Center Plate

The Magnificent 7

The Magnificent 7

1. Blueberries. These nutrient-packed berries can help bruises disappear. They are a rich source of flavonoids and a good source of vitamin C, which together improve blood circulation (thus reducing swelling) and help form collagen, the tissue that holds skin together.
2. Lemons. Squeeze two whole lemons into your tea, seltzer, and other beverages or on salads and other food to get your daily requirement of vitamin C. This major antioxidant not only fights heart disease and boosts immunity but it also helps form the collagen we need to heal tendons, ligaments, bones, and blood vessels.
   
3. Garlic. Two garlic cloves a day may keep what Grandpa called "hardening of the arteries" away. We now call it arteriosclerosis, but the garlic works just the same. In a German study recently presented at an American Heart Association conference in Washington, D.C., it was stated that taking two cloves of garlic a day reduces the formation of arterial plaque by up to 40 percent. And 42 other clinical trials have shown that garlic can improve cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure.
   
4. Lettuce. If getting to sleep is a problem, a sedative you may not have known about is lettuce, which contains a sleep-inducing substance called lectucarium. Its effects have been compared to the sedative effects of opium, but without the accompanying excitement.
   
5. Chocolate. Dark chocolate is packed with healthy nutrients, including flavonoids, that are part of a group of antioxidants known as polyphenols that decreases LDL (bad) cholesterol oxidation, reduces the risk of blood clots, increases blood flow in arteries, and may lower high blood pressure. In addition, most of us can agree that chocolate improves mood and pleasure. It does that by boosting serotonin and endorphin levels in the brain. Plus, chocolate contains a number of minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
   
6. Apples. Give in to temptation when it comes to one of the earth's healthiest foods. They are a great source of fiber. They're also a source of the phytochemical quercetin—a compound widely recognized for its ability to fight heart disease and cancer. "Apples are one of the best sources of flavonoids—as long as you leave on the peel," Kristine Napier, RD, writes in Eat to Heal. "Their complement of phytochemicals helps them fight heart disease, stroke, cancer, infections, inflammation and colitis." Because of the combination of fiber and fructose, apples help maintain blood sugar levels, which is key in fighting that afternoon blood sugar low. In fact, a successful dieting tip is to crunch into an apple for your afternoon snack—you'll end up eating a lot less during dinner.
   
7. Avocados. This tropical fruit wasn't grown in the United States until the 1830s. It is rich in potassium, beta-carotene, and "good" fat—the same monounsaturated fat that's found in olive oil and has been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels. Avocados are also a rich source of the essential fatty acid (EFA) omega-9 that helps promote hormone regulation, the transportation of fat through the body, and the breakup of cholesterol. Because avocados are higher in calories than other fruits—two-thirds of an avocado has about 150 calories—you might not want to eat the "alligator pear" at every meal, but you can increase the delicious quotient of your favorite sandwich by adding some slices or making it a fiesta by digging into some guacamole.

Happy Birthday Samara

Just have to wish my beautiful daughter a Happy 7th Birthday. 

Nutrition Tuesday

With football season underway here are some ideas for game days. Get a large bowl and mix together fat free popcorn with some baked chips, roasted almonds and pretzel sticks together. Less fattening and more fiber! If you are going to reach for the snack bags that are lining all the store aisles right now, look for Sun Chips, Baked Tostitos, flavored rice cake chips. A football favorite in my home is jerky! (The best jerky around is at the butcher shop in Midwestern Market on Main Street and Greenfield in Mesa. No kidding!)

Cold beer is a favorite for many, but toss in cold bottles of water too. If the water is there, it has a better chance of getting picked up rather than another beer.

When salty and high carb snacks are going down by the handfuls, offer a meal that focuses on a lean and low sodium meat as the main course with fresh vegetables to fill the rest of the plate.

Go Cardinals!!

Meatboy Politics

Meatboy has a way to decide the next President.  It's called Meatboy Politics.  We have sugar cookies for sale with with each parties candidates.  If you buy a cookie we will tally a mark.  On November 3rd we will have a winner and will announce this winner to everyone.  Meatboy will also have a prize for the person who bought one of the winning candidates cookies.  Sign your email to the cookie list if you buy a cookie.  The daily results will be tallied on a board inside the bakery.  I'll just bet that Meatboy will pick the winning candidates. 

Story of Meatboy

Meatboy is an interesting story that has grown into a fun marketing tool that 1 little boy thinks is the greatest. 

When I started working for Midwestern 10 years ago I would always refer to the butchers as "Meatboys."  I always played sports and used nicknames all the time so I felt this was appropriate for our store.  Well, one day I got the idea to turn it around and put the word "Meatboy" on my license plate.  Well, I never imagined the comments I would get by doing this.  At least once a day I was asked what it meant or had someone wave at me because they knew I was from Midwestern Meats.  This made me start thinking of a marketing idea to have a meatboy represent our philosophies and how we manage our day to day services. 

Finally I decided to meet with a promotional professional to talk about my idea and get an opinion.  My idea was to take a little boy and make him Meatboy.  She felt that it would have to be a cartoon generated, as this would be more acceptable and more effective with customers.  I sat on it a few days, but just thought my idea was still the right one so I moved forward.  I created Meatboy with my son Kellen.   He was 3 at the time.  My wife snapped some pictures of Kellen "acting" at home and this was the beginning.  He was now officially Meatboy.  I then would take the different pictures, and come up with sayings that he (any little kid) would come up with.  There are so many fun things kids say, it was easy to create the fun pictures we have used.  I immediately had a large picture printed and put on our front window welcoming people to our store.  This picture has turned into an item all on it's own as our window painter will paint different looks on Kellen based on the season or holiday.  I think his favorite is when he looks like a bunny rabbit for Easter.  Everytime he comes to the store he can't wait to see what he looks like today. 

Anyway, it's a fun way to get our services out and it's a fun way for my little boy to be involved with my business.  He now thinks he is the "boss" and he takes alot of pride knowing he is Meatboy.  If you should ever see Kellen in the store please don't hesitate to call him Meatboy.

   

Birthdays and Cakes

For the past week my mind has been consumed with planning my children's birthday parties. The date is fast approaching and we finally nailed down a theme. The meatboy decided on the Incredible Hulk, and the princess chose a Rock Star party. The invitations for the Hulk went out today, while the Rock Star invites are still in the designing stage. Last year both kids spent their birthday holed up in the house with chicken pox so this year we are going all out. It'll be interesting how I manage two separate parties in one day. It's tough when you have your only children's birthdays in one month and within 5 days of each other. Here's a picture of them this time last year right before they were struck with chicken pox.

Nonetheless I found myself reminiscing of birthdays past--how much they've grown. Which made me think of our Bakery and how it has evolved too. When we first opened the Bakery our selections were limited to breads, donuts, and fruit pies. We didn't have a cake decorator who did anything more than the basic icing and rosebuds. At one point we were one of those bakery that ordered edible wallpaper of licensed products like the Disney princess. It was an improvement but certainly not by a mile. Today, we have Marcee and Angel--bona fide cake decorators and for the past year have done everything from bachelorette to retirement to wedding cakes. We have tons of pictures at the store or real like examples.  I will post a few of our best ones later, but for now, here's a sampling of some of our earlier works.

Now back to more birthday planning. If you're wondering what this year's birthday cakes will be  . . . Angel and I decided for the Hulk, the sheet cake will replicate blocks of stones with a toy Hulk looking as if it broke thru. The Rock Star cake is either a guitar-shaped cake or black and purple with glittered stars all over with a toy microphone. These designs have not been done in our Bakery before, but I'm confident Angel can design it. Stop by the Bakery and see what they can do for your next party. I'll post more cakes and bakery goods later.

Lin

What's for dinner?

I grew up with a mom at home for dinner. She cooked dinner every night and it was timed for just before Dad got home from work. Mom eventually got a full-time job outside of the home, but still made sure a home-cooked meal happened every night even if one of us kids had to get it started. It's not that way in my house with my kids.