Effective ways of Grocery shopping

     It can get overwhelming and hectic when you are going grocery shopping, deciding on what you should buy, budget, how long the food will last, how long the food will spoil etc.  I came up with a system where it will save you some effective time, money and just makes grocery shopping a bit more fun.
      Before I go out to do my daily grocery shopping, I look around the kitchen and write down a list of things that I must need that I don't have.  For example, If I ran out of coffee, that will be on the the list, I definitely need coffee in the morning or I will not have a good day.  Then write down other things that  you would like to get at the grocery store, like a bag of candy, chips, or cookies.  Remember if you are on a budget, write down your budget on top of the paper so you know not to over spend.
      At the grocery store, I like to take a cart just because it's more convenient to put the foods in your cart rather than hauling it around everywhere you go.  First, get the foods you need, the foods you don't have any at your house and is essential.  Get those necessities first that way you won't forget later.  When buying groceries keep in mind that the cheapest isn't always the best, and the most expensive types aren't the best either.  When I go out and shop, I look for healthier choice brands, the good kinds, not the best but yet not the worst.  If their's two types of milk, for example, whole milk for $2.99 or 2% less fat with omega 3, for
$3.99 I will get the 2% less fat with omega 3.  It's up to you on what you like but take into consideration that big brand name products are not always the best.
      After you grab all your necessary foods move on to your other foods, the reason why you are getting these last is because if you are getting over your budget you can start cutting back on the other foods.  These types of foods are the foods that you enjoy, it doesn't have to be the best, as long as they taste good and suites your taste buds then theirs no difference between $2.00 cookies vs $3.00 cookies if they are the same size and same type of cookies.
      Creating a list of all the groceries you need saves time and saves you from finding and thinking of all the things you need.  Shopping with friends is a great way to make grocery shopping more fun.  Invite a few friends over for lunch or dinner and go grocery shopping together, it's more enjoyable and more fun that way.

Quick bites for those who are in a rush in the morning

      Many of us sometimes are in such a rush either to work or school that we forget to eat breakfast.  I cannot stress enough about how bad, very bad that is for you and your body, your stomach will be in starvation mode and you will not function properly if you don't have something to eat.  Here are some tips on grabbing and going when you're on a rush.
Pack some food the day before you have something important going on.  If you know you have to wake up early in the morning for something important, pack some breakfast the night before your trip.  That way in case you overslept, you will have some food packed already and ready to go.
Grab something that is easy to eat or prepare for later.  If you didn't follow the first step and ended up being in a rush, grab something you can eat on your way, grab a granola bar, poptarts or some bread.  Don't upset your stomach by not feeding it.   If you just seriously don't have time to eat in the morning, take something for later, so that at least you have some food to munch on when your hungry later.
Grab and go at restaurants.  Don't feel like or have time to  make breakfast?  Find a breakfast place that has a drive thru, and order from the drive thru, it's convenient, and saves a lot of time, of course unless it's busy.
Buy some quick foods.  When you're shopping for groceries, buy some foods that are the type that you can grab and go, and easy to eat.  For example, the Lunchables are easy to eat and you could take with you, poptarts, raisin breads, bagels, microwavable breakfast foods or muffins.  
Eat something, anything for breakfast.  Breakfast doesn't mean you need to have breakfast type foods, pancakes, bacon, or omelettes.  As long as you eat something for breakfast that will fill your stomach, your stomach will be happy.  Your stomach is not going to reject the food you're feeding just because it's not breakfast food, it won't know the difference, food is food.
      Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it's important to eat something when you're heading out and starting your adventure for the day.  Breakfast eaters are a lot more happier, and have more energy than those non breakfast eaters.   Remember if you're in a rush, grab something, anything with you so that you won't be starved.

Organic food vs Inorganic food

      Eating organic is very beneficial to your health, your not only getting all the nutrients you need, but also your not ingesting all the pesticides and chemical fertilizers that farmers put into their produce.  Organic farmers use traditional ways to grow their produce without using any chemical fertilizers or growth hormones to advance and grow the foods we eat.  People buy organic foods because their are no additives added, no pesticides and because of environmental reasons, organic practices are designed to benefit the environment, reducing pollution, conserving water and soil quality.  Although organic foods are a bit more expensive because of the labor that goes into it, you can taste the difference between the organics and the inorganic.  For example a tomato from a regular grocery store is different from the tomatoes that you might grow at home.  The inorganic tomato at the grocery store is bigger, perfect looking, it taste a bit more sour, while the organic tomato is more red, a lot smaller, not as perfect looking but you can taste the natural tomato flavor, it's sweeter and softer.  You can taste the difference between organic foods and inorganic foods, I personally think that organic foods taste much better than inorganic foods.  Many people are eating more organic foods and many grocery stores have an organic section, where they sell all different types of organic and healthy food.  Here in Cedar Rapids the Newbo Market in downtown sell fresh local grown organic vegetables and fruits that you may like, they are delicious and healthy.

      If some organic foods are harder to find in your cities, you can grow your own fruits and veggies.  Growing your own fruits and veggies, you know exactly what your doing to what your going to be eating, and it's less expensive.  If your going to plant your own veggies and fruits make sure you know what kind of fruits and vegetables are suitable for a certain season.  You wouldn't want to grow tomatoes in the fall because they're not suitable for the weather.       Whether your eating inorganic foods or organic foods it's important to know what exactly are you eating and always remember to read the labels CAREFULLY, sellers would try to get you to buy the words even if they have to twist their words around.  All natural does not mean organic, all natural assures you of a little organic,  tells you you’re buying food made without the use of toxic persistent pesticides, GMOs, antibiotics, or artificial growth hormones.  In order for a food to be organic the food was made with a set of farming and production practices defined and regulated, in great detail, by the USDA. 

Kids competing to become Iron Chef

     You don't have to be a certain age to get the title of Iron Chef, this year their has been many TV shows of kids ages 8-12 from all over the nation competing for the title of Iron Chef.  The kids create healthy, delicious, and creative dishes for the judges and they are judged on creativity, appearance, and taste.  The winner of the competition gets the title of Junior Iron Chef, and a scholarship to any culinary school they choose.
      If you've seen shows like Iron Chef of America or Chopped, you know how difficult it is to create something from scratch with the ingredients given to you.  The kids are under a ton of pressure, and it's not easy to create something within a certain time.  Planning and speed are two important factors that those kids have to know and master in order to win the competition.  In order to be in the competition you have to be chosen, you apply for the competition and the judges look to see if you have potential and then you're selected to be in the competition.  It's hard to get in, but harder to stay in.  I think it's great how cooking channels are giving the opportunity for kids to compete and cook, I think it's a great experience for those passionate young cooks who want to be a chef one day.  Of course being in the competition is competitive and it gets emotional sometimes.  Getting eliminated is the worst thing for those kids and they might feel like a failure.  However I think the most important thing for the kids in the competition is that they've  learned something new that they didn't know a clue about walking into the competition. 
     I think the best part of the competition is the judges interaction with the kids.  Chefs like Rachel Ray, and Gordon Ramsay teach the kids to become a better cook one on one, teaching them skills as well as giving them tips on perfecting their dishes. 
     Some of the dishes that the kids made were just incredible, it looked really good, they were creative with their dish, and I was just surprised that a kid could create something so unique from nothing.  Those kids are definitely passionate about cooking and enjoy cooking, and I think that they are doing a great job. 

Raw Sushi

     A couple years back, my parents and I went to a really nice Japanese restaurant in Chicago to try out there sushi.  My parents immediately fell in love with the sushi they served, they loved the appearance of the dish and the freshness of the raw fish.  I on the other hand could not imagine putting something raw in my mouth, the thought of that really disturbed me.  I was okay with the cooked rolls, but when it comes to raw rolls ,sashimi or nigiri, I just can't eat it.  Many people either love the raw rolls or hate it, the people who love them say that it doesn't taste fishy or you can't even taste the raw fish in the rolls.  I guess it wasn't that really bothered me, what bothered me was the fact that I am eating something raw, I just can't get over that! What

     I've heard from most people is that raw fish taste better than cooked fish.  As much as I hated raw sushi, i went and tried it to see if it was true.  I went to a sushi restaurant and ordered a couple of sashimis and nigiris.  Surprisingly I ate the whole thing, and to be honest, it was really good, (if you've never tried raw sushi I suggest you do, you will fall in love with it) I never thought I could like something that I could not get over the rawness of the sushi.  You could say that the theory produced by the sushi lovers are true.  The raw fish is really delicate, softer than the cooked fish, and it just melts in your mouth.  It's not flaky and it doesn't fall apart easily.    

     When eating raw sushi I suggest dipping it in wasabi and soy sauce, it just adds a zing to your roll and you are less likely to notice the fishiness flavor of the raw fish.  I don't really like the ginger that comes with the sushi, because I am  not a ginger lover, but most people love it because it kind of soothes the wasabi.  What I like to do when I am out dining at a sushi restaurant is to ask the chef to make me something that's not on the menu, anything that he wants to make, I am never disappointed at the chef, every time it's delicious, beautiful and definitely filling.  From that moment that I tried raw sushi, I fell in love, it was definitely very appetizing, it may not sound appetizing but trust me it's appetizing. 

Unique eats around the world-China

    Different places around the world have different types of food , but some of those dishes are a bit unique or exotic to some of us, however to them, it's a delicacy.  Some of the unique dishes around the world has been around for more than a century or even longer than that.  I personally have tried a few of those unique foods before, but they were not as exotic as the ones that I've seen on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman.  I don't know how anyone could eat some of the things he ate on his trip around the world.  On one of his trips, he went to China and explored some of the different types of food there.  Some foods are not so strange, others, are quite strange, but to them, it's food. It kind of amazed me of all the different types of food that were eaten in China, from imperial dishes to street foods and other foods that the Chinese believed would help your body become healthy. 
    The first time when my parents went to Beijing, they told me all these stories about how different Chinese food was in China compared the Chinese food in America.  The Chinese food that you get at restaurants are Americanized Chinese food, you won't find those in any of the places in China.  In Beijing, there's food courts, street vendors and restaurants almost everywhere you go.  You can buy grasshoppers, crickets, maggots, any bug you can think of on a skewers to raw sea urchins.  I've never tried bugs or raw sea urchins before but I heard from the people who have tried it, that the bugs are very crunchy, poky in your mouth and you can almost taste what the bugs ate before you ate them.  Sea urchins on the other hand taste like the sea, you just know that it came from the ocean, it's rather fishy, most people either like it or hate it.  Depending on the freshness of the Sea urchin, it should taste rather creamy sweet.
     In the city, you can find a few imperial restaurants,   imperial restaurants serve dishes that were previously served to emperors during the centuries.  The recipes for those dishes have been preserved and kept through generation after generation and now normal citizens can try the imperial dishes.  The appearance of the dishes are just way to beautiful, it just makes you not want to eat because of how beautiful it is.  When dining in and imperial restaurant, there's a huge round table and a big lazy Susan in the middle, the food is placed on the lazy Susan, so that guests could just spin to the dish they want instead of reaching for the food.  The décor of the restaurant definitely makes you feel like royalty and the dishes are different from what you might find from the streets in Beijing.  
     Whether it's in the streets of Beijing or at the fanciest restaurants, you can find unique foods everywhere.
    

Cooking- A type of art

     Many people might not believe me when I say that cooking is a type of art, but cooking is surely a type of art.  We have this image of art as paintings, drawings or sculptures that artists make, chefs are artists in many aspects and their food is their painting, drawing or sculpture.  Let's take a look at the T.V shows,  Iron Chef and Chopped on the Food Channel.  In Iron Chef, the chefs only have a certain amount of time to create a kind of food that suites the theme that is given and then is judged by the judges of the food's taste and appearance.  It does take some creativity, experience and  knowledge to create something from scratch to something extraordinary and edible.  Just as a painter with only paint and a canvas would create a piece with color and life that would capture our eyes, but in cooking it would capture our eyes, taste buds and smell.  Now take that further, some chefs like the contestants in Chopped have to use very unusual ingredients to create something that is not only phenomenal but has to fit with the foods provided perfectly.  There was one episode where they faced the challenge of cooking with an appetizer basket made up of eels, congealed pig’s blood, candy bats and potato crisps.  Now that takes some real skill and creativity.

     Culinary chefs have to know a lot about food, so that they know what kind of foods would go great with other kinds of foods, they don't master that right away because it takes experience and daring measures to create the perfect pair.  Just as a painter should know the kinds of brush strokes needed to paint, cooking is similar, chefs must learn the different cooking techniques to cook well.  It's the fundamental basics of cooking.  You basically go off of what you know about food and applying it through the different kinds of foods.  It's not easy, chefs are always experiencing with food and trying to get to know more of a particular kind of food.  Every chef is different in the type of food they make and they bring out their own creative dishes which often is unique.
     Chefs are professional cooks, it's their occupation to make food.  You don't have to be a chef to make good food, make what you like and suites you, have fun and get creative with cooking.  Be daring and experiment with foods so you know what you like and what you don't like.

The process of Becoming a Vegetarian

    I grew up in a household where my mom was vegetarian, and my dad, my brother and I weren't.   She had wanted all of us to become vegetarians for many reasons but we couldn't stand a meal without meat.  She finally gave up on persuading us to become a vegetarian.  I still remember that I became a vegetarian for one day and I gave up, I couldn't do it.  I still wonder how some people, like my mom who can stand eating only veggies, and how she still could get protein from the veggies.  
    Most people, like me dread of becoming a vegetarian because we simply just can't imagine a meal without chicken or steak, we like the taste of the tender juicy steak and the roasted chicken, or veggies can't give you protein.  That's not true,  their are many delicious vegetarian dishes that gives you more protein than the meats.   Becoming a vegetarian takes some serious commitment and it doesn't just happen right away, you have to take step by step on becoming one.  If you are considering on becoming one, ask yourself is their a reason why I am becoming a vegetarian?  People choose to become vegetarians because of religious, health, environmental, animal rights, and health reasons. Usually if you have a reason to become one you have a higher chance of being committed.  Being a vegetarian means having a different eating lifestyle, many restaurants have a limited vegetarian menu.  Are you ready for the change?  Becoming a vegetarian takes time and it's a process, you can't just decide all of a sudden to become one and change your diet. 
    If you still really want to become a vegetarian slowly adjust your diet by taking out specific meats out of your meals.  For example, try taking out red meat from your diet but not all meat because then you will be craving for meat.  Try eating without any red meat for a few weeks and when you get used to the meals without any red meat start pulling back on chicken, then pork and so on.  Usually it takes months before you become an actual vegetarian.  If that takes too long, think about becoming a Pescetarian first, eating only seafood and veggies.  You're basically taking all of the meat out of your diet and that might be hard for some people.  If you decide to become a pescetarian, instead of a vegetarian during the process, it's ok.  Many people are pescetarians because they love seafood and can't take it out of their diet.  Start eating vegetarian meals, so you could have a feel of what it feels like and your body will be use to it.  Keep a journal for 30 days of all the foods you ate and plan on adding different kinds of veggies to you're foods.
         Becoming a vegetarian gives you an opportunity to get creative with cooking, adding, replacing, substituting foods that you've never had before.  Have fun with it and remember that becoming a vegetarian takes time and effort. 

350 first, the new restaurant in Cedar Rapids

     There were rumors about a new restaurant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Located on 350 first ave. in downtown Cedar Rapids has attracted many in town and out of town folks.  The restaurant is in the Double Tree hotel, on the 16th floor.  As you walk inside you can see the whole downtown area and the Cedar River.  The restaurant has full panel glass windows that oversees Cedar Rapids.  There's a lounge area, a bar, and a dining area, although it's small, the decor and ambiance are phenomenal, there's a modern twist in the design of the restaurant that makes it upscale.  The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, price range for breakfast is about $10-$20, lunch $12-$25 and dinner from $20 all the way up to about $40.  Many people who go there come back because of the exceptional service and the food.  They serve a variety of foods, from the short rib mac and cheese to the Kansas city strip and the cedar plank salmon.  My personal favorite is the short rib mac and cheese.  The mac and cheese is made from five cheeses and served with the short rib on top with a sprinkle of bread crumbs.  The mac and cheese has barbecue flavoring from the short rib and the bread crumb adds a little crunch to it.  I also like there 350 chopped salad, the salad dressing is honey Dijon vinaigrette, so it's a bit sweeter but also a bit sour.  The salad is tossed with sweet corn, carrots, red onions, different kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, and croutons.  If you have never tried the steaks there, they are to die for.  They have the flat iron steak, which is similar to the New York strip steak, the Kansas city strip, which is thicker and has bones, the filet mignon, tender and lean, the rib-eye,  which has a bit more fat. You can choose the sauces or the spices with the different kinds of steak, which make it more unique.  For those of you who have never been there, I suggest you go and try it out, the food is amazing and you will love it.  It's a bit expensive but you're getting what you pay for, it's worth it.

What makes a good restaurant good?

   You are finally at your favorite restaurant, you've been excited to come since this morning, and you haven't been eating all day.  You love the food, the atmosphere and the people there, they are friendly and take care of your every need, and they make you want to come back again and again.  This place just makes you feel warm and special.   These are some of the factors that make a good restaurant good. 

    When you first walk into a restaurant, the first impression is probably what you notice first, then the atmosphere and the décor.  This is the time when the friendly host at the restaurant greets you and makes you feel welcomed and at home, and guides you to your seat.  That is a good impression on the restaurant.  You don't want to be greeted in an unpleasantly way that will disturb your mood later on.  As you are seated at your table, the friendly server asks for your drinks, and takes your order, she brings the foods, refills your drinks.  She asks you if you would want anything else, you want another glass, some ketchup, so she goes and gets your glass and ketchup.  Throughout your meal, you continue to ask her for things, she still maintains a positive attitude and gets what you need in a polite manner.  In a good restaurant, the waiter or waitress should be friendly and nice, and also caring, satisfying the needs of the customers.  This is the time where you decide if the server is worth the 15% tip you are going to give her.  As she brings your food out, you notice the appearance, and the smell, as you take a bite after bite you begin to love the food.  The food in a restaurant is the most important thing in determining whether or not a restaurant is good.  In a good restaurant there are a varieties of food you can choose from with different distinct tastes.  You would not want your steak to be cooked in the same way as a lobster, or would you want all the foods to taste the same just with the different texture.  The chef of the restaurant is important too, you would want a chef that cares about what he is cooking and makes sure that  your food turns out edible and good.  That's why it's important for a restaurant to hire a good chef or cook that knows how to make food.  Ambience is important too when dining out, the mood, quality, look and conditions of the place adds up to your appetite.  I don't think that a good restaurant would be filthy, dirty, unsanitary or obnoxious.  What makes a good restaurant good is the fact that, there food tastes unique, phenomenal and suites your taste, having good ambience, and have friendly  people serving you like they care and meets your needs.