So a little while ago a friend of mine said I should write down my diet.
Well it’s not really a “diet”. Diets don’t work. I tried doing a diet once where I wouldn’t eat any processed foods—it was hard. Not the eating of the food, but the finding of the food. Because I couldn’t always bring food into work and finding un-processed food outside of my own kitchen was beyond ridiculous.
Anyway, this had got me thinking in another direction. Which I soon started. The rules are simple; if you make it, you can eat it. Nothing is restricted. Nothing.
You want Ho-Hos? Go ahead.
You want lasagna? Enjoy it!
You want chocolate chip cookies every day? I'm with-ya.
But you have to make it. Everything. From scratch. No mixes, or packaged meals allowed.
It really makes you think, how badly do I want this? Is it worth the effort?

And you’re thinking; I don’t have time for that! I'm a crappy cook.
I don't have time either, but I have learned to schedule one day on the weekend to cook, and when I cook, I make a lot. Like if I make chili, I make 3 months’ worth. I then portion it and freeze it. (I highly recommend saving glass jars, or buying some preserving jars if you do this.) And you're only a crappy cook because you're out of practice.

Currently in my freezer I have homemade ravioli, corn dogs, breaded chicken, spaghetti sauce, sweet potato casserole, rosemary bread, waffles, cookie dough, I could go on. But it is all homemade. No mixes, or instant meals. I do have frozen peas though :) Even ice cream should be homemade. Target has ice cream makers for $25!

Again, a part of the mentality is, how bad do you want it? With the advent of the internet, recipes of all types have become accessible to the everyday person.

In short, the food and meals are better for me. No preservatives, low processing, no extra added salt or sugars. And they are pre-portioned by me. So I don’t over eat, or left feeling hungry. And you’ll eat good, yummy food! The first time you walk by all that pre-made food, chips, cookies, frozen dishes, canned meals in the grocery store will shock you. If you’re consistent with setting one day on the weekend to cook one dish, it will happen.
Plus, if you do this, you’ll get better at multi-tasking your cooking time, meaning; when I make spaghetti sauce, I will also make pizza. When I roast a chicken, (afterward) I also make stock, then soup, and stuffing with that stock, also chicken pot pies. If I’m cooking ground beef, I’ll make chili, taco meat, and hamburgers all on the same day. I try not to waste anything.

How to get started on doing this? Well don’t treat it like a diet. Treat it like a life style change. A change you have to start slowly, or it will never stick.

The best way to do it is to pick a dish from a restaurant you love. A dish that would not last 2 days in your frig as leftovers. Go online and search for a copycat version of the recipe. There will probably be a kazillion recipes, so just be critical with what the author states as the ingredients. For example: when I looked up P.F. Changs Lettuce Wraps, one author stated to use ketchup. Now I know there is no ketchup in the lettuce wraps I’ve eaten, so just watch what they state as the ingredients. Copy it into a word program to save it and print it. Pick something that won’t be too terribly hard to make, or you’ll get discouraged if it doesn’t turn out. Also, before you double or triple the recipe size for freezing, be sure to test it.

Just start from there. Slowly, you’ll replace all the items in your pantry, frig, and freezer with homemade meals, and snacks.

And the equivalency of me ‘falling off the wagon’ is when I eat out, though technically the restaurants (supposedly) are cooking from scratch also, which means I’m still adhering to the rules. And I'm not talking about fast food crap.

*You want potato chips? Fine, make them.
*You want cheesecake? Mmm, cheeeesecake...
*You want pizza? Don’t forget to buy the yeast.
*You want hot wings? Look up a hot wing recipe.
*Mac N Cheese. That’s an easy one, just remember to add some bread crumbs on top for some crunch. 'The Yard House' has a yummy macNcheess-look it up.
* Tacos? Pull out the rolling pin, you gotta roll out some tortillas
* Krispy Creme Donuts....*droool* That's right! Nothing is off the table. IF you make it, then you can eat it. The goal is to try to make everything! Icing and all, from scratch.

I'm sorry, he is just a cutie pie.

This optical illusion was first created in 1861. Look at the two thick vertical lines. Do they look straight or curved to you? Hold a ruler up to the screen and you will see that they are indeed straight.

Would you believe that the colors of squares A and B are the same? They are!
Use your fingers or a piece of paper with holes cut through it to block out the rest of the picture and you will see that they are.

When you move your eyes in a circular motion around this image, you will see what appears to be spokes moving around with your eyes.
Though I admit I see it better when I scroll the page up and down :)

Is anyone else a little disturbed by all the species reports coming in? You know, the frogs, the bees, and the butterflies? I’m not into being an alarmist, but this is alarming. Mother Nature doesn’t mess around when she feels it’s time to create a balance again. What will happen when key species begin to seriously fail?

The poor bees. Because of greedy corporations and bureaucracy it may be too late for them. The American Honey Bee is close to extinction because of this...

What is that theory? A butterfly flaps it's wings in Central Park and creates a typhoon on the other side of the planet. It should be fairly obvious why these species demise would be detrimental to us.
What Mother Nature has in store for us will not be pleasant. When She does take action, I will laugh at the naive people surprised by this, because all the signs are here.
It's quite simple; Mommy doesn't get mad, she gets even.

Be sure to do this one full screen for the best view.

Awww, the scientist are getting all excited.

Why? Because their $2 billion toy-ehm... I mean, cosmic ray detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station has found the first significant hint of dark matter. This is the elusive substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed. Dark matter is thought to make up about a quarter of all the matter in the universe.
Within months the scientists will collect the data and analyze it at CERN.

The findings last Wednesday are based on seeing an excess of positrons - positively charged subatomic particles. Since the 7-ton AMS magnetic detector began studying cosmic ray particles in space, it found about 400,000 positrons whose surging energies indicate they might have been created when particles of dark matter collided and destroyed each other.
Unraveling the mystery of dark matter could help scientists better understand what holds our universe and galaxies together.
So...I guess it isn't duck tape (or gaff tape)...because that's what holds my universe together.