I read something today that made me look at Hillary in a different light. Here it is:

Running ahead of schedule, Clinton followed up the stop with a trip to the local Dairy Queen, where she ordered a Snickers Blizzard. “Two of my favorite things — ice cream and Snickers,” she said as she spooned bite after bite.

I’ve had a Snickers Blizzard. It is basically heaven in a cup. Truly - ice cream and Snickers - two of my favorite things, as well. Perhaps I’ve been too hard to Hillary all these years.

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My sister, Debi, gave me this recipe, and I just made a pot of this delicious chowder to take to church tomorrow to help feed the folks who are staying after church to pack boxes to send to our soldiers serving in combat zones overseas. We will probably pack 30-40 boxes, and then we’ll ship them out on Monday.

It has been a year or two since I made this, and I had forgotten how good it is. I had a bowl for dinner, and it is wonderful. I also made a pot of chili, but I’ve posted my recipe for chili before.

Here’s the recipe for Chicken Cheese Corn Chowder

Chicken Cheese Corn Chowder

1 cup chopped onion
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 17-ounce can creamed corn
3 cups milk
8 ounces Velveeta
8 ounces Colby-Jack or cheddar cheese
salt/pepper to taste
Mrs. Dash seasoning to taste
Chopped parsley (optional - I add this because it makes it look so nice to have the bits of green in it)

In a soup pot, cook the onion in butter until transparent. Add chicken brother, chicken, potatoes, salt, pepper Mrs. Dash. Simmer until the meat and potatoes are thoroughly cooked. Add corn, ilk and cheese until the cheese is melted and blended.

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I didn’t mind missing the Ben and Jerry’s free ice cream cone deal that was going on today (April 29th). I’m just not a fan of Ben and Jerry’s. However, tomorrow is Baskin and Robbins 31 Cent Scoop Night, and I can already hear Jamoca Almond Fudge calling my name.

From 5:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. tomorrow night (April 30, 2008), Baskin and Robbins will sell their small ice cream scoop for only 31 cents. And if you’ve been to a Baskin and Robbins lately, you’ll know that’s a good deal!

The purpose of the Baskin and Robbins 31 Cent Scoop Night is to honor America’s firefighters:

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation remembers America’s
fallen heroes and assists their families. The organization provides
firefighters with training to prevent deaths in the line of duty and
offers the public information to prevent fires in our communities.

A donation of $100,000 will be made by Baskin-Robbins® to the
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. At select local stores
throughout the country, you may also have a chance to donate to
your local fire station.

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Now there’s the perfect place for people who feel that pouring a bowl of cereal requires too much effort. Cereality is the newest concept in restaurants. It’s the place where you can go for a bowl of cereal.
Here’s a little background info from their franchise site:

Cereality is more than just a place to get cereal, it’s a new way of thinking about cereal. Cereality offers over 30 favorite name-brand cereals and over 30 toppings, making it easy to create the perfect bowl. Customers can also choose from our delicious oatmeal, smoothies, parfaits and an assortment of coffees and teas. All of our cereals are served in distinctive cereal boxes and are perfect partnered with our famous SLOOP, a straw and spoon all in one!

A SLOOP? I could understand calling it a “Stroon” or a “spraw” - but SLOOP doesn’t fit! A “scoop” could fit in there somewhere, but what is the “SL” from?

Looks like the only Cereality restaurants are in Arizona, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I guess if I need some cereal, I’ll just have to pour my own.

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If you read The Median Sib regularly you know that I’ve tried a couple diets lately.  Nutrisystem was a bomb.  I shipped all the food back today.  A lot of it was simply inedible.  Now I’ve ordered a week’s worth of The Biggest Loser food.  My shipment should arrive tomorrow, and I’ll let you know how that goes.

Now there are two other diets that are making headlines:  The DASH Diet, and the Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet. 

Here’s a little info on the DASH Diet:

A healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in fat has long been touted as heart smart. Now, increasing evidence suggests that a similar diet reduces blood pressure and decreases a woman’s risk for heart attack and stroke.

Scientists reporting in the April 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine have found that healthy, middle-aged women who closely followed the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet have lower rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women who do not follow such diets.

And Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet:

Obesity expert and author Dr. Sanford Siegal, best known as the creator of the popular Dr. Siegal’s® COOKIE DIETâ„¢ weight loss system and hunger controlling foods, today announced that he has posted on the CookieDiet.com web site a new entry in his personal blog that addresses recent comments made by Madonna pertaining to husband Guy Ritchie’s loss of libido while on “the cookie diet”. Madonna made her comments last week during an interview on the Johnjay and Rich radio show which originates on KZZP-FM in Phoenix, Arizona. Coincidentally, Dr. Siegal’s company is a frequent advertiser on the station.

Hmmm - not that’s not the kind of publicity Dr. Siegal wanted!
Stay tuned for my review of the Biggest Loser Meal Plan.

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Okay, if you’re a regular reader of TMS, you know I recently tried NutriSystem and found much of the food absolutely inedible.  Now there is the Biggest Loser Meal Plan.  They talked about it on tonight’s show, and so I looked it up.  They sell the meals week by week.  So there isn’t a HUGE and HEAVY shipment of 5 weeks worth of food (like NutriSytem) which must be re-packed and shipped back if I don’t like the food.  Just one week at a time.  I think I’m going to try it.

UPDATE:  I ordered one week’s worth.  I found out that they make all their shipments at the same time each week.  I should get my first shipment the middle of next week.  I’m really anxious to see what it’s like.  It’s supposed to be “gourmet” but then you may recall how horrible the Nutrisystem “delicious” food was.  So you just can’t go by the descriptions on commercials or websites.     Check back after April 16th or 17th to find out my evaluation of the food.

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After trying NutriSystem and finding the food mostly awful (although the chocolate crunch bar was quite tasty), I decided to make up my own diet.  Really, with all the 100-calorie packs of everything and the good-tasting, shelf-stable, already-prepared food available in grocery stores, there’s no need to spend two or three times the money on tasteless garbage from NutriSystem.

So I am working on THE MEDIAN SIB diet which will list food selections from the grocery store that will keep you within the right calorie range but with better tasting food.  It’s not exactly rocket science, and I wonder how it is even possible for NutriSystem to come up with such nasty-tasting food.  It’s almost as if they believe that diet food HAS to taste like crap.

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My third NutriSystem day, and I decided to try their oatmeal for breakfast.  The packet is about the same size as Quaker Instant Oatmeal packets - which I like.  For the maple/brown sugar flavor of the NutriSystem oatmeal, I followed the directions and tasted it.  My only question is: Do they deliberately try to make their food taste awful?  Really, how do you ruin oatmeal?  There are 200 calories in a serving of NutriSystem oatmeal.  I checked my box of Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal, and found that there are 150 calories in a half-cup of it.  So I cooked a half cup of it on the stove with 1 cup water for 9 minutes, added 3 teaspoons brown sugar (45 calories) and now I have a 195 calorie breakfast that tastes delicious - without being overly sweet and with no strange aftertaste.  I don’t know what NutriSystem added to their oatmeal to add all those calories because there wasn’t a half cup of oatmeal.

I hate to say this, but I’m beginning to think that, except for a few dishes, I’m not going to be able to eat this NutriSystem food.  I KNOW I won’t try another package of the oatmeal.  Since I really like oatmeal, I ordered lots of oatmeal.  Almost all the lunch entrees are those styrofoam cups that you add boiling water to - and which have not proven to be good.  In only two days, I’ve had two NutriSystem meals that are truly inedible.

I just did a Google search for NutriSystem oatmeal, and I found this.  Wish I had read this before I ordered NutriSystem. 

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One thing I always enjoy when I go to the beach is a bowl of fresh oyster stew made from Gulf oysters.  I remember my mother making oyster stew when I was a child.  There is just nothing that compares to the comfort food taste of oyster stew.  And nothing makes oyster stew better than using fresh oysters.  In years past, using fresh oysters was a little risky because of Vibrio Vulnificus.  However, now there are post-harvest processes that allow oysters to be consumed raw but with added safety features that reduce Vibrio Vulnificus to non-detectable levels.  If you have any questions about oysters, check out this website.

Oyster Stew

1/2 cup butter
3 stalks celery, chopped finely
1 shallot, chopped finely
1 quart half and half
2 containers (12 ounce each) fresh, shucked oysters, undrained
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the celery and shallot and stir over medium heat until the veggies are tender. Pour the half-and-half into a separate large pot over medium-high heat. Add the butter, celery and shallots. Stir continuously until the mixture almost boils. Add the oysters along with their liquid. Add the salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Cook (stirring continuously) until the oysters are done. Oysters curl at the ends with they are fully cooked. Serve with crackers and a salad. Enjoy!

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Nutri-System is such a rip-off.  Are  you tired of reading this?  I’m tired of writing about it.  I’m so disgusted with the whole thing.  OVER TWO WEEKS have gone by since I placed my first order.  I was all excited about getting started on a diet.  So I paid $19.95 to have the order packed and shipped quickly.  The order (without the $19.95 to speed things up) should have arrived between four and ten days after being shipped.  Did I mention that OVER TWO WEEKS have gone by - and still no food. 

When I check the UPS tracking number,  the only message there is that “Billing Information Received” on 3/4/08.  

I got an email from Nutri-System that the package was shipped on 3/4/08, and OF COURSE my bank account was charged for the shipment on 3/5/08.  The ONLY part of this transaction that they made sure worked according to plan was that they got my money.

I emailed Nutri-system.  No reply.

I called Nutri-System.  No apology.  No offer to check into what was taking so long.  I cancelled my “auto-delivery” plan.  I don’t intend to ever buy any more Nutri-System food.  That was last week when I fully expected to receive my food any day.  I will call them again tomorrow.  I won’t be as nice.

I emailed Nutri-System again.  Still no reply. 

I emailed a third time.  Finally a response!  It was an automated response telling me it would be up to three days before they could respond to my email.  Sigh!  How does the company stay in business?

My bank account is still out $313, and I still have no food.  Did I mention that it has been OVER TWO WEEKS?

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