Fast Food Funk

[athelind]

Two weeks ago, my elder stepdaughter and her significant other moved out.

For the last two years, he's been cooking, she's been doing the dishes. Alas, they've so utterly monopolized the kitchen that squeezing in to make anything more elaborate than a sandwich or a quick zap in the microwave has been nigh-impossible. Significant Other is a decent cook, but his fare tends to be heavy, his portions large, and leftovers plentiful. This meant that lunches at home tended to be microwaved leftovers of heavy meals. My attempts to try to stick to the dietary recommendations of my doctor were less than successful.

For the last two weeks, I've been eating much better and much more lightly. Shopping for five allows much more flexibility than shopping for seven, and five people can keep a kitchen tidier and more accessible than seven. Our son-in-law has been preparing dinners, but his portions tend to be smaller and his food choices lighter. Better still, it is now feasible for quelonzia and I to prepare our own evening meals, independently from the rest of the family.

If I want to eat high-fiber cereal in soy milk for dinner, I can. If I want a smoothie for lunch, I can. And I have.

I've lost 4-5 pounds in the last two weeks. Quel's lost 10.

And then, today, I went to Jack in the Box for an Ultimate Cheeseburger and fries.

I feel wretched.

And I kinda think I felt this way all the time when I was eating crap like this regularly.

In the early '90s, after reading David Brin's Earth, I cut beef from my diet for almost two years.

I think it's time to do that again. Screw Atkin's.

Addendum: On Friday night, we took my folks out to eat at Flame's. I had a friggin' Monte Cristo. You'd think a deep-fried grease bomb like that would have hit me hard, but I was fine.

Addendum: It's ooozing out my pores. I smell like cheap beef grease.

Comments

[richardf8]

There is nothing better than good beef, and nothing worse than bad beef. JITB (or any fast food burger pit) is bad beef. It's not the beef per se but the fact that you're eating the very worst bits of meat from an animal that spent its life filled up with antibiotics and hormones.

Morgan and I used to feel terrible after meat meals, but once I started buying organic, things have been MUCH better.

And that's why the MC didn't nail you, but the JITB did.

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I'm giggling madly over here.

I can't help it.

cheap beef grease

I bet you're very popular with the canine set right now...

[araquan.livejournal.com]

You need a Culver's. Or failing that, In'n'Out.

I like beef though. Really.

[luxatos.livejournal.com]

*gurgle*

In'N'Out I miss... Culver's I have the great fortune of knowing as well.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Ah, Culver's I had for dinner Monday. Good stuff.

Only had a chance to try In'N'Out once- went to the one on Fisherman's Wharf a couple years ago, the day after athelind and I hooked up out that way. It was... Good. Very good. }:>

[athelind.livejournal.com]

In'N'Out, alas, has started to decline recently. It's still better than most fast food, but not quite the Supreme Bliss it once was.

[jirris-midvale.livejournal.com]

We're still going out to one at FC. *shakes fist*

Hee.

[animakitty.livejournal.com]

Cheap beef grease has this nice flow to it, when spoken. :K)

Re: Hee.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

But not when ooooooooozing.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

I've never really fallen out of my eating habits, which tend to stick towards a very limited variety of foods. Perhaps at one point I used to eat McDonald's or some such a bit too often, but I've cut it down to twice a week, at dinner, and that's it. I always have a Double Cheeseburger with a large fry, as well, and in truth, that's not a lot of beef. Plus, the McDonald's I go to is quite good at not greasifying their burgers to the max, so I would like to think I don't indulge in that sort of food too badly.

[taral.livejournal.com]

Now I want a good steak.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Did you get my snoothie recipe that I posted a while ago? It's yummy and very healthy.

Also, check out everydaycooking. Some good stuff in there.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

There are recipes for smoothies?

I just kinda toss unflavored yogurt, frozen fruit, sherbet, peanuts, and some juice or soy milk in the blender and go WREEEEEEEEEEEEE.

(I use peanuts because they come out about the same consistency as if I'd used peanut BUTTER, but they don't gunk up the blender blades.)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My recipe is very close to that - yogurt (I use a fruit flavour), milk, frozen or fresh fruit, a banana, and some wheat germ or rolled oats. WREEEE and serve. If you use fresh fruit, toss in a few ice cubes. Easy and very, very tasty.

[breimh.livejournal.com]

Over the years of getting the occassional fast food run for dinner, I've found that I just seem to get an upset stomach from fast foods normally; particularly, I've noted upset stomach and a sludgy feeling in the mouth, from burger joints like McD's, BK, JITB and their ilk... but Pizza Hut and Taco Bell can be just as bad.

I do also agree with what someone else already said, it does have a lot to do with the quality of meat, oils, and other ingredients a restaraunt uses... as well as how they prepare the food. If they leave it stewing in it's own grease/juices, rather than keeping the meat and grill clean, at a burger place, then that can be even worse than just the poor quality of the meat. And likewise, their basket of "fresh made" french fries left to hang over the deep frier even after the oils have stopped dripping from the basket leads to a poorer quality/higher oil-saturated batch of fries.

Case in point, we have two BurgerMaster restaraunts nearby. One doesn't bother to keep their grill as clean, leaving the grease from the burgers to boil around the meat, and the other makes sure to always draw the grease away with the spatula... guess which one doesn't leave me feeling queezy and like fast food oils are seeping from my body, making my clothes cling to me?

And I didn't even find out that was the difference until actually watching them make the sandwiches the last couple of times at each place.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Ugh fast fries....grease and WAAAAY too much salt.
Never touch 'em.
Now a bacon double cheese OTOC....

[jirris-midvale.livejournal.com]

Stop... beef? What?

I try not to eat Beef too often; it's a luxury item as far as I am concerned. Like cigars and alcohol, it's just not worth it unless a certain expenditure is put forth. (I need to teach my father how to select meat though -- the guy really has no idea how to pick a steak)

Of course, someting at In'N'out is great every now and then too, but that's tasty to begin with. I try to limit my intake of McStuff to a minimum; the only other fast food place I frequent is tacobell, a fastfood place that you can actually get a meal with not a lot of 'meat' and still have it be awesome.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

Maybe you'd be better off avoiding meat altogether?

I know that's an undragonish thought, but offered for consideration.