Lunch and Why Cats Hate Baths...

So I have a problem, well three...

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

My real problem is I Love food. No, thats not quite right either I LOVE FOOD! I know what you might be saying, "yea, yea, yea, we all love food" Allow me to explain.

LOVE IT! All of it! Love it like a crack addict with Trumps visa card LOVE IT. Hence the problem, I love it, there for I tend to eat to much of it, and well lets just say that I don't love cloths shopping as a result.

Soooooooo, as a part of my ever on going fight with weight loss, and well my ongoing love of GEEK type items. I have purchased a new lunch box, with the goal of eating better, home made, lunches.

This was done with three things in mind:
1) Buying lunch every day is, as my British friend would say, Bloody Expensive!
2) Home made lunch is cheaper, and I can control all aspects of the lunch, from portions to nutritional balance.
3) The more and more I read about the current state of industrial agriculture, USDA policy, and in no small part the over all health of this nation, I'm becoming a convert to the believe that you truly "Are what you eat" or better put "You are what you eat, eats"

So what did I get that will help with all of this you ask?

Its a Benito Box, well sort of.

I give you MR. Benito...

The Delimia: I was looking for a way to take multiple, small portions of healthier foods to work for lunch. I also wanted to feel satisfied after lunch, so that I would not be walking around the office looking for a slow or crippled programmer that might qualify as "Easy Pray"

I located the Mr. Benito on Amazon and after reading up on some of the reviews placed the order. Today is the Day 1 lunch.

The idea behind this item is this, their are 4 individual compartments inside a vacuum sealed thermos. You pack in what ever it is you would like to have for lunch, Hot or cold, and when it comes time to eat lunch they should still be hot or cold.

Wonderful idea with some planning, so here is the thing. This item is based on the Japaneses lunch. IE the Benito. So NO microwave at work. I'm perfectly OK with that, since the microwave at my office looks like a petri dish a week after Steven Tyler spit in it inside, I will not use it.

It also wins points for a nicely appointed caring case with an internal "Pouch" that will hold chopsticks, silverware, and ever the SPORK it comes with (I love that part)

How it all stacks up. As you can see from the picture, each of the containers have their own lid. The top two are Tupperware style, snap on. I will say this about them, they are air tight, I have to burp them a bit after getting the lid on or the air pressure in side will pop them back off.

The next container down, has a gasket-ed screw on lid with a pressure release valve in it. This one is for you Hot/Cold lunch item. Think soup, hot protein that sort of thing.

The last container is also the largest, has an insulated lid. In the Japaneses style lunch this is for rice. It can be used for anything dry-ish. The real determination for this one is nothing with a runny sauce, or liquid that can escape the lid. So rice, pasta, salad ect.

Today's Meal...

So what was on tap for the first run of Mr. Benito (ever time I say I get the song Mr Robato stuck in my head)

From Left to right:
1) Home made cole-slaw with two pickles
2) Raw - Carrots, Cucumbers and Radish (BuRP)
3) 5 oz Med-Rare Beef chunks salt pepper and a touch of oil
4) 2 cups Couscous with sauteed Mushrooms, Carrots and Celery

Total Caloric intake - Aprox: 650 cals.

I have to admit that when I was packing up this morning, I was really worried that I would still be hungry after lunch. I AM STUFFED! for the next outing I will be definitively cutting the portion sizes of the Protein and Carbs back some to find that happy balance.

Mom Hooked me up...

My mother also hooked me up this year for Christmas, along with some really snazzy camera and editing gear, she got me a soup Thermos. I love soup this time of year, heck I love soup any time of year.

This little guy, holds about 10 oz of soup, if you prime it before loading hot soup in, its sill HOT when you take it out for lunch. Very, Very pleased.



My Mother-in-Law also hooked me up...

Breakfast for me, most days is yogurt, some fruit, and a cup of coffee. Typically I buy Stoneyfield Organic Yogurt. $0.79 to $1.05 per container for a meal, killer. Taste.. well, its what 95% of Americans call yogurt. Its sweet, tastes like fruit and is rather, forgettable.

I give you my answer, The Euro Cuisine YM100 (oh yes). Its a in home yogurt incubator.

Seems devilishly simple: Dairy + Culture + Heat + Time = Yogurt

I was really expecting something tricky here, it just seems that making yogurt should be complicated. When ever I think about fermenting milk with live bacteria in it, it just sounds like something that, if screwed up should make you move your laptop stand into the bathroom so you can get some work done.

But its not, it is actually so freaking simple you are left feeling a little disconnected from the process at the end.

Here are the steps:
1) Heat Dairy: I brought 48oz of 1% Organic milk to 180 deg F
2) Cool Dairy: I placed the sauce pan in a sink of cold water till the temp was 113 deg F
3) Add live Culture: Add 1 packet of live culture, whisk to combine
4) Fill Cups: ummmm, well, I filled the little glass cups, what else can I say
5) Power up, Set Timer, cover and walk away: Put the cups in the incubator with out their lids, cover with the incubator lid, set the trimmer to 7.5 hours and don't touch for 7.5 hours.

After the 7.5 hours were over, I pulled them out, put the lids on and placed them in the fridge. After about 2 hours to allow them to cool, I took one out and tasted it.

HOLY CRAP! is that what yogurt should taste like?!? Its good, no sweetner, no fruit, no nothing. Just good!

I will admit that I put 1 TBS of Honey on top of the yogurt when loading up my bags in the AM just to add a bit of flavor, but its still not overly sweet. You can still taste the yogurt, it has this wonderful bitter/sweet flavor where you can really taste and appreciate both the yogurt and the honey as well as their flavor together. I did a side by side comparison to Stonyfield today, it was like drinking a really good home or Micro brew next to a Coors Light. With the commercial yogurt I could not taste the yogurt at all, all you got was the flavoring.


When the Chinese Attack...

There is nothing scarier or more sinister then 30 Dungeons and Dragons/Star Trek Convention police coming full speed at you on their Segways?

Don't the guns look a little small? I mean if you're going to demoralize your SWAT team by forcing them to ride Segways, couldn't you at least outfit them with something that does not look like its going to fire a paint ball out the end of it.

They make me feel bad...

Ever wash a cat? Or as I call it, "Water Tested my chain mail" If you have you have probably seen something like this. I can still remember my first time.

"Insert Dream Sequence Music"

Me - Honey, the cat smells a little funny, I'm going to give it a bath.
Soon to be wife (Aka Honey) - Ahhhhhhhh, ok, have fun with that.
Me - Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!
Kitty - What do you want? Have you feed me or cleaned my pop, if the answer is no, go try again.
Honey - ahhh, just curious, do you have everything ready to wash the cat
Me - Yea, I got the cat shampoo, and a towel
Honey - You might want to consider (I have to admit, that after 7 years together I have learned that any sentence that starts with "You might want to consider" is my wife's way of saying "What you about to do it stupid, and unless you do what comes next, its either going to heart, be expensive, make you look like an idiot, or some/all of the above) You might want to consider taking everything out of the shower/tub area and laying down a few extra towels. Also a change of clothing might be a good idea. Do you have any long gloves?
Me - Its just a cat, I out weight it by 900%.
Honey - Ok (also worth note, the tone of this OK is really important as I will learn)
Me - I grab the cat, and head for the bathroom.
Cat - "Hi, where we going? Why are you carrying me, you know I can walk? what the... why are we going in there... we never go in there together..... wait a minute... is that PET SHAMPOO!!! ABORT, ABORT!!!! CODE RED!!!!!! CODE BLACK!!!, CODE KIBBLE!!!DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!!! AHOOOOGAAH!!!"

Side Note - This is about the time when I placed the cat in the tub and turned on the water. Time slowed at this point. Cat pulled off one of the greatest feats of feline athletics I have ever witness and felt all at the same time. She extended every claw she has, exploded in about 3 different directions, proceeded to run up my arm, over my shoulder and down my back and out the bathroom door that I, did not think to close. I will also like to mention that the cat did not get wet, but somehow I am now soaking wet every place the cat touched me, along with a very interesting track mark pattern of blood droplets forming every place a paw made contact.

Me - After performing triage on my wounds, I walked out of the bathroom looking like Frankenstein's monster after a bender. My goal, find the cat.

Me - Post removing everything from my closet and extracted the cat, and returned her to the bathtub.
Cat - "I'm going to kill you in your sleep!"
Me - I proceed to make the cat wet by splashing it with my hand, cause I did not plan ahead for a method of doing this. Well apparently, cats hate this.
Cat - While moving in ever direction at the same time, proceeds to pull down ever soap bottle, razor, washing sponge, shower curtain, plunger and toilet brush it can get its claws on.
Me - My hand slips from the cat - opps!
Cat - FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cat is out of the tub, and doing low level laps around bathroom looking for a way out, all the while shacking and rubbing making everything with in a 5 1/2 foot vertical and horizontal radius of it soapy and wet.
Me - After putting a move on the cat that would make Jimmy Supper Fly Snukka envious I manage to wrestle it back into the tub for the rinse cycle.
Me - Rather then splashing the cat with water, I drained the tub, filled it half full with clean, luke warm water and proceeded to gently dunk the cats body under the water repetitively. Yea, they hate this ever more. Never mind that I was taking special care to keep the cats head out of the water during this process.
Cat - Performing what I believe is the last ditch effort of a panicking creature, proceeds to apply a Death Grip on tub filler.
ME - Wow, cat fir sure holds on to soap, using a full cup of soap might have been to much.
Cat - "Your a dead man!"
Me - "Honey, can you please bring me a pitcher from the kitchen, I need to get all this soap out?"
Cat - "Ohhhhh, I see, yea, your death will be slow"
Honey - ahh ok (see its that tone again, its the OK of knowing better then what I'm about to try, don't get me wrong, its a very loving OK)
Me - After playing a rather painful game of catch the wet cat, I managed to wash, rinse and dry-ish the cat. At this point I was ready to let the animal free into the house when...
Honey - "Oh, you cant just let them go, they will get cold with all that wet fur." My loving Soon to be wife, picks that cat up wrapped up in a dry and I think warmed up in the oven towel. All the while she is speaking kind sotthing words to the anamila. The cat is eating this up, purring, and being all lovie.

Then it looks at me... ICE

Me - After my wife and cat left the room, I survayed the damage. Damm... It looks like a wet fur bomb went off in here.
1) Where in the hell did all the fur come from?
2) When did the cat have time to dunk the tolet paper into the tub and then put it back on to the roll?
3) Did it leave anything standing?
4) I did not release that cat fir would hold that much water, right up to the point the cat jumps from the tube, then it seems to just sheet right of them.
5) WOW, I am really bleeding! I mean really, it looks like I picked a fight with a weedwacker

Honey - Wife leaves the bathroom caring lovie cat in her gentle arms for the sofa
Me - 45 min latter I join Wife and Cat on the sofa after cleaning the bath room and putting everything back in its place. I also downed a glass of OJ, cause I hear that its good for you after giveing blood.