RIPOFF!

September-14-09
5:26 PM
October 16th 2009

The number one error of student eating

I have found that the most common error of student eating is getting sucked into the money pit that is on-campus dining. I admit that I often fall into the trap of grabbing a quick snack when I do not have time to pack one in advance, especially on those rough mornings, where every moment of sleep counts.

The other day I went to purchase a drink in the center spot in the UCC of uwo. To my disgust, my vitamin water cost me almost FIVE DOLLARS!

Okay so I'm exaggerating slightly, it was about 3.60, but still, it cost me almost as much as my entire lunch from the spoke (another on-campus eatery). For the rest of the day, I regretted not taking the extra two seconds to grab a bottle of water from my fridge that morning.

I guess I cannot complain about all on campus eating locations. The spoke food has decent pricing, but it is difficult to find something of the healthier variety, same with Tim Hortons, but for the most part, food and drinks on campus are sold at highly inflated prices.

The best way to avoid this is a good amount of planning in advance. Next week I'm going to try not to buy a single piece of food* on campus and I'll blog about the different meal options and snack ideas that I come up with !

*this excludes tea, because I cannot survive a day without tea

outfoxed

This is a review that I am writing as a part of my MIT Blogging course, although it has nothing to do with student eating, I think that it is an important topic that should be addressed, especially considering the current controversy involving the White House and The Fox News Network.

The conservative nature of Fox news is no secret. It is a dilemma that we have explored in other mit courses, like Political Economy of the Media. I guess a bias is ever present, no matter how objective we try to be, but in hard news reporting, it is essential that the facts are presented without a strong opinion enforcing one view.

That seems to be the major issue explored in the Outfoxed documentary. Perhaps when watching Fox news, you do detect a strong conservative viewpoint, but it is definitely amplified in the way that the documentary was edited. The documentary does an excellent job of getting you on their side, the side that says Fox is a corrupted news network.

I do not think that the problem is the conservative views of Fox news, but how they call themselves a hard news channel. I do not think if they referred to their material as editorial, there would be as much of a controversy. The network has the right to produce content, but where they fail, is to enforce that these are opinions and not statements of fact.

People have different expectations from something like a personal blog, than they do with their news outlet. When I watch the news I expect to be presented with the facts, and allowed to form my own opinions on the matter. Maybe this is why I have never been one hundred percent reliant on a specific news source. I tend to look at a variety of sources, depending on what sort of news I am interested in hearing about. Ultimately, we have a responsibility to ourselves, to figure out our own opinions, rather than relying on one network to decide our views for us.

MJP's Grilled Cheese

What is more delicious than a grilled cheese that you make for yourself just before midnight?

Only a grilled cheese made by a friend FOR you!
The following is one of my friends specialty grilled cheese recipes

Ingredients
- real marble cheese (create a more authentic taste than kraft singles)
- Fresh Foccacia bread
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Course sea salt

Directions
- Warm the pannini grill and grease with olive oil
- brush the tops of bread with olive oil and lay thin slices of cheese in between
- leave on the heat for approx. 4 minutes or until cheese is melted
- cut on the diagonal and serve with ketchup

Especially great when enjoyed with a new episode of the hills , when what you really should be doing is writing a paper.

Tea Time

A proper afternoon tea is a great luxury. All too often we find only enough time to grab a venti and run out the door without so much as a thought. Here are my personal key ways to the best pot of tea (passed down from my Nana).

1. The water you fill your kettle with should be cold , otherwise your tea will taste funny.

1. For the tea to brew properly, the water must be boiling hot for black tea. For green and white teas, remove water from heat just before it starts to bubble.

2. Warm the tea pot by running it under hot water for a couple seconds, this will help insulate the pot and keep your tea warm for longer.

3. Add the milk just before you pour the water. It mixes in better this way.

4. If you like sugar , add it right away and stir until it is all melted , otherwise the bottom of your tea will syrupy or gritty.

Enjoy with a piece of shortbread and a friend !

Pad Thai Attempt

Okay here is the deal, pad Thai is one of my all-time-favourite foods; however, I have never tried to make it myself. After my first attempt, I feel that I will probably never try again.

To be fair, it was not entirely from scratch. I was inspired to make it after finding a VH Thai Market Pad Thai sauce at the grocery store, since the sauce was only about 4$ , I picked it up, as well as a chicken breast and egg noodles and decided to give it a try.

In my defense, I think the chicken that I cooked in egg as well as the bean sprouts and onions turned out pretty well. The first problem was that the VH sauce tasted totally inauthentic , and the second was the noodles I cooked did not turn out that great either. They were sticky and maybe a bit overcooked (this was my first time making rice noodles as well).

I would be tempted to try another Pad Thai sauce , as I think that was the main reason the dish did not turn out how I imagined it. For now , I think I'll just get take out.

All wrapped up

I hate to admit it as much as the next person, but fall is officially in our presence. Not only does this signal a switch in wardrobe, but also a change in my eating patterns. As the cold weather sets in , I find myself gravitating to the cheesey-carby- comfort foods.

Here's one great recipe that I found in the November issue of Glamour that is a healthy alternative to the standard grilled cheese sandwich

Veggie and Melted Cheese Wrap

- 1 tbsp. of olive oil

- 1/4 cup of chopped zucchini

- 1/4 cup of cherry tomatoes

- 2 slices of monterey jack cheese (I substituted mozzarella)

-1 One large flour tortilla (I substituted a whole-wheat pita)

- 1/2 cup of baby spinach

Directions

1. In a saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat

2. add zucchini and tomatoes , saute for about 3-4 minutes until soft and golden brown around edges

3. remove from heat, place veggies inside wrap with cheese

4. wrap up tortilla (or pita, in my case) and place in pan, 2 minutes per side, until golden brown and cheese has melted

This dinner was SO satisfying and only took about five ingredients, definitely a success and something I'll repeat. I'm thinking next time I'll add some grilled chicken as well.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Scallops and Green Peas

Okay here is the deal, my fridge is seriously stark. Last night in a desperate attempt to throw anything together I made a pasta dish that turned out surprisingly well (with lots of help from my roommate).

Basically we used whatever we could scrounge from the pantry and freezer. The result?

Whole Wheat Pasta with Scallops and Green Peas

Ingredients
- frozen green peas
- frozen scallops
- whole wheat spaghetti
- soy sauce
- lemon juice
- green onions

The whole meal took about ten minutes to make, we just fried the scallops in a bit of olive oil, cooked the noodles and defrosted the peas in the microwave. Then put the noodles and peas in the pan with some soy sauce and squeezed a little bit of fresh lemon juice.

The result was a light supper ready in no time flat !