What would you say if I told you that you could get a full lunch meal, delivered anywhere downtown, and a huge menu to choose from.. for $5 taxes in? Seriously.. hell you can’t even get a cup of coffee for that anymore (at some locations.. sorry Starbucks).

Its’ true, and it’s almost to good to be so! RealMeals.ca has been going since 1998 – and I tell you – I can see why!

Real Meals is an Island company specializing in delivering delicious gourmet meals to the people of Charlottetown. We use fresh, locally grown produce and the finest ingredients to create delectable meals that you can heat in your oven or microwave.

Ok.. you can go to their website if you want to check it out.. but on both occasions which I’ve stayed in town for lunch for one reason or another.. the meals were delivered shortly after 9AM, and there was plenty to eat when it came to lunch time.

How does it work? Glad you asked! You have to order the day before prior to 5pm. But big deal.. plan ahead and save $$! You go to their website and order via the web page – and they also have daily specials and deals if you’re tired of thier pretty lengthy regular menu. They will deliver it the next morning.. pay them at the door.. (cash only I’m assuming)… I don’t believe you can do over-the-phone ordering (hell they’d need a mobile cell booster to keep up with the demand I would imagine) – so just go to the site and order.

I’ve had the Beef Pasta Casserole as well as the Lasagna with Salad and both were delicious and plentiful. Well worth the ridiculously low price of $5 delivery and taxes included! Anyhow, check them out..

I’ve done some browsing and rounded up some posts which I plan on checking out and reading all with regards to the summer season:

Make Your Own Ice Cream Bars! from chow.com – great summertime treat!
Clean your Grill… – quick little howto from 5min.com
I’ve already posted a tip on how to repel mosquitos.. but here’s another one.. a bubble machine!

Blah, just got my insurance receipt in the mail and it looks like my premiums for auto are going up (I thought they went down as you got older???) – time to go shopping around for some insurance online perhaps at www.wholesaleinsurance.net or one of the big banks offering now.

What’s really hard I find is that lately it’s not that I’m eating poorly.. it’s just that I’m eating too damn much! I have rather large lunches..but now that I’ve been doing it for so long, it’s a habit.. and when I don’t have a good lunch, I feel like I’m still hungry a few hours later which is never good.

So the diet that Liz has suggested is one that involves not eating a lot of Carbs. Much like the Atkins Diet. You know, I have no problem with eliminating certain foods from my diet – if they’re not around the house to begin with. One of my biggest pet peeves is throwing away food – and we always have bread on hand, so I’m going to eat it before I go on any stupid diet. That’s just wasted money!

However, now that we’re in need of groceries again – I think we’ll be able to do the no-carb thing quite well.

The other problem which I hope to over-come is just what exactly do you eat if you don’t eat carbs? I mean.. my typical diet consists of cereal for breakfast, bread at lunch, and either pasta for dinner, or potato with whatever we’re having! What do we replace that with? And is it going to put us in the poor house? I certainly don’t want to spend a bunch of money on supplements no matter how well a diet pill reviews.

I have NO problem eating a bunch of protein, steaks, chicken, etc.. but I need something to fill me up. Side dishes (usually potatoes, or rice, or bread…) are what usually do it – so if I can’t have those? What do I have?? I think the answer is vegetables.. and lots of them. But I’m going to give this diet the old college try and see how it goes. Hmm.. carrot sticks.. are those high in carbs too? Hope not!

I would love to chat with anyone out there whom have done the low-carb diets and what they thought.

First one found over at The Food Network, I think I may try this one first:

Recipe 1

Ingredients

• 8 cups snow, or shaved ice
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Place snow or shaved ice into a large bowl. Pour condensed milk over and add vanilla. Mix to combine. Serve immediately in bowls.

I also found a little bit more involved recipe here at the Peppercorn Press:

Recipe 2

Vanilla Snow Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 12 ounce can evaporated milk (refrigerated so it is ice cold)

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 large egg, very well beaten*

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of salt

One large Dutch oven of fresh fluffy snow

Preparation

In a large chilled mixing bowl, whisk the evaporated milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, and salt, until well mixed and frothy. Set aside.

From a pristine part of your yard, patio, etc. use a large Dutch oven to scoop up a lot of fresh dry snow. It is essential that the snow is free of ice crystals and lumps (as well as other debris) so freshly fallen snow is usually best.

Using a large mixing spoon, spoon the snow into the milk mixture a couple of spoonfuls at a time. Do not stir! Instead, with the spoon, gently press the snow into the milk mixture so that it is incorporated. Keep spooning more and more snow into the milk until it begins to become solid and very firm. You may need to go back for more snow. You will know you have added enough snow when it starts to become difficult for new snow to absorb milk.

Serve immediately in chilled bowls. This ice cream cannot be frozen and served again later, so you will just have to force yourself to eat it all! This recipe will serve between 4-6 people.

This tip however, really hits home as I do like to cook – but bacon is one of those foods which is tough to get right, Microwaves often cook unevenly and skillets cook hot and fast – the solution?  Fire up the oven for perfectly cooked and amazingly delicious bacon.

Found the tip over at goodncrazy.com.

The technique is very simple. Grab a cookie or jelly roll tray, line it with foil – in my case I have a toaster over perfect for bacon cooking! Place the bacon on the foil, and then cook in your oven for 20-25 minutes at 375F. Pat the bacon dry with some paper towels and serve – make some candles with bacon wax… who needs Christmas scents when you can have a house smelling like delicious bacon!!

Oh, and while you’re at it, check out 100 ways to use bacon – of course, if you eat TOO much bacon you’ll likely get really fat and unhealthy leading to all kinds of health issues like Mesothelioma or something – but who cares!! BACON RULES!

Personally I think that the Pizza Delight over here was a great idea – but way too ahead of itself. Most town start off with a diner, a place people like to go to get some grease and then the other places come in if the business is there. Personally I think it was just about 10 years before it’s time.

So anyhow, Phinleys took over and we went to eat. First impression, well I liked it.. I like the diner atmosphere they have in there – it’s very modern and clean (as you would expect), but simple as well.

I also liked the service I received, friendly, fast, checked how were doing after the food was delivered.. that was awesome as well.

Food quality, I have to say that it was as I expected. They didn’t have the massive servings that you’d get like maybe at Hunters, but on the other hand, sometimes a fella just doesn’t want to eat two baked potatos to go along with their huge portion of steak sandwich or whatever. The portion size was just fine with me. The quality of the food was also fine, good and hot – I just ordered a hot turkey sandwich, so it’s pretty hard to screw that one up. Liz liked her food as well.

The prices were fine, average I would say as I didn’t pay an arm and a leg to eat there. The prices weren’t super cheap, nor super expensive.

What I really liked about the place was that I could sit and have a nice conversation with a cup of coffee and some good food. It sounds like the place was just average by this review, and in a lot of ways it was.. but then – sometimes I just want a place to go eat without being bothered or distracted and Phinleys in my opinion does that.

I’ll be back.. likely many times.

Man all this talk about food, makes me wonder.. do diet pills work? Cuz I think I’m going to need some after all the eating out I’ve been doing lately.

Update:

Just found an interesting article on PeiInfo.com http://www.peiinfo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26720

1. How easy it is
2. The short time frame to make it
3. How much of a great Christmas gift this would be for friends/family

Well, I’m sure a lot of my friends whom I usually get gifts for are likely reading this and thinking.. hmm.. I wonder if Liz and Lenny will give us homemade vanilla this year for Christmas.. well.. to answer that… “If you’re lucky!”

The recipe was found at DIYNatural.com and although I come across a lot of recipes in my travels.. this one I think I’m actually going to try. Not that I use a whole lot of vanilla extract – but make a bottle.. and it’d be a great gift for sure!

What you’ll need

Ingredients

• 1 – 750ml bottle of Vodka, rum, or any liquor 80+ proof (80 proof = 40% alcohol)
• 12 – vanilla beans

Tools

• Cutting board
• A sharp knife
• A funnel for pouring vodka between bottles (optional but recommended)
• Bottles for storing the vanilla (I suggest glass bottles)

How to make it

Using the funnel, remove approximately 1/2 cup of vodka from each bottle to make room for the vanilla beans.  Using your cutting board and knife, slice each vanilla bean lengthwise along one entire side of the bean.  Place the beans in the vodka bottle, replace the lid, and shake.  Store the vanilla for 2-3 months in a cool, dark room.

Shake the vanilla once/week to agitate the beans and speed the extraction process.

How much you will save

Savings depend on quantity.  the author made 76 ounces using 3 – 750ml bottles of vodka and 1/4lb of vanilla beans, which provided the following savings:

Store bought cost

One 2 ounce bottle of store brand pure vanilla extract cost $4.99.  Total cost = $2.50/ounce. (this is USD)

Homemade cost

3 bottles of vodka (“a fifth” or 750ml) cost $10 each for  a total of $30 (Again.. USD prices.. can’t get near that here).  750ml x 3 = 2250ml which is equivalent to 76 ounces.  1/4lb of vanilla beans (approximately 36 beans) is equivalent to 4 ounces and cost $10.    Based on these calculations, 76 ounces of pure vanilla extract cost $40.  Total cost = $0.50/ounce.  Imitation vanilla cost approximately $1.00/ounce.  This reveals that homemade vanilla extract is 5 times cheaper than store bought pure vanilla and twice as cheap as imitation vanilla.

So yeah – obviously the savings are going to be debatable due to the fact that this was done in the US I believe – but what a great recipe and so easy! I did take a look and you can get vanilla beans at bulk barn and likely the major grocery stores but don’t quote me. Doesn’t vanilla extract have more uses than just for baking? Put some in your skin moisturizer to have some vanilla scented eczema cream, or perhaps use some in a candle for a great vanilla smell… mmmm..

We’re going to menu plan.

Not only are we going to menu plan however, we’re also going to use Google Calendar to do it. Liz created a calendar called "Supper Ideas" or something like that, and she was in charge of creating the first week of dinner ideas. Last night we had Pizza and Garlic Bread (as we didn’t have a lot of time to cook since she works at Dooly’s on Mondays), tonight is Spaghetti Bake (not as good as the Antoniaks’ but we can only try), and tomorrow night we’re going to make Chicken Caesar Wraps and Homemade Fries (my idea). There are a lot of reasons why I think menu planning is such a good idea, but one of the biggest is to use up items that are already in your fridge.

I think a lot of people already do this and I also think it’s very smart. For people like myself whom are extremely busy both day and night it’s really nice to know that you’ve got something planned ahead of time to have for dinner and you know what kind of preparations you need to make. By doing this, you wouldn’t even need to worry about having the best weight loss supplements around as you’d plan your meals and hopefully plan half healthy ones.

I planned on having those Chicken Caesar wraps tomorrow with homemeade fries.. I guess that’s not the healthiest choice, but MAN am I ever looking forward to it!

Stock You Fridge Something Like a Vending Machine

It sounds kooky, but when I read the one part where it said that it’s a bad idea to put your fruits and veggies in the bottom drawers as it’s one of those “out of sight, out of mind” types of thinking. I know that when I do clean the fridge and have to put everything back, this is what I’m doing. Now I know this topic isn’t a big testosterone booster or anything like that, but if I could avoid throwing away food that’s gone bad from sitting around (I HATE THIS), then I’m going to do it.

To quote the article:

Give your fridge shelf appeal. It may be customary to stock the fruits and vegetables in the bins at the bottom of the refrigerator, but I say that’s a bad idea. If the good stuff is hidden, you’re less likely to see it and eat it. It’s estimated that more than $10 dollars a week per household is wasted on produce that has gone bad – and that’s usually because it’s out of sight. Use the bins for meats and deli items, and keep the healthy fruits and vegetables at eye level. When looking for a snack, you’re more likely grab the first item you see. Also give prominent shelf space to healthy snacks like hummus and peanut butter.

Great idea no?

No, this isn't my garden.. I wish!!

I should also mention that I’m extremely exhausted while I write this right now so if my grammar and writing is all messed up – don’t make a big deal out of it. Truth is I just got in the door from planting what seems to have been a million plants around the house and in containers and I can barely keep my eyes open.

Unlike last year around this time, we didn’t decide to plant a whole lot of seeds this year and start from scratch. I’m a little bummed about that as I really enjoyed doing it – but then again, I didn’t really need 32 tomato plants did I? Not only that – the tomato plants I DID plant and use, well.. I planted too many of them together so they ended up yielding tiny tomatos. Not this year! This year we did things differently.

Firstly, I bought a wheelbarrow a few weeks back – don’t ask me how a guy like myself whom likes to do things around the house got around without one before… caught a great Sunday sale at Home Depot and scored a bright red one for $59.99 I believe. Great deal I thought. This weekend however, we purchased (also at Home Depot) lots of things like grass seed (for the areas in the back which are now dirt .. thanks beagles) and grass fertilizer (using save.ca coupons of course). We also took advantage of their buy 3 get one free deal with annuals. That DOES go against my beliefs though as I personally think annuals are a waste of money.. why buy something that only lasts a year? Buy perennials and get the joys every spring right through the fall! They are a lot cheaper though, so we bought some to put in some planters and give a lot of areas some color. I guess spending $20 or $40 on annuals isn’t such a bad thing if you’re going to get 4-6 good months out of it.

Between Liz and I, we spend likely over $100 this weekend on garden/yard items. Fortunately, these items will get lots of use and most of the we’ll use for years to come. Things like a solid dirt rake, a hand seed spreader, shady grass seed, grass fertilizer as I mentioned, and tons and tons of flowers and vegetables. I toned it down this year to only 6 or so Tomato plants – but we also have some cucumbers, broccoli and turnip which I’m sure we’ll get good use out of. Personally I’d rather have spent the money on some much needed Kingston Memory (2 Gigs) for my computer which is getting awfully sluggish but I won’t go there.

I don’t have much else to say right now, but I wanted to just put this post out there as I’m going to write more on the gardens outside once things start taking off so that I can look back and find out when I planted things for future use. I hope everyone had a great weekend and I’ve got some great post ideas coming up which I can’t wait to start writing.

Have a great night folks!