Alarming food facts...

 

Coconuts kill more people in the world than sharks do. 

Approximately 150 people are killed each year by coconuts.

The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.

Coca Cola was originally green.

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee.

Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.

 

 

Strawberries have more vitamin C than oranges.

So Random, but so interestingly weird...

Honey is the only food that does not spoil!

Peanuts are used in the creation of dynamite!

The dye used to stamp meat is edible, it is made from grape skins!

Just mind blowing....

To burn off one plain M&M candy, you need to walk the full length of a football field.

 

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Junk Food

10 Facts about Junk Food

...that scared me a little...

1. Junk food is typically defined as foods with little nutritional value that are high in calories, fat, sugar, salt, or caffeine. Junk food can include breakfast cereals, candies, chips, cookies, French fries, gum, hamburger, hot dogs, ice cream, sodas, and most sweet desserts.
2. The increase of junk food is directly associated with the increase in obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, certain cancers, tooth decay, and other diseases.
3. Fats from junk food trigger the brain to want more food. This effect can last for several days.
4. More than $2 billion of candy is sold for Halloween, more than any other holiday.
5. Almost 80% of food commercials aired on Saturday morning children shows are for junk food.
6. Today the United States has a $23 billion candy market. Candy sales have continued to increase despite concerns with junk food and obesity.
7. Hostess makes 500 million Twinkies a year.
8. The agent that gives Twinkies their smooth feel, cellulose gum, is also used in rocket fuel to give it a slightly gelatinous feel.
9. Corn dextrin, a common thickener used in junk food, is also the glue on envelopes and postage stamps.
10. The creamy middle of a Twinkie is not cream at all but mostly Crisco, which is vegetable shortening.

Disturbing Facts about Fast Food...=0

• Nearly 27 million Americans eat at McDonald's—per day.

• Every month, approximately nine out of 10 American children visit a McDonald's restaurant.

• In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food. In 2006, the spending rose to nearly $142 billion.

• Proportionally, hash browns have more fat and calories than a cheeseburger or Big Mac.

• McDonald's is Brazil’s largest employer.

• When McDonald's opened an outlet in Kuwait shortly after the end of the Gulf War, the line of cars waiting to eat there was seven miles long

• Burger King’s Double Whopper with cheese contains 923 calories. A man would need to walk for about nine miles to burn it off. Adding french fries and a large cola brings the total calories to an amazing 1,500 calories (2/3 of an adult man’s recommended daily caloric intake).

• French fries are the single most popular fast food in America. In 1970, french fries surpassed regular potato sales in the United States. In 2004, Americans ate 7.5 billion pounds of frozen french fries.

• McDonald's is the largest purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes and the second largest purchaser of chicken in the world. Its annual orders for french fries constitute 7.5% of America’s entire potato crop.

• McDonald's is one of the largest owners of real estate in the world and it earns the majority of its profits from collecting rent, not from selling food.

• By the end of the twentieth century, one out of eight American workers had at some time been employed by McDonald's and 96% of Americans had visited McDonald's at least once. It was also serving an estimated 22 million Americans every day and even more abroad.

• High-fructose corn syrup (which tricks your body into wanting to eat more and to store more fat) first appeared in 1967, and the average American now consumes 63 pounds of it a year. It is ubiquitous in fast foods.

• A McDonald’s’ corn muffin has more calories than a glazed donut. A small packet of Wendy’s honey mustard dressing has 280 calories.

• Today, Americans consume approximately 70 million “tater tots” a year. To burn off one serving (3 oz) of tater tots would take about 67 minutes of walking.

Just Truly Amazing

So amazing I had to share...

A row of corn always has an even number.

• An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.
  
  
• A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels.
  
  
• 100 bushels of corn produces approximately 7,280,000 kernels.
  
  
• Each year, a single U.S. farmer provides food and fiber for 129 people - 97 in the U.S. and 32 overseas.
  
  
• In the U.S., corn production measures more than 2 times that of any other crop.

Random Facts About Thanksgiving (Food)

1. President Jefferson called a federal Thanksgiving proclamation “the most ridiculous idea ever conceived.”
2. Held every year on the island of Alcatraz since 1975, “Unthanksgiving Day” commemorates the survival of Native Americans following the arrival and settlement of Europeans in the Americas.
3. The famous “Pilgrim and Indian” story featured in modern Thanksgiving narratives was not initially part of early Thanksgiving stories, largely due to tensions between Indians and colonists.
4. The turkeys typically depicted in Thanksgiving pictures are not the same as the domestic turkeys most people eat at Thanksgiving. Domestic turkeys usually weigh twice as much and are too large to fly.
5. The average long-distance Thanksgiving trip is 214 miles, compared with 275 miles over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.
6. Americans eat roughly 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
7. The Pilgrim’s thanksgiving feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. It lasted three days and included 50 surviving pilgrims and approximately 90 Wampanoag Indians, including Chief Massasoit. Their menu differed from modern Thanksgiving dinners and included berries, shellfish, boiled pumpkin, and deer.
8. Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.
9. In 2007, George W. Bush granted a pardon to two turkeys named May and Flower The tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys began in 1947, though Abraham Lincoln is said to have informally started the practice when he pardoned his son’s pet turkey.
10. Not all States were eager to adopt Thanksgiving because some thought the national government was exercising too much power in declaring a national holiday. Additionally, southern States were hesitant to observe what was largely a New England practice.
 
11. Thanksgiving football games began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.
12. Established in 1924, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ties for second as the oldest Thanksgiving parade. The Snoopy balloon has appeared in the parade more often than any other character. More than 44 million people watch the parade on TV each year and 3 million attend in person.
13. Baby turkeys are called poults. Only male turkeys gobble and, therefore, are called gobblers.
14. In 2009, roughly 38.4 million Americans traveled more than 50 miles to be with family for Thanksgiving. More than four million flew home.
15. Thanksgiving Day is actually the busiest travel day, even more so than the day before Thanksgiving, as most people believe.
16. Thanksgiving can occur as early as November 22 and as late as November 28.^d
17. The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday largely because stores hope the busy shopping day will take them out of the red and into positive profits. Black Friday has been a tradition since the 1930s.

Turkey Day

Some interesting facts about the Star of Thanksgiving, the Turkey!!!

• The Guinness Book of Records states that the greatest dressed weight recorded for a turkey is 39.09 kg (86 lbs), at the annual "heaviest turkey" competition held in London, England on December 12, 1989.

• Fifty percent of Americans put the stuffing inside the Turkey.

• Fossil evidence shows that turkeys roamed the Americas 10 million years ago.

• 91% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

• Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead.

• Turkey is the traditional dish for the Thanksgiving feast. In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations. There is no official reason or declaration for the use of turkey. They just happened to be the most plentiful meat available at the time of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, starting the tradition.

• The preliminary estimate of the number of turkeys raised in the United States in 2005 is 256 million. That’s down 3 percent from 2004. The turkeys produced in 2004 weighed 7.3 billion pounds altogether and were valued at $3.1 billion.

• Turkeys were one of the first animals in the Americas to be domesticated.

• A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds.

Something a little weird to think about...

The flavor of bubble gum comes from the fusion of vanilla, wintergreen and cassia, a form of cinnamon. 

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Did you know?

Chips are probably one of my favorite snack foods, so I found this fact incredibly interesting!!!!

In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.

      Cost of 1lb. of potato chips  = 200 x Cost of 1lb. of Potatoes 

A Twist On Mac-N-Cheese

I posted before on how much family means to me. Recipes are often passed down through members of the family. One recipe I have in my collection is an original twist on Mac-N-Cheese. My fiance's Grandmother shared this recipe with me, and I immediately fell in love. And I bet if you try this recipe too, you will love it too!

For this recipe you will need:

 

Tomato Sauce, Macaroni Noodles, and American Cheese

Once you have those ingredients, you need to boil the water to cook the noodles. 

While the water is reaching the boiling point, you should set your oven for baking. 

 After about 10 minutes in the boiling water, your noodles will be cooked to al dente (the noodles will still be a little chewy). Drain the water from the noodles, and place then in a baking pan. Mix in the tomato sauce.

Once you covered the noddles with sauce, you should add the American cheese to the top. (If you like, you can add more cheese, or less.)

Place the entree into the oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and the tomato sauce is bubbling. Then you can enjoy this delicious twist on a traditional meal.

Thanks Grandma!

Dinner & A Show

            Don’t worry; I’m not talking about a dinner and a play or a musical. But I am talking about food, of course. Do you enjoy Chinese or Japanese food? Do you like being entertained? Do you like getting your money’s worth? Well then I have a solution for you!

            This past weekend was my birthday (as you can probably tell from my last post) and I had the pleasure of having my birthday dinner at a hibachi grille. A hibachi grille is an oriental restaurant with a show atmosphere. When you walk into a hibachi grille, you will be seated around a flat top stove like those in restaurant kitchens. After choosing the meat of your entrée which includes choices like chicken, beef, shrimp, or scallops, a hibachi chef will bring his cart with all his supplies to your stove area. And the show begins. 

             The chef will toss his sharpened knifes all over the place and never drops a single one or cuts himself. He will juggle eggs around in his spatulas, and throw a couple into his chef hat. He will squirt oil all over the grille and light it on fire. You will definitely feel the heat from that flame so close to your face. He will throw food toward you so you can try to catch it in your mouth (which is a lot harder than it looks). Basically the chef builds your entire meal from scratch in front of you and then places it on your plate. Talk about interactive cooking! This meal is the perfect combination of excellent food and great entertainment.

            The hibachi I went to was in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which is about two hours from good ol’ Annville. So I did a little research and found three in the local area.

Kugo Japanese Steak House

1723 Quentin Road

Lebanon, PA 17042   

Sakana Japanese Restaurant

2308 Patton Road

Harrisburg, PA 17112

Sakura

1144 E Chocolate Avenue

Hershey, PA 17033

Happy Birthday October Babies!

      I wanted to share my "birthday cake" with my followers. My "cake" consisted of 21 chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing made by my beautiful mother. Thanks mom! Happy Birthday October Babies! =]

Try not to drool!

Pie without an Oven?

A simple, but delicious, find! Enjoy!

I Could't Think of a "Cheesy" Title for this Post!

PIZZA!!! (yum!)

   Pizza is probably the most popular item in a college student's diet! It's cheap and delicious! Over the weekend my friends and I were looking for something to eat. We decided to head down to J & S Pizza on main street. Many of you probably know the place, but it was the best pizza I had in a long time, so I felt it necessary to mention. My friends and I got a 2 liter bottle of coke and order of french fries and an extra large cheese pizza for around $15! That was $5 per person, and we couldn't even finish the pie. What a deal!!! Great for a college kid's wallet.

J & S Pizza located at:

31 West Main Street
Annville, Pennsylvania 17003

Open daily from 10:30 am to 11pm!

What do College Students Eat?

    We, as college students, have very peculiar diets. We eat at random hours, and the oddest foods. So being curious, I visited some residents on my floor, and asked them what they eat. I took pictures of things they had on their "food shelves." Scroll down to see what things I found!

Jiffy, fish & wheat!

Kids, toucan, and various cookies!

Got to keep hydrated!

Sweets are a necessity!

Mustard & onion? Fruit shaped gummies!

Pickles & Cheese?

The Seven Wonders of A&M’s Rigatoni

Driving west on U.S. Route 422 into Palmyra, you might miss my favorite little Italian pizza shop, A&M. A&M has the best Rigatoni I have ever tasted (and believe me, I’ve tried many). There are seven particular wonders of this delectable entrée. 

First A&M’s rigatoni meal starts with a loaf of freshly baked bread, still warm. There is something about this bread that is so delicious. You can enjoy this soft, warm bread without any toppings like butter. It is divine in itself.

Then comes the freshly tossed salad with its crisp green lettuce, cold tomatoes, black and green olives, and crunchy red onions. This light salad is the perfect pre-curser to the meal to come. However, the salad does not stand alone; it must be paired with A&M’s French dressing. This dressing is the perfect combination of salty and sweet. Its creamy texture pairs excellently with the crisp salad.

Finally your rigatoni will be ready. The first thing you will immediately notice is the amount of pasta on your plate. This oval shaped plate is loaded down with pasta. The rigatoni is mounded upon itself, high enough to feed two.

Usually great things have solid foundations. This is the case with this rigatoni. The flawlessly cooked past is the foundation of this great dish. Pasta is a tricky thing to cook. It can easily be under or over cooked. For the numerous times I’ve had this meal at A&M, the noodles we nothing less than wonderful.

On this delightful pasta are linear indentations. You might ask, “Why is this fact considered a wonder?” Well, these ridges on the pasta expertly hold on the sauce (which is the 7^th wonder). So therefore, the indentations are the “foundation” of the sauce.

The sixth wonder is the seasoned beef. I would consider the beef the basis of the rigatoni sauce. If it wasn’t right, it would ruin the entirety of the sauce. The beef is ideal size to add the right texture to the overall dish. It isn’t in huge overbearing or minuscule pieces. Seasoned with salt, pepper, onion and some garlic, the beef adds a burst of flavor to the dish when it hits your tongue.

Finally, the seventh wonder (drum roll, please), the sauce. A&M’s seasoned red sauce seamlessly combines sweet and spicy. When you put the sauce in your mouth you can taste the brown sugar and the crushed red peppers simultaneously.

These seven elements create one of my favorite meals to eat here at Lebanon Valley College. It’s relatively inexpensive, coming in at only $9.91 with a large soda, and it is way more delicious than any “food” (if you can call it that) here at school. I encourage you to take a trip down U.S. Route 422 and visit A&M. You won’t regret it, and it is definitely worth your time and appetite.