Center Plate

worst supermarket food list

You can read the list by clicking here. As a kid I loved eating Twix candy, and at at Halloween (as an adult) I'd raid my kids bag for it. Not so good according to this list. Who knew 1 package of Twix candy has 280 calories 127g sugar, and 14g fat (11g of it saturated). Holy cow!

The article gives one great tip I'll remember. The less items listed on the ingredients list, the more your getting what you paid for. Just like our line of protein powder supplements. Our Omni Pro Plus has only 6 ingredients listed.

-lin-

Only 24 days left

until Thanksgiving Day. R U Ready? Our early bird Thanksgiving Turkey and Dinners order form are posted here for your convenience. There are several ways to get your order in.

1. Print the form here and fax it in to 480-924-1710

2. Email your order to  info@midwesternmeats.com write "Thanksgiving Order" on the subject line.

3. Call in your order at 480-924-5855.

In addition to fresh turkeys, we also have pumpkin pies, assorted fruit pies, bread rolls, stuffing---basically all the things you need to serve a memorable Thanksgiving dinner.

And of course, a Halloween picture. I think this one says it all.

   

And here's our cake from Midwestern Bakery.

It looks so much better IRL. Double-layered white cake with raspberry creme in the middle. Amazing and ymmy.

Yet, another blender we buy

After 4 months of use our Cusinart blender is busted. It seriously just blew up the other day. Yes, blew up as in loud angry noises and smoke coming out of its vents. Not a good scene. The kids started to cry thinking our house was on fire, and I ended up with a chunky protein smoothie. I normally would've made the effort to call Cuisinart to see what can be done but since this is my second Cuisinart Blender that busted in the last year, I decided it was best to air my contempt and get over it. I actually like Cuisinart products. I have their toaster, food processor, mixer and cutting boards. Those are working fine. But, their blenders . . . in my personal opinion, forget it. My first Cuisinart blender was this one

 

The SmartPower Premier 600 Watt Blender is supposed to be the bomb. At $99.95 it certainly had the power to whip up any smoothie receipe from cake batter to protein shakes. It just didn't last longer than 12 months. I guess our twice a day smoothie intake was too much for this highly touted expensive blender. Still loving Cusinart, I bought this "cheaper" version.

yeah, at $69.95, I wouldn't necessary call it cheap but it was cheaper than the first. I'm a firm believer you get what you pay for and I wanted a dang good blender to make my Omni Pro Plus Protein smoothie. So now that that blender is now residing here

I am currently the proud owner of this Krups blender

and for now I am one happy smoothie maker. This baby is quieter than its competitor and faster too. Seriously. It took just 5 seconds, if at that, to blend 8 frozen strawberries, a cup of ice cubes, 1 scoop of Omni Pro Plus Protein Powder, and a cup of skim milk. Again, I wouldn't say it's cheap. I bought it 10% off its $149.99 price tag from a big box retailer that's going out of business. But I wanted power, speed, and only one-page of how-tos. With only 5 buttons and a 1000 watts this was as good as it gets. Time will tell if it can last being used twice a day, 7 days a week. A smoothie for an afternoon snack and a smoothie before bed--just as Stacie recommends to supplement our clean eating.

Hey, I'd love to hear what kitchen products you depend on a daily basis that has let you down to where you've had to buy a new one constantly. On Friday, one comment will be randomly selected to win a free Midwestern Meats seasoning valued at $5.99.

(You can buy the Cuisinart Blenders at your own risk here and here. For the Krups blender, go here and here. For the best-tasting whey protein isolate powder, you can order it here or contact Stacie here. She's got an awesome collection of protein smoothie receipes that's yummy and healthy. I'm sure she'll love to share them with you.)

Get help when you need it

This last week has been crazy silly busy for Rod and I, and the gang at 4308 East Main Street. It began on Tuesday with a Midwestern Fitness cookout at Gold's Gym in Mesa; Friday, grilling brats and burgers at Mountain Pointe High School in Ahwatukee during the football game; Saturday, serving up sample chicken breast and sirloins for a promo at MaxMuscle in Scottsdale; later that evening, Ed was at another high school football game in Union Hills; Sunday, pre-game tailgate (Cardinals vs. Cowboys) catering for 25 mostly Cowboy fans nonetheless from Insight.com, and then, later, a post-game (how about dem Cards!) tailgate party for 300 or so Cardinal players, staff, family and friends. Our final cookout was yesterday at the LA Fitness location in Ahwatukee.

As Rod and I worked our little hiney off, our children who were on Fall break, spent time with Nana. I don't know what I would've done without my mother--probably have a highly paid Nanny with health benefits! As I plan for the rest of this week, I see that we have a community cookout for the Cortina HOA this Saturday, a block party on Halloween night in our neighborhood, two NASCAR catering gigs Nov. 6, 7, and 8 (one for a private party and one for a local radio station), Nov. 3 a post-game tailgate party for the Cardinals; then, soon, comes Thanksgiving, my annual cookie exchange party, Christmas, New Year's, Valentines and finally St. Patrick's Day. Goodness, my head hurts just thinking of it all.

Luckily, Rod and I learned a long time ago that to get things done around the holidays or any special event takes team work. You need to start with one long list that might turn into 3 or more lists that gets divied up to your team. One team you can count on is us. We are pros when it comes to food. Just ask me. No joke. As a fulltime working mother and wife, how else do I get my children fed on days when I get home right at dinner time. I stock my freezer with ready-to-eat food from Midwestern Meats of course! It's fresh and nutritious with no extra additives. For the upcoming Halloween block party, I'm ordering a Halloween inspired cake, baked whole chicken, and a few bakery treats for the kids goody bag. That's at least 8 items crossed off my to dos list.

I believe the only time I'm cooking anything is for my annual cookie exchange where I have to share the receipes. But, even this event is planned to help me and my friends save time and expense baking holiday cookies for gifts and Santa.

Is it expensive to cater out? Not when you think of it in this way: with each event I plan, I ask myself where am I most valuable? Is it doing the groceries AND cooking the meals? Or am I more useful helping my daughter practice math or coloring dinosaurs with my son? Or how about watching the news with my husband? The choice becomes clear. Get the pros to help with your to dos. By choosing how you want your time spent, and including it in your cost equation, you'll discover like I have that there's no savings whatsoever doing it all by yourself. Time or money.

Holidays and celebrations are things we are extremely good at because we have a team experienced in all things food. Our meat department can help you decide exactly how much turkey or prime rib you need to order to feed a party of 5 or 5000. If you love to cook, I suggest you choose the entree you are famous for and leave the rest to us. Be it bread rolls or pumpkin pies. Not only will your guests remember the great food you served, but how you did it with little time spent in the kitchen. Imagine, you will actually look fresh, not tired, in the pictures.

To begin crossing items off your party list, plan now to save time by clicking here and here for starters. Check back often as we rev up for the holidays with more menu guides and planning ideas for the upcoming season.

October 20-25 Specials

Specials for next week are: 10-13 to 10-18. 

Meat Dept. 

Pork Steak $1.99/lb.    NEW ITEM - Turkey Apple Sausag $2.99/lb.

We are now taking orders for Roger's Finest Fresh Turkeys.    Order early to assure you get your family the very best Turkey in town.  More info on Thanksgiving items will come later. 

Bakery/Deli  Squaw Bread $2.59/loaf  and Pumpkin Squares $1.29/ea.

Restaurant 

Monday- Shrimp Stir Fry $9.99  and Chicken Parmesan $9.99          Tuesday- Chicken Cordon Bleu $10.99 or Homemade Lasagna $9.99     Wednesday- Spanish Style Stuffed Pork Roast $10.99 or Stuffed Cabbage Rolls $9.99       Thursday- 1/2 Baked Chicken for $9.99 or Apricot Glazed Salmon for $10.99          Friday  8 oz. Sirloin Steak $10.99 or Pork Roast w Peach Glaze for $10.99        Saturday  Chicken Fried Chicken for $10.99                  

Meatboy Politics-  Can a young boys idea, cookies, decide who will win the election.  You can purchase your favorite Presedential candidates cookie, and each one you purchase will count as a "vote" for that candidate.  We will do this until November 3rd and see Meatboy politics will correctly predict the outcome.  We will also take one person who bought a cookie that is the winning candidate and they will win a meat bundle.  So get your cookies and get your name on the list. 

Update and current standings are as follows:

McCain/Palin  -  248 votes

Obama/Biden - 257 votes

With only a couple weeks to go its a tight race.   

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. 

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