2X Cook - Chicken and Meatballs.

Hi,

So tonight as part of my plan I made two different recipes. As you can tell from the title, I made both chicken and meatballs. I haven't decided if I want to post complete recipes yet, since they are really not my own -they come from various cookbooks. But anyway these meatballs are more of an appetizer but I just make them for myself as a full meal.

The meatballs are made out of general 80/20 ground beef. There aren't any quality grocery stores close to where I live so I have deal with the local big box brand Ralphs -ugh. Anyway I use a 1bs and 1/2 of meat, various herbs and spices, and about a cup of breadcrumbs and 1 egg. I just mix that all up with my hands - which can be a bit uncomfortable ~haha, then throw it in the fridge for a few hours. I have tried baking them in the past, but I have found that just pan frying them is the best, at about medium heat for something like 2-4 min per side and then flip them about 4 times or so. The best part about this recipe though is the sauce. Its. Simply. Amazing. I use 2 cups Sweet Baby Rays Sweet and Spicy bbq sauce, 1 cup seedless raspberry jelly, and 2 tbs chipotle power and its delicious, you could probably put it on just about anything its that good.

I also made a chili-rub chicken breast recipe that I am also quite fond of. Its a spice rub with various ingredients along with a barbeque sauce made with sweet onion and a mix of good flavors. I like grilling them the best, about 3-4 min per side on direct heat and then 3 or 4 more indirect. I still am getting used to the grill at my new apartment. It tends to still run hot, so I am getting them a bit too charred right now and thus the lack of a picture. When you put the sauce on the chicken when they are cooking it tends to caramelize a bit which makes it that much better. I only ate one of these tonight -which I think is a good start. I easily could have eaten all three!

Alright that's it for now. Again, I'll decide if I want to post the full recipe and then make an edit if I choose to do that. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

That_Guy         

Weight Loss Sunday #1 I am Fat

Hi,

So I am going to straight out and say it, I am a fat person. I have been a fat person all of my life. Do I like being this way? No....., of course not. I have tried to change before with varying degrees of success and failure, but the ultimate end has never been an appropriate body mass index and I always return to my former ways.

But why am I like this? The problem is simple, the solution is harder. Currently I eat far too much and exercise far too little. Its not like I eat ice cream or candy bars everyday, I just eat far too much food whenever its available. I eat extremely quickly on purpose so I can eat as much as possible. I have a weakness for snack foods, and often eat the entire package. While I have been expanding my horizons, in the past I have been a picky eater and those trends still currently exist. I hate salads and all vegetables. Now while my upbringing is certainly partially to blame, as I am now an adult and make all my own decisions it has been solely my actions that leave me in this position.

While I have tried so many fad diets in the past, they have all failed me or I failed them. What happens is that I am steadfast for a few months at best, but eventually break down because of the monotony and I miss those foods in which I take pleasure. Hopefully, this time is different. What I have done is actually made a food schedule -planning out all my meals in advance for a week. I have also built variety into the plan ~ so hopefully I will not get bored and break down. This plan involves cooking 2 meals on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays so I can still get fresh meals, but don't have to cook every single day. I very much enjoy cooking, but after a while I do get bored with the prep times and washing the dishes, I am hoping to avoid these symptoms this go-round.

So the other part of the equation is obviously exercise. Why don't I get enough exercise? I don't get enough exercise because I am not really proficient at any physical activity. As a child I was allowed to quit every sport I was enrolled in, and never practiced enough to show any sort of promise. I do like to just walk around and explore places, but I detest jogging/ running since I am easily winded and it starts to hurt my lungs. So my current plan is this: 1. continue to walk around places for around a half hour as I have been doing. 2. Look for interesting, non-traditional physical activities during my school's student organization fair. 3. start working with fitness taped programming -I already ordered a set online.

Currently I am 5-9 and weigh 224.4 lbs which is an approximate 33.1 BMI. This past year has been a disaster. Last September I weighed 187.4 lbs. That's a gain of 37 lbs in less than a year. My current goal is to weigh 185 lbs on November 20th by birthday. That is in about 13 weeks, exactly 93 days. I am aiming for a 39.4 pound loss which is approximately 3 pounds per week. That is not the end goal, not even close, as I would like to weigh around 165 which is approximately appropriate for my height (well perhaps a bit more than that if I am able to add muscle but I would like to get down first before going back up).

Well, that is my current plan. I am going to need some luck and determination on the way, and perhaps this blog can help. If you read this, thank you.

Sincerely,

That_Guy          

Movie Review #2 Total Recall (2012)

Hi,

My second review is Total Recall, starting Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Bryan Cranston. While I knew many people who thought this film was going to be awful, I had higher hopes since I tend to enjoy visions of the future portrayed in film. I had never seen the Arnold 1990's version, so I had pretty much a blank slate.

Douglas Quaid, Colin Farrell, is an assembly line worker in the future where most of the planet has been destroyed by chemical warfare and only England and Australia (the colony) survive. He is bored with his life and has a recurring nightmare so goes to "Rekall" to gain more interesting memories. As we know from the trailer something goes wrong - cops come - and he miraculously disposes of them quite easily.

He then finds his way back to his apartment and consoles in his wife, Kate Beckinsale, who turns out to be an operative of the dominate GB government and tries to choke him out - which he of course escapes. The rest of the film is basically Beckinsale trying to kill or capture Farrell and Farrell fighting with ninja like precision a la Jason Bourne.

The majority of this film is action, and boy does it get boring. Action sequence after action sequence with very little plot in-between.  Director Len Wisemen should have taken another look at "Minority Report" to see how a futuristic thriller is done.

The little plot that exists is this: there is a generic resistance movement who the government led by Cohaagen, Bryan Cranston, wants to crush using robots. While Quaid doesn't know really who he is, he does find out that somewhere in his memories is a way to stop the robots and save "the colony." Jessica Biel comes along for the ride as the love interest/confidant and together they eventually win ....of course. Frequently the audience has to guess if what is going on is real or really just in Quaid's mind but at this point this kind of trickery is cliche.

The acting was quite bland and unmemorable. It seems like all the parts are just stock characters including the guy with amnesia, the women that tries to help him remember, the bad guy, and the bitch. I wish Cranston would have been given more time in the film and more control over the character he is in about 20 minuets max and isn't given enough to do. I was looking forward to this one and I should have listened to those who said it was going to suck, it did.

That_Guy

1/4 Killer Robots.  

Movie Review #1 The Campaign

Hi,

So here is my first review and its "The Campaign" starring Will Ferrel and Zach Galifianakis. While I am a big fan of both of these actors and comedians, I have to say that I hoped for more from this film. Ferrel basically plays an aggressive, adulterous version of Ricki Bobby and Galifianakis plays a sweet, family man version of Alan from "The Hangover."

    While this film did produce some laughter, there were virtually no side busting scenes that made you hurt from laughing so hard. I equate this film closer to something like "Semi-Pro", decent but not all that memorable.

Ferrel, Cam Brady, plays an incumbent Democratic Congressman from a small North Carolina district who enjoyed his seat in Congress and expected to remain in D.C. as he was running unopposed. Brady is a lose cannon congressman lacking morals and common sense.  His world is shattered, however, when Galifanakis, Marty Huggins, announces his candidacy for office.  Huggins is a disappointing son of a former campaign manger, Brian Cox, who just wants to enter politics and please his stern father.

John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd (who looks quite old) play the Motch brothers who support Huggins' candidacy as part of their evil plan to "insource" workers from China into the North Carolina district to further drive down costs. While these characters are a parody of the Kotch Brothers, to me they seemed similar to the Duke brothers from "Trading Places" albeit not given as much screen time and not as funny. They send Tim Wattley, Dylan McDermott, to be the campaign manager for Huggins campaign -and make him "not suck."

 After the first act the film progresses to where each candidate tries to ruin the other, or ends up ruining themselves in the process. Most of the films best moments, however, are displayed in the various trailers, which I find very annoying. I did enjoy the campaign managers though, McDermott and Sudeikis. They both play the "straight men" to the crazyiness of the two headliners and are able to steal a few scenes.

While both Galifianakis and Ferrel provide some of the characteristics that made them famous, for some reason it just isn't as enthralling this time around. I felt that this film had potential to provide a satirical look at contemporary political campaigns. While they did try to include some commentary, I think everyone knows at this point that silly catchphrases and talking points dominate debates and money controls everything. The end of the Dictator (2012) had a much more poignant and hysterical criticism of American politics and culture.

So in review, I thought it was worth seeing, and I would suggest others to go see it. I was expecting more, though, since you would think having these two together would be comedy magic, not a so-so movie.

That_Guy  

2/4 Buttons. 

Starting a Blog!

Hello,

I am That_Guy and I have decided to start a blog. If I get any readers then that's great! I doubt it though, so I will probably just be talking to myself, but that's OK too.  Mainly this is going to be about my life along with the cooking I do and movie reviews. My life really lacks structure right now, so I thought perhaps this blog could help. If anyone does eventually read this, thank you. \

Sincerely,

That_Guy