Tag: Staple

Be Cool With Ice Cream!

More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson loved vanilla ice cream; in the present-day, it is the best-selling flavor of ice cream in the United States. Tried-and-true, there is simply nothing outdated, old-fashioned, or boring about “plain old vanilla”! Times change, of course, and changing times mean new fads and trends– some of which fade quickly, but others which hold out in their popularity. This fact is as true about ice cream as any other trend; and there have been many trends in what is made and what is preferred in ice cream ever since it first came to America. Attempting to assess and cater to the wishes of the people, ice cream manufacturers have come up with nearly-endless varieties of ice cream products, ranging from basic products to those which are more than slightly odd.

While there are numerous ice cream products sold in a variety of forms, such as bars, sticks, sundaes, and many others, the widest range of variety can be found in the basic in-a-box containers at your local grocery stores and in-a-scoop at ice cream shops. With the assumption that every person is different, and that every person desires newness and change, there is seemingly no end to the varieties which you can now choose from. Perhaps it may be thought odd, though– or perhaps not– that those who patronize such wonderful establishments as Baskin-Robbins 31-Flavors still have a distinct preference for vanilla!

One of the newest types of ice cream, although it has been around for awhile, are the “designer” styles. Mostly popular amongst the younger generation, attraction to specific brand-names is the main focus. Ben and Jerry’s is one of the most popular brands. Ben and Jerry’s best-selling ice cream, “Cherry Garcia,” is nearly a staple amongst the younger crowd. Some of Ben and Jerry’s other top-ten ice creams boast names such as Chunky Monkey, Coffee Health Bar Crunch, and New York Super Fudge Chunk. If you cannot find an ice cream that suits your personal tastes, Ben and Jerry’s welcomes you to suggest a new style for their consideration.

While the phrase “Dove Bar” often brings to mind a basic, albeit delicious, ice cream bar where the only choices offered are whether you prefer milk chocolate or dark chocolate coating, Dove also offers chocolate fans a tempting variety of ice cream flavors. Although the calorie content in Dove ice cream is a bit higher than in most of the other popular brands, you may still wish to indulge in such tasty treats as Triple Chocolate (at 340 calories per serving), Unconditional Chocolate (300 calories per serving), Chocolate and Brownie Affair (310 calories per serving), or Vanilla With a Chocolate Soul (300 calories per serving). For those with an on-the-go active lifestyle, Dove also makes its original and flavor varieties in ice cream miniatures.

If you crave a sense of “different,” there are many options which easily fall into this category. While you may be saddened to learn that Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Butter and Jelly, Bovinity Divinity, and Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie ice creams are no longer in existence, ice cream manufacturers continue to seek out the unusual tastes of their consumers and supply equally-unusual new flavors which will cater to such tastes. As “being cool” is frequently taken to mean being as outrageous as possible, you have the choice of such unusual treats as Mashed Potato and Bacon ice cream, Chili Con Carne ice cream, Tuna Fish ice cream, and Horseradish and Beer ice cream. Or, you can remain cool by conforming with the majority of the American population, and select the flavor which has remained at the top of the best-selling list for more than two hundred years: vanilla.

Tasty Low Calorie Recipes

There are so many websites and cookbooks focused on offering low calorie recipes, there is anything but a shortage of meals to try. However, just because low calorie recipes are healthy, does not mean they are tasty! Many of those recipes featured in various places taste like cardboard! Worse yet, they call for a bunch of ingredients that you and your grocer have never heard of! Where can you find tasty, low calorie recipes with all the ingredients you can pronounce,

The palatability of any meal is most often based on what you are accustomed to eating. If your primary food staple has been fried chicken and bon bons for the last few decades, you will likely have a hard time altering your eating habits or accepting low calorie recipes. Unless you can find recipes that call for bon bons, which is unlikely, you will have to make some sacrifices. If this is the case, you would be better off, instead of jumping headfirst into diet world, by gradually altering your diet by adding low calorie recipes and slowly removing the fatty foods. If you jump in to it too quickly, you are more likely to give up and go back to old habits. Another consideration, if you are making a drastic change, is to try to make the foods you already like in a different, healthier manner. You can broil meat instead of frying it, use fat free salad dressing, and other low calorie alternatives.

Once you ease into healthy eating, then it is time to really start making low calorie recipes. As stated earlier, there really are a lot of recipes available online and in cookbooks you just have to find some you like. You should start on the Internet and look for recipes with ingredients that sound good. Most likely, if the ingredients are good, the finished product will be good. When you are first starting out, you may not want to go out and buy a stack of cookbooks. You should get an idea of what you like before spending money on something that may very well end up collecting dust. Besides, individual recipes seem less obtrusive than bulky cookbooks that tend to always seem to big too read. No one wants to spend three hours looking through a book to decide what they want to eat. You can scan online and find something a lot faster.