Today's Chuck Norris Fact:
There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Oklahoma.
This has been a pretty difficult summer, primarily because the house we're renting here in Westminster has no air conditioning. Our best friend the property manager tried to get us to pay an extra $50 in rent, and the owner would install AC, but we politely refused. We frankly weren't going to subsidize the owner's improvements. Frankly, the place should already have AC, anyway; I don't understand how anyone would get a home, even here where the climate is relatively mild in the summer, and not have AC put in. In Oklahoma this is unthinkable, and it's certainly been unthinkable here in this summer, as we've gone through one of Colorado's hottest summers on record.
Even worse, our house has really good insulation, as the upstairs becomes an oven during a typical afternoon. We've tried many measures to keep the place cool; extra fans, leaving windows open during the day, nothing really works well. I have one of those digital atomic clock/outside temp/inside temp/barometer clocks, and it currently shows a wonderful 70.6 degrees outside, and a whopping 83.7 degrees inside. Not such a big deal, except it's about 10:30 pm here. (Yes, that's with the windows open and everything.) I'm sitting next to the open back door, so it's not too bad here, but once I move upstairs for bed, it won't be quite so pleasant.
We moved in just over a year ago, at the beginning of last August, and so we didn't really have to deal with the worst of it last summer. I will say, though, from now on, any home I live in must have AC, period.
I have a theory about any meal you have to prepare yourself. I've thought a great deal about this over the past several years, really since I got into the workforce and had to face making and taking my own lunches. Once I moved out, the theory really intensified as I had to cook for myself all the time again. So here's my theory: every meal you make yourself has a combination of four attributes. Those attributes are quick and easy to make, inexpensive, tasty, and healthy. Now, these are relative attributes, as they really only compare to other meals. The meat of the theory (pardon the pun) is that every meal has at least two, and three can be achieved relatively easily. However, it is nearly impossible to achieve all four in one meal. Prepackaged food mixes like Rice-A-Roni, Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken Helper, Uncle Ben's and the like have made it easier to reach for the magical four attributes, but almost always fall short, especially in the "healthy" attribute.
Let's look at some examples, specifically at things that normally make up my lunches these days.
1. Ramen -- ah, yes...the staple of any college student's or bachelor's diet. It is pretty tasty, it is definitely inexpensive, and at three minutes, it's quick and easy to make. Healthy? Not on your life; a single package of ramen contains roughly 35-40% of your daily allowance of sodium.
2. Spaghettios with Meatballs -- No snickering, please. I've eaten these since I was about 3 and have always loved them. Quick and easy? Doesn't get much quicker or easier than these; from can to mouth in about 2 minutes. Inexpensive? These days they're about a buck a can. Tasty? To me, these are like ambrosia from the gods. Healthy? Are you kidding? Couple the sodium with the cholesterol, and there are certainly healthier choices for lunch.
3. Dinty Moore beef stew -- this stuff is awesome!! I don't know what they put in it, but I love this and could eat it three times a week. Alas, it's all about like the spaghettios. Quick and easy, cheap, and tasty, but not too healthy.
4. Hamburger Helper -- as leftovers, these are great for lunch. However, while it's easier to make this than, say, eggs benedict, at 20-25 minutes per meal, this is not quick, expect as leftovers. It's fairly cheap; the meat is the biggest cost, and for one person, it's great to make a full batch and stretch it out over 2-3 meals. Hamburger Helper is VERY tasty, in my opinion; I've yet to find a flavor I didn't like. Again, though, we come up short in the "healthy" category; even if you use ground turkey instead of ground beef, the sodium content is a bit higher than I'd like.
5. Campbell's soup (with crackers) -- A definite classic. Always quick and easy, always cheap, and always tasty. Unfortunately, again, high sodium in the standard soups take away the healthiness of the soups. There are low-sodium versions of the soups, but they are very bland and thus don't meet the "tasty" criteria.
As you can see, it is most difficult to achieve the "healthy" rating. There are lots of healthy meals, but they almost always fall short in the other categories, particular cost. Ingredients for healthy meals are usually much more expensive than their non-healthy counterparts. And of course, healthier meals also tend to be somewhat more difficult and time-consuming to make, mostly because boxed/canned/prepackaged meals that are relatively quick and easy are almost never healthy. Trust me, I've hunted around. Maybe someday someone will find an answer to this and make something that meets all four golden criteria. With my luck, it would be Soylent Green.
Speaking of food, we went back to Oklahoma last month, of course, and it was wonderful. But something very humorous came up as a result, something that would only happen in Oklahoma (or perhaps elsewhere in the south), and especially with my family. Heidi and the kids came with me, and as Heidi hadn't spent a lot of time either in Oklahoma or with my family, there was a lot of getting-used-to to be done. Of course, now that Heidi and I are married, my family took this as a great opportunity to apply The Acid Test: FRIED OKRA. Heidi was plied with fried okra not once, not twice, but three times while we were there. My Aunt Diana and Grandma Cowan gave her fried okra while we ate with them out at Lake Fort Gibson. Then, Mom made some for dinner at my parents. Finally, we went back to the Rib Crib (the very site where I had the honor of asking Heidi to be my wife, and where I had the privilege and pleasure of hearing her answer yes), and my family had her try the fried okra there. Now, fried okra is a staple in my family, but the last few years, it has not come up on the menu while I've been there. To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of the stuff (I can hear my Okie brothers and sisters gasping now..."he doesn't like fried okra??? SACRILEGE!!!") So to have it pop up all those times, seemingly just for Heidi, was hilarious.
I have been using a very interesting site called Backpack. It's a nifty little site that does exactly what the name says; it holds stuff for you. You can do stuff there for free, or you can pay a few bucks a month and upgrade to a little better plan with more features. You can create lists of all kinds, leave notes (and even voice messages) for yourself, and you can e-mail directly to it so that if you need to send something along, you can hold it there. It has something called a "writeboard", which is like a web-based document that you can type in, edit, revise, roll back, and compare changes. You can use your backpack by yourself, or you can share it with others, or you can even share it with everyone. If you upgrade to one of the pay-for plans, you can even drop files there, post images, and use a calendar that you can import and export to from calendaring applications like Outlook or Netscape Calendar, and that will send you appointment reminders via e-mail, or even SMS to your cell phone. I highly recommend you check it out. I've been using it so far to hold a few little things like maintenance logs and info for my Land Rover, and ideas for things to blog about. So far it's been nice. Give it a try.
Thanks for reading along.
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