Personal Chef To Go

I have been looking into meal delivery plans in my never ending quest to lose weight. I read up on Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Ediets (Deliciously Yours), Bistro MD (same as the Biggest Loser meal service), Personal Chef To Go, and some others. I had previously tried Diet to Go since I could pick up the food, but the food was hit or miss so I wanted to try something else.

I decided on Personal Chef To Go because the food is made fresh and shipped in a cooler. Nothing comes frozen or freeze dried so I thought the freshness and lack of preservatives would make it taste better than the others. Unlike other plans, it is not meant to be a "diet" program, but all the meals are low in calories, high in fiber, good carbs and protein and low in refined sugars. I ordered the "Busy Singles" plan which included 5 dinners and 3 lunches for a total of about $112, including tax and shipping. This works out to about $14 per meal, which seemed expensive, but worth it if the food is good. The food arrived on a Friday, but I did not plan on eating any of it until Monday since I wanted it for lunch at work and easy dinners after work.

I brought the 3 lunches with me to work on Monday. I ended up going out to lunch (had just soup and bread), but got out one of the salads in the late afternoon to eat as a snack. The salads were supposed to last until Wednesday, but all the lettuce was already turning brown. I decided on the teriyaki salmon salad with garlic soy ginger dressing. It was a large piece of salmon, lettuce, grape tomatoes, red bell peppers and the dressing. There was something weird about eating a big piece of cold fish you know was cooked many days prior. I had a hard time getting thru the fish and didn't eat much of it so I decided to focus on the salad part while pretending the lettuce wasn't brown. The dressing was just way way way too strong in flavor. I ended up throwing most of this away and I never even looked at the other salads except to throw them away. Monday night I was excited to try one of the dinners. I couldn't decide between the jambalaya with chicken, shrimp and chicken sausage or the crab cakes. I went with the jambalaya since I was pretty hungry and it looked like more food. It started out ok. Rice was fine, but reminded me of a frozen meal. Then the odd flavor hit me..maybe cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice? It got worse as the meal went on because this flavor built up in my mouth and I couldn't stand it anymore...and the chicken was weird. Way too much seasoning in this meal. I had to eat something else after to try to get the taste out of my mouth. Tuesday night I really didn't want to eat any of these meals, but felt I needed to give it one more try since I spent the money. I made the crab cakes which came with a side of green beans and carrots. Minky, my meat loving cat, got excited as soon as I took the package out of the fridge, so I thought this might be good. I first gave Minky a little bit before I tried it and he approved. The first few bites I had were good, but then that same spice hit me. Do they use it in everything??? I managed to eat the entire meal, but the spice built up my mouth again to the point where I decided I couldn't eat anymore of these meals. I left them in the fridge until Sunday when it was time to take the trash out to the curb.

Does Anybody Care?

Heidi and Spencer got married...does anybody care? I don't think so.

The Real Housewives of Orange County

TV is getting good again. Top Chef started again a couple weeks ago and The Real Housewives of Orange County starts on Tuesday. I admit it...I like this show. I tried watching the NY and Atlanta versions, but only got through part of an episode for each version. I love Jeana and Vicki from the Orange County show. They are strong women who have managed to raise a family with good kids and have successful businesses at the same time. All the others annoy me because they just want men to buy them stuff and have spoiled children with no ambition. I know life is not like this for everyone in Orange County since I grew up there, but I still like the show.

$1.99

I saw $1.99 gas today. It's nice to know that something is coming down in price since everything is going up. I think we are all still getting screwed at the pump though since at the height oil was $147 a barrel and now it's about $50 a barrel.

Funniest Show in a Long Time

My husband and I watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia the other night. This is seriously the funniest show I have seen in a long time. We were laughing out loud hysterically. It is so politically incorrect that you cannot even be offended since it is so extreme. I can't believe I haven't watched this before. If you haven't, check it out!

Thursday Thirteen - Famous Patrices

Patrice is not a common name here in the US. It is generally a female name in English and a male name in French. It peaked in popularity in 1958 at number 212 on the list of top baby names, but has fallen ever since 1987. The last time it made it on the top 1000 baby names list was in 1995 when it was ranked # 941. Here are 13 famous people with the first name Patrice.

1. Patrice Lumumba, 1st President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

2. Patrice Bergeron, notable for his ice-hockey career

3. Patrice de MacMahon, duc de Magenta, an ex president of the French Republic

4. Patrice Pike, notable for her music career

5. Patrice Hollis, Playboy Playmate Miss September 2007

6. Patrice Oneal, American stand-up comedian

7. Patrice Brisebois, notable for his ice-hockey career

8. Patrice Rushen, African-American R&B singer-songwriter

9. Patrice King Brown, television news anchor at KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh

10. Patrice Guers, French bassist, known for his work in Rhapsody of Fire

11. Patrice Evra, French-Senegalese football (soccer) player

12. Patrice Bart-Williams, notable for his reggae music career

13. Patrice Juah, Miss Liberia 2006

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wordless Wednesday - Seen on Vacation in Florida

I'm Done with The Hills

I think I am finally done with The Hills. The show has just gotten too far away from the real lives of the people on the show. Since the "cast" also has their lives followed by the paparazzi in the gossip blogs, it's hard to reconcile the two.

Lauren - She had been going to school at FIDM on the show for about 5 years now. All the programs at the school are only 2 years and she has her own fashion line that is never shown on the show. So she is going to school forever for something she already does??? Also, she now has a boyfriend who is never on the show either...not even referenced. She bores me.






Heidi - First of all, someone needs to tell this girl to stop with all the plastic surgery. She is going to look worse than Pam Anderson by the age of 25. So she got fired from her fake job and then didn't know what to do with herself? Why didn't she just ask Spencer since he doesn't even pretend to have a job. I do think it's real that these two have no friends though. I bet that is why their sisters have shown up on the show so they don't become irrelevant to the "story".

Whitney - I always liked Whitney, but maybe that is just because they didn't show much of her since she didn't want her personal life on the show. Now that she has a spin off coming she is letting them show her dating, but who knows if those are real dates or casted actors. Now she keeps referencing a break up from a year ago...uh, we never saw your boyfriend so we can't really care about your break up. And please stop giggling and flirting with the models at "work"...it's quite unprofessional. On the recent "lost scenes" show, we learned that Whitney went on a date with Brody and kissed him. This didn't bother Lauren, but anytime anyone else dated a guy she did, it was a major scandal.

Audrina - Possibly the most savvy of the bunch. I used to think she was a dud, well I still do, but releasing the nude pictures of herself was the best thing she ever did for her career. It made her more interesting and now the show is focusing more on her. I feel another spin off! I wonder if they will show the feud between her and Lauren regarding the rumor that Lauren hooked up with Justin Bobby. This guy is just a loser media whore using the girls...can't they see this? Audrina needs to drop this guy for good and learn how to control the weird look in her eyes if she wants her own show.


Goodbye girls! I hope you are saving your money.

Worst Gift Ever

Soap on a rope. Who ever came up with the idea that this is a good gift? I was recently looking at holiday gift guides on the internet and this came up. I don't get why a man would need his soap on a rope, but even if he did, it's not a good Christmas gift.

Eek! Fire!

One of the major fires burning in California right now is in the city that my husband's parents live in. They are ok though. They said it turned dark as night in the middle of the day and outside it was glowing orange! Scary!