Mosaic Life

Diet beverage review

We drink mostly diet sodas, so I thought I’d give a review of different ones.

Diet Coke. Bleh. BLEH. The aftertaste, it’s awful. If I go to a restaurant that has no other diet sodas, I’ll usually get half Diet Coke, half Dr. Pepper so as to drink something with less calories that will not set off my gag reflex. It does depress me that usually Diet Coke is the only thing offered at restaurants, because I think more people would give diet a chance if they’d try diet beverages that don’t offend the taste buds. However, I do know people who are used to the aftertaste, and no joke, actually crave Diet Coke. I’m sure this has some sort of relation to that syndrome that kidnapping victims get when they start to love their captors, but I haven’t really done any research to prove it just yet.

Diet Pepsi. Bleh, but not as bad as Diet Coke. Same deal as above, mostly.

Diet Dr. Pepper. Oh how I love thee. It actually truly does taste a lot like regular Dr. Pepper. And it doesn’t go flat quickly.

Pibb Zero. Notice that they’ve gotten rid of the formalities and ditched the Mr. At any rate, good tasting, but it goes flat quickly.

Coke Zero. Goes flat quickly, but tastes pretty good at first. I’d say it tastes pretty similar to regular Coke, just not as syrupy sweet.

Cherry Coke Zero. Used to love it, but we bought it like 1,000 times in a row and now the gag reflex starts up with the taste of fake cherry flavoring.

Diet Cherry Coke. Way better than regular Diet Coke, but we did the same thing with this as with Cherry Coke Zero, so gag reflex and all.

Diet Sprite. Good stuff. Goes flat quickly, but I do like adding it to grape juice to make it fizzy (and to drink less sugar with juice).

Diet Mountain Dew. Tastes very much like regular Mountain Dew, if you’re a fan. For some reason, a lot of people like to hate on the Dew, which I don’t get, unless maybe it has a redneck sort of feel to it or something. Plus, it’s a sickly green color. But I like it just fine.

Diet Root Beer, any brand. BLEH. Not worth buying. If you crave root beer, just buy IBC, not diet. It’s the bomb diggity.

The most important meal of the day

My husband rocks the hizzy. (Yes, this is one of those bragging about the husband posts.) He made ham, egg, and cheese english muffins this morning and brewed coffee. Why is that such a big deal? You see, in the Wason household, we don’t do mornings. Well, Monster does mornings, and it gets him locked in the bathroom until 8 a.m. or so. And so the very fact that I had more than an apple for breakfast on a weekday is amazing. Less healthy perhaps, but far more tastey.

So I’ll be making breakfast tomorrow as a sort of thank-you. And it’s going to be the best cereal ever.

Apples

FYI: Even though Mcintosh apples and Fuji apples look alike, they are not the same at all. Mcintosh apples have that grainy texture that for years made me think that I hated apples, and Fuji apples are firm and altogether yummy.

You may now go about your business.

The big two-five

On Saturday I turned 25. That’s right; I am now in my mid-twenties. That’s such a weird thing to me. I mean, I’m no longer in my early twenties. And I’m inching toward 30. Thirty is the age where you like, have kids and buy houses.

You like my birthday cake? My sweet husband refuses to take credit for it. So we agreed that this could be my “joke” birthday cake. It actually tasted pretty good.

The Varsity

So I’m taking a Persuasive Writing class. Turns out, it’s quite similar to blogging. So I figured I’d post one of my first papers, a review of a fastfood restaurant.

Smashed Burgers and Clogged Arteries    

What’ll ya have? I stood transfixed, struggling to pick out a menu item as the lady behind the cash register’s patience seemed to be spent. So this was the Varsity (or The Varsity Jr. anyway). Already I had growing doubts about the restaurant, but I tried to silence them by telling myself to give the place a chance. A burger. I could order a burger. I piped up, “I’ll have a cheeseburger and…” She pressed a button and looked back up at me. “Um, some fries and a coke.” She rang it up and told me the total. Hmm, a bit pricey. I stepped aside and waited for my food. When the items were all piled on the red tray, I surveyed the victuals. It didn’t look good. It looked greasy. It didn’t look all that fresh. And I could tell my arteries were soon going to be crying out in agony. But I was determined. Continue reading The Varsity…

Soliciting meal ideas

So now that I’m going to school full time and working full time, I literally have no time to cook healthy dinners. I’ve searched around on the internet for “fast, healthy dinner solutions,” but I haven’t really found anything suitable. They’re always like “have pasta on hand, cook these 20-minute meals, buy a whole bunch of ingredients because surely you have time to spend perusing the grocery store aisles.” And I’m like, no, you don’t get it. NO TIME HERE. Seriously. Twice a week I don’t get home until 11 pm. And when I am home, I’m writing papers and reading. So seriously, I need ideas for non-fast food meals so that my husband and I don’t have heart attacks in the time it’ll take for us to get our degrees (Spring 2009).

So far my solution has been getting a bag of salad and rotisserie chicken from the Deli at our local Kroger. But we can’t live off that forever.

So does anyone have ideas for quick, no I mean QUICK (I’m talking instant), meals that are reasonably priced?