A Digression: On Food, Working Out, Shows and Grandmas

I have 2 gal pals that are really cool because they are Do-ers.  They make it happen.  I love that quality about people.

Somehow we decided we wanted to do taste tests and put all debates to rest regarding food and brands.  Be it known that the 3 of us should never again be in charge of a "small" tasters table because it then grows and grows and grows.  I think we ended up with like 14 different categories that had like 4 options in each category.

It was loads of fun.  Who wouldn't want to come to a date night all about food?

Here is a summary, based on a demographic focus group of 10 couples between the ages of 25-35:

Rank that chocolate milk
Broguiere (most expensive) had the most votes for best tasting.  It was interesting that Nestle and the grocery store brand were also voted as pretty good, just depends on your preference for chocolateyness.

Peanutbutter
Hands down, Jif was the best.  Choosy moms choose Jif.  Everyone agreed Skippy was good but you could tell the difference.  Organic tasted "healthy" and (I'd give it to my kids but at this point in my life I just can't make myself eat it) and the all natural banana granola peanut butter was narsty.

Expensive Filtered Water vs Off-Brand vs Tap
We had a few options of water, Acqua Panna product of Italy, Refreshe fancy water with electrolytes, off brand, Evian, and tap.  The tap water was so obvious, it is disgusting here in CA.  But you couldn't tell any of the others.  Save your money.

Poptarts vs Toastems (dollar store)
All us moms could tell just by looking at these which was which.  We should've done it blindfolded.  Spend the extra 50 cents and spring for the poptarts over the off brand.

Name that Cola
For colas, most people could name which was which. Coke, Pepsi, Coke Zero, and Diet Coke.  When you taste them all together it's pretty easy.

Guess that chocolate:
Out of the options (Hershey, Trader Joes, Dove, Godiva, Ghiradelli) the only 2 that were hard to decipher were Godiva vs Ghiradelli.  Hershey was gross compared to the others.  I think most people liked the creamy smooth Dove the best.

Name that cheese, packaged vs fresh:
The cheese platter was my favorite. I can't remember all of them, but we had sharp, mild, fresh mozzarella, packaged mozzarella, colby and the ones I like the most are Gruyere and Gouida.  Some of the cooks in the crowd said Gruyere makes killer mac and cheese.  Gotta try that.

Guess that candybar:
This was easy, if you are from the candybar generation like us.  Do you remember the days when you just ate a candybar without feeling guilty?

Regular Oreo vs off-brand
Out of 10 couples, I would say about 7 of them got this right.  I think the general agreement was when you eat them back to back, you can tell a difference in the cream.  And since we are on the subject, has anyone tried these? They look divine.  Exclusively at Target for a limited time.  My target was out of stock :(

Power Drinks

We also did vitamin water, gatorade, gatorade lite, and powerade.  The guys did pretty good naming which is which.

Funky Food Tray
My friend Kelly did a funky food tray.  It was weird.  Bamboo.  Lychees. Persimmons. Jicama. Other weird looking/tasting things.

I think we had more things but I can't remember.  Plus everyone brought an appetizer.  Basically you had to roll us to bed.

A Good Workout Plan
Now I feel like I should redeem myself and note that I did burn 600 calories that morning.  Since we moved here I have gone to the gym at least 5 days a week.  I try to burn 500 calories (mostly on the Precorp machine).  I've never liked working out.  BUT now that I can do it in peace and quiet, with friends, add some zumba or body sculpt every once in awhile, I'm finding I don't mind it as much.

I use the Precorp machine most days.  Here is my intense routine:

First set of 100 calories:  check and respond to emails

Second set of 100 calories: check social media, see what the world is up to.

Calories 300-500: Watch lame media streamed via Netflix I am scraping the bottom depths of my Netflix que, the armpit of bad shows and movies.

Thoughts on Netflix
I found myself watching Bridalplasty (just what it sounds like: brides competing for plastic surgery so they will look perfect on their wedding day) as well as Teen Mom (which actually, was a major self esteem booster) and I had to give up on Vampire Diaries (shoot me in the head) as well as Pretty Little Liars (seriously, only watched 2 episodes and was depressed for a week that this was the trash that adolescent girls are being fed).  Cake Boss and DC Cupcakes just make you suuuper hungry when you workout, so 30 Rock has been my choice as of late.  Except I look like a complete idiot because it's very comical and whitty and I have a dopey smile plastered on my face during my entire last 300 calories.

Can't wait for this:

And lest I leave a blog post without some sort of pictures, here ya go.  Kelmily reunited for the 3rd time this year.  At Disneyland.

Amaryllis thinks that Macey is her cousin.  Cute.

I overheard her and the little neighbor friend talking about cousins and grandparents. It is very important to them at this age to talk about names and list things and count it out and whatnot.  The other day Amaryllis was bragging to her friend that she had 100 grandmas and she started listing all her Grandmas and it went a little something like this:

"I have Schrammah in Norf Carolina, Grandma K likes the zoo, Aunt K has a kitty cat with a button that you hide, Aunt Lesley...you have to drive in the car for a real long time.  Miss Kelsey.  Wait.  Mom, is Miss Kelsey a grandma or a mom?"