better than buying a large bag of something and then only eating a little bit and throwing the rest away because it goes stale. And it’s better for you than opening a large bag and eating the whole thing because you don’t want to waste food by letting it go stale! So, I think that the 100 calorie snack packs are a good thing if used in moderation. I just enjoyed a 100 calorie Hostess carrot cake snack pack. It was yummy and I don’t feel guilty at all!

Healthy foods make me ill
I’m a paradox. If it is supposed to be good for you, it makes me ill. I can’t tolerate olives, or olive oil, consuming either makes me ill for days on end. You would not believe how hard it is to go out to eat nowadays because of that – so many restaurants now are trying to convert to “healthy” cooking, which involves cooking with olive oil! There have been times when I’ve been out with friends and we’ve gone into a restaurant they all want to try out and there turns out to be absolutely not one single thing on the menu I can eat – every single thing has been prepared with olive oil! And it is embarrassing to go to church pot-luck dinners and have to ask everyone if any dishes had been prepared with olives or olive oil. Of course then EVERYONE wants to know details of EXACTLY what happens when I eat it – very annoying.

And don’t even get me started on the smell of lavender – the plant that is supposed to relax you and help you fall asleep. One whiff of that and I’m running for the bathroom to toss my cookies!

Sometimes I think my body hates me!

Several years ago the “big hype” was about how people who are concerned about their health should eat bagels for breakfast. Somehow bagels were considered to be “good for you.” The only way I could ever enjoy eating a bagel was if it was loaded up with cream cheese. I have to admit that the fat free cream cheese on the market is very tasty, so that health issue of too much fat in cream cheese is a moot point in this post. Fat free cream cheese on a bagel tastes pretty good. But I have noticed that it is very hard to get a nice soft bagel – most of them are about as hard as a rock! And to be honest, I really don’t enjoy eating rocks! And I’ve noticed that every time I eat a bagel, when I go look at myself in a mirror and smile there is a ton of bagel and cream cheese smiling back at me, stuck between my teeth! Not a pretty sight!

I much prefer eating muffins – they are softer and easier to eat and require no cream cheese. And muffins do not get stuck between my teeth! So if the choice is between a bagel and a muffin, give me a muffin! Unless, of course it is a crummy bran muffin that tastes terrible. I like lemon poppy seed muffins, or cranberry orange muffins the best!

One of my favorite products in the world is the Hershey’s Good Night Kisses Hot Chocolate mix.  It is 99% caffeine free, and I like to drink it at night before bedtime.  It is sweet and soothing and I believe that it helps me to sleep because I mix it up with milk instead of water.  After all, the old folk wisdom is that a warm glass of milk will help you sleep at night seems to be true for me, and the fact that the Hot Chocolate is 99% caffeine free I don’t worry about the caffeine keeping me awake.

The problem that I have with the product is that often times the grocery store that I buy it from is out of stock for weeks at a time.  When I do find it on the shelves I usually buy three or four boxes.  But I ran out of it two weeks ago and the store hasn’t had it on the shelves the last three times I’ve gone shopping!  So I guess the next time I find it on the shelves I’ll buy every single box they have!