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Does Food Packaging Make You Overeat?

October 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Does Food Packaging Make You Overeat?

I came across an article today on Psychology Today that was pretty interesting. It’s basically a quick summary of a study done by Adriana Madzharov and Lauren Block in the October, 2010 issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Here’s a snippet of the article.

Many snack foods show a picture of what the product looks like. A box of chocolate chip cookies will show sample cookies on the front. A bag of pretzels will show pictures of the pretzels. A box of crackers will show the crackers.

The studies in this paper make three main points…

First, the number of items on the front of the package affects people’s judgments of how much food is inside the package…

Second, when given the chance to actually eat, people ate more food from packages with many items pictured on it than from packages with few items pictured on it.

Third, this effect was strongest…

Visit That Package Made Me Overeat to read more.

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How to Make Donuts in 15 minutes

March 25, 2010 by 13 Delicious Comments
How to Make Donuts in 15 minutes

I realize how ironic it is to post this recipe right after the “Fight Obesity” speech, but I’ve been wanting to post this recipe for a long long time. Sometimes it’s best to throw caution out the window… not always, just sometimes.

Growing up my family spent a lot of time in the great outdoors. We’d take week long camping trips high up into the mountains where we’d spend time digging in the dirt, fishing, canoeing, laughing, swimming in the lake and river, riding horses, playing horse shoes, and just chillin’. Those are some of my favorite memories. And oh, the stories I could tell, like the one time when I accidentally seared my brother’s ear with a hot, flaming stick of death… but we won’t go into details. It really was an accident…

Let’s move on. My mom is an excellent cook, and that’s an understatement. We always looked forward to dinner in the mountains because we loved eating her cast iron dutch oven cooking. Some of my favorite dishes included chicken, potatoes, bacon, peach cobbler, donuts, and bread. My two favorites were peach cobbler and donuts. (The treats, of course!)

Just the other night, the hankerin’ to eat some of those donuts again sneaked into my appetite, so I set to it. Now, the best part of this donut recipe is that it’s effortless… seriously, it’s super fast, super delicious, and easy enough that the kids can help. Hard to beat that, and when the kids have fun, it makes it even more enjoyable. My daughter Maggie helps me make these for family night on occasion. If a camp fire isn’t readily available, you can still cook these on the stove top. As always, you can print this recipe out at the end of this post.

And just for the record I can never decide if I should spell donuts like I just did or like this: doughnuts. so I’m not very consistent throughout this post.

Enjoy, and try not to salivate on your keyboard.
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Filed Under: Desserts, Recipes Tagged With: , ,

How to Make Pumpkin Seeds: Year 1

November 17, 2009 by 4 Delicious Comments
How to Make Pumpkin Seeds: Year 1

I know you’re all thinking it, so I’ll just come out and say it… “Chris, you’re about 3 to 4 weeks late on this post!” And at this point I begin to think of a good excuse… and realize I don’t have one. Oops. So as an extra bonus feature with this post I’m going to give you TWO recipes. That’s right, two for the price of two one; the truth is, I was going to give you two recipes in this post anyway.  Okay, confession time is over, and so is Halloween, and in here in Northern Utah,  so is the pumpkin harvest.  This probably means that most of you have either 1) already cooked up your pumpkin seeds, 2) thrown your pumpkin seeds away, or 3) left them in your fridge and they’re covered with a gooey white film and molding.  Gross. Don’t ask how I know about the white film.

I do know, however, that at different times of the year you can still buy bagged, uncooked pumpkin seeds in the grocery stores.  Yes!  A reason to still create this blog entry.  As always, a printable version is available at the bottom of the post. In today’s case, both pumpkin seed recipes are available.  Here we go.
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Make Caramel Popcorn & Win Friends Instantly

October 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Make Caramel Popcorn & Win Friends Instantly

Today I’m going to share with you two secrets: 1) How to win friends instantly, and 2) how to make a sinfully delicious batch of caramel popcorn. Lucky for me, both secrets are one and the same. Make this recipe and share it with friends and you’ll instantly have your own entourage. I’ve just gotta’ add that homemade caramel popcorn was an essential part of my childhood diet. Heck, it’s still an essential part of my “diet.” In fact, every time I think of this recipe, I hear tiny voices in my head saying, “Eat me! Eat me!” It’s not always a good idea to listen to those tiny voices in my head, but in this case I tend to make an exception.

There are many caramel popcorn recipes out there, and I’ve tried many of them. I’m happy to report that this recipe has withstood the test of time and continues to be my favorite. It’s easy to make, its sweet, and its incredibly delicious. You can make it into caramel popcorn balls and even add nuts or other candy bits; it’s also quite versatile as far as ingredients are concerned. But my favorite part about it is the sticky chewy goodness that literally melts in your mouth, even hours after it’s made and has sat on the cupboard (that is of course, if it even lasts long enough to sit on the cupboard). At parties, this caramel popcorn is always first to go.
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Tasty Microwave Chex Snack Mix

August 12, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I’m a huge fan of easy snack mixes. They’re perfect for an evening with the family while playing games or watching a movie. They’re also great for trips and as a cheaper snack at the movie theater (can I say that?). This is an excellent, simple snack mix that you can make in the microwave in a matter of minutes. This recipe is from Southern Living, October 2006.

I recommend using a glass, microwave safe bowl for nuking this–unless you have an excellent plastic microwave safe bowl; otherwise, there’s a good chance your plastic bowls will melt away.
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Healthy Popcorn Recipe for a Popcorn Movie

March 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment

You can’t settle down to watch a popcorn movie or play a board game without some popcorn.  It’s an unwritten law, which I’m sad to say, I’ve broken a few times or two because I didn’t want all the calories and fats of that luscious buttery popcorn clogging my arteries.  A few years ago I discovered my new butter friend: zero calorie butter spray.  Both Parkay and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter make it.  In fact it’s entirely replaced butter spread in our home.  Of course we still use regular butter cubes for baking.  The zero calorie spray butter can be used on anything, but my favorite is popcorn.  We’ve completely replaced popcorn bags with our popcorn air popper and zero calorie butter spray.  Butter popcorn has never been the same, and it still tastes great.  Next time you’re popping popcorn, try the following.

PopcornInstead of using microwave popcorn bags, buy popcorn kernels (Orville Redenbacher popcorn is my recommendation) and use your popcorn air popper.  Pop however much popcorn you want and then instead of melting butter in the microwave, spray the zero calorie butter on it.  Let me remind you that just because the butter is zero calories, doesn’t mean you can eat as much of it as you want.  Still be frugal, or it defeats the purpose.  Add a little salt for flavor and you’ve got some healthy popcorn to enjoy during your popcorn movie, and it’s not packed with all the guilt that accompanies unhealthy snacking.  Years down the road your arteries will thank you.

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