Category: Food

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The Best Way to Assemble Hard Shell Tacos Will Save You from a Soggy Mess

Do you prefer hard shell or soft shell? It’s a question that comes your way at pretty much ever Tex-Mex restaurant out there, including “fast food” joints like Chipotle, and sometimes it can freeze you in your tracks!

Honestly, they’re both delicious. I mean, if you prefer hard shells on your tacos, you might not be eating the most authentic Mexican dish, but hey – who doesn’t love a little crunch to go with their food?

They are, of course, the slightly messier version of an already messy dish (I know if my toddler wants a crunchy shell, I just cringe while I say okay).

If you do the same, there’s some hope: you might be making a mistake during assembly that makes them even harder to eat.

Here’s a little tip that could help you keep your taco together longer.

Reddit user hyteck9 suggests that, instead of filling your taco with the meat (which can make your shell a bit soggy on the bottom) then veggies, cheese, and ending with salsa, you switch up the order.

I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out: put the cheese on the bottom.

Then, continue with the beef or chicken or whatever, followed by the veggies and salsa.

If you do it this way, the cheese melts from the heat of the meat and the shells and can act like a sort of glue for a tortilla tempted to break.

This option, of course, requires that you warm your shells a bit or use hot meat, but come on. You’re already doing that, aren’t you?

Happy eating!

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An astronaut smuggled a corned-beef…

An astronaut smuggled a corned-beef sandwich into space. After taking a bite, crumbs and rye started floating around the cabin. It has been referred to as ‘$30 million sandwich.’ NASA have taken steps to prevent corned-beef sandwiches from being taken on future flights.

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14 Fun, Free Things to Do in New York City

I love New York City. But it can be pricey, depending on what kind of traveler you are. Some folks want to dish out fistfuls of cash, go to Broadway shows, and eat at the nicest restaurants.

Other people, like me, prefer to experience NYC in the cheapest way possible. Sure, I’ll go out for a decent meal, but I also just like to wander around, people watch, and take in the sights and sounds in different neighborhoods.

Here are 14 things you can do for absolutely free in New York City if you happen to find yourself in that great city.

1. Explore the New York Public Library.

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Me hubiese quedado aquí todo el día

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2. Check out the galleries in Chelsea.

3. Of course, spend some time in Central Park.

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Traffic jam at the boat pond #CentralPark #nyc

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4. Take a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

5. Tour the Brooklyn Brewery for free.

6. Check out the different farmer’s markets in the city.

7. Take a walk on the High Line.

8. Watch the street performers (and tip them!).

9. Check out museums when they have free hours.

10. Go to the beach.

11. Visit Brooklyn Bridge Park.

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The Concrete Jungle ?. #newyork

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12. Join in on a free yoga class.

13. Find a free comedy show.

14. Cruise on the Staten Island ferry.

Got any other helpful (cheap) tips for traveling to the Big Apple?

Share them in the comments, please!

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Bars in Italy Are Using Pasta Straws to Get Rid of Plastic Waste

Lately, companies have caused a stir (see what I did there?) by getting rid of plastic straws or only distributing them when customers specifically ask for them.

In Italy, bars and restaurants are now using pasta straws for drinks to cut down on plastic waste. What could be more Italian than drinking out of a pasta straw?!?!

Here in Italy bars are starting to use pasta as straws to reduce plastic use. Our technology amazes the world another time. from europe

The European Union voted to ban single-use plastic items by 2021, and it looks like the Italians are getting a head start.

Interestingly, there’s already a company in the UK called Stroodles that sells pasta straws. Maxim Gelmann, the founder of the company said, “Stroodles is not just a straw company and there is a much bigger picture, as I feel I can leave a long-term impact by creating a ripple effect by triggering many small changes all across the world, especially among people that are less conscious of sustainability and their respective actions and behaviors.”

??? Stroodles team at the Improving Air Quality in Mayfair event by @newwestendcompany

Posted by Stroodles- Pasta Straws on Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Gelmann added,

“The approach is to do this in a fun and non-preachy, non-finger-pointing manner. I rather aim for people to engage with a Stroodle and then themselves start asking themselves the right questions, like ‘Why is there a pasta straw in my drink?’ Thus, little realizations like that and them coming to their own conclusions, rather than being sold/preached. [It’s] much more powerful in creating behavioral and mindsets change. And … maybe next time one is offered a plastic bag, they will behave differently.”

I haven’t seen these in the U.S. yet, but maybe they’ll be coming soon?

The next step? Let’s work on getting pasta cups!

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This Is Why Your Sandwich Is Served with a Pickle

If you’re like this guy, you’re not complaining that a delicious dill pickle comes automatically with your deli sandwich.

If you’re like other people, you slide it quickly off your plate and lament all of the places where the vinegar-y juice touched the rest of your food.

No matter how you feel about pickles, you probably don’t know why, exactly, they’ve found their way onto deli plates everywhere – but you’re about to find out.

Pickles themselves have be around (and adored by many) since as far back as 2400 B.C.E. They gained popularity in the States after the first Jewish immigrants found their way to New York from eastern Europe, and as those immigrants opened delis, they offered the pickle as a palate cleanser.

The acidity of the pickle is meant to let you experience the sharp contrast in meat flavors more fully.

As more and more Jewish delis adopted the practice, the pickle’s popularity soared in New York City. By the 1930s, pickle vendors were popping up all over the Lower East Side, inciting “Pickle Wars” among competing vendors.

Once it had taken NYC by storm, the pickle made its way across the States, until now, it’s more common to see a pickle on you deli plate than not. Most delis don’t even list it as a side; people just assume it will be included.

And if it’s not there?

Well, I guess some people will be upset, and others will breathe a sigh of relief. To each his own.

This is still America, after all.

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Good News! Eating Cheese Every Day May Actually Improve Your Health.

Here’s some good news for you!

No longer will we be shamed for eating cheese on a regular basis.

It turns out that eating cheese might actually protect us from the some of the dangers associated with a diet too high in salt.

Now, we all need some salt, but too much can lead to things like high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, and even dementia. Avoiding it can be difficult in our over-programmed, fast-food infested worlds, so the idea that just eating more cheese might help is pretty darn appealing.

Lacy Alexander, a professor and co-author of the study published in the Journal of Nutrition, explains.

“Studies have shown that people who consume the recommended number of dairy servings each day typically have lower blood pressure and better cardiovascular health in general. We wanted to look at those connections more closely as well as explore some of the precise mechanisms by which cheese, a dairy product, may affect heart health.”

The study included 11 people with salt-sensitive blood pressure, all of whom followed different diets for a prescribed amount of time. They were low salt and no dairy, low salt and high cheese, high sale and no dairy, and high salt and high cheese.

At the end of the study, researchers assessed the blood vessel function of of each volunteer by injecting a small amount of a chemical that relaxes the vessels under their skin.

What they found was that the volunteers that had consumed the high salt, high cheese diet seemed to have some kind of protective effect against any kind of impairment to the vessel.

Scientists need to do more research, but they think it might have to do with antioxidants found in cheese.

“There is scientific evidence that dairy-based nutrients, specifically peptides generated during the digestion of dairy proteins, have beneficial antioxidant properties, meaning that they have the ability to scavenge these oxidant molecules and thereby protect against their damaging physiological effects,” said lead author Billie Alba.

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Happy national #Moldycheese day!! To celebrate, Two of my many favorite #funkycheeses. #ShropshireBlue is a #Scottishbluecheese made from pasteurised cows' milk using vegetable rennet. The orange colour comes from the addition of annatto, a natural food colouring. Penicillium #roqueforti produces the veining. #Cypressgrove- #HumboldtFog is a California #goatmilk, mold-ripened cheese with a central line of edible white ash much like Morbier. The cheese ripens starting with the #bloomy #mold exterior, resulting in a core of fresh goat #cheese surrounded by a runny shell. As the cheese matures, more of the originally crumbly core is converted to a soft-ripened texture. The bloomy mold and ash rind are edible but fairly tasteless. The cheese is creamy, light, and mildly acidic with a stronger flavor near the rind. ##ilovecheese #cheeseplease #moldycheeseday #cheeseboard #makeamericagrateagain @cypressgrovers

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The study was small, which means its results will need to be replicated, and no matter how much cheese you eat, you probably can’t guzzle salt like it doesn’t matter.

And even if it helps protect your blood vessel from salt damage, cheese is high in saturated fat and salt, too.

Now that the reasonable warnings are out of the way, let’s celebrate!

With a cheese plate. Obviously.

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Starving Before Bed? Try These 7 Nutritionist-Approved Snacks.

There is a laundry list of dos and don’ts for losing weight. There’s always a flavor of the month or fad diet, and you would be forgiven for being confused. A lot of diets even contradict each other.

Take Atkins: eat fats and protein but no carbs.

But straight eating clean: get in those complex carbs, veggies, and protein.

And don’t get me started on keto.

Sure, depending on your body type, blood type, etc, more than one or all of these diets could work. But the one thing these all have in common? Don’t eat before bed! Gasp!

But I’m hungry!

Me too. So what’s the deal? Do you chug a glass full of water to fill your stomach and suffer through a Netflix program until you fall asleep? Or do you have a snack?

Buzzfeed may have the answer. They recently checked in with “registered dietician Abby Langer and Despina Hyde, a diabetes expert at NYU Langone Weight Management Program, to find out.”

Apparently, it is okay to eat before bed! Whew…what a relief. It’s just what you eat that counts. Having a bucket of KFC is probably not a good idea. But fruit, crackers, or avocado toast (yum) could get you the nutrients you need PLUS settle that roaring stomach.

“Sure, your metabolic rate slows down a bit, but it doesn’t stop, says Langer. Yes, when it comes to weight management, it’s better to eat your biggest meals around the time of day you’re most active, but in general, your total calories matter more than the timing. And a reasonable snack that satisfies your hunger before bed isn’t enough to derail your healthy eating efforts.”

But I’m hungry every night before bed

If this is a consistent issue, chances are you’re not eating enough calories during the day. Also, check out your protein intake. If you’re eating a ton of carbs and fatty foods, this can cause your body to burn off energy too quickly, leaving nothing in your reserve while converting those calories to fat. Yuck. 

“Avoid a too-big meal, since your body will have to work harder to digest, which might actually keep you awake. But if your schedule leaves you with no choice but to eat dinner close to bedtime, Hyde suggests something that’s about 40% veggies, 40% carbs, and 20% protein.”

So what types of snacks are good to eat at night?

High fiber Cereal

Who doesn’t love Babybel?

 

Avocado or hard-boiled egg toast

 

Bananas with peanut butter

 

Greek yogurt with granola or fruit (or both!)

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special k granola, strawberry activia, and almonds

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A simple cup of cottage cheese with fruit, nuts, or crackers

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Snack break #cottagecheese #triscuits

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Fruit and nuts are perfect for a sweet craving

 

So no matter the diet, remember: it is important to space out meals, get the proper caloric intake, and eat (healthily) when hungry at night!

After all, no one likes a cranky Netflix partner.

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Candy Corn Is the Worst Halloween Candy, According to a Survey

It’s an issue that American society.

No, I’m not talking about impeachment, or your favorite football team. I’m talking about…candy corn.

I’m kind of indifferent about the whole thing, but I will say that, as a kid, I was always less than thrilled when I got candy corn while trick or treating (which I stopped doing when I turned 24). Gimme the good stuff, please! I need Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfingers, and Dum Dums.

According to a recent survey by CandyStore.com, candy corn is the worst Halloween candy. They weren’t messing around, either. They conducted this survey like scientists in a lab. First, they looked at candy rankings from websites like Business Insider, Huffington Post, Bon Appetit, and Buzzfeed.

CandyStore.com then surveyed 40,000 of their own customers who buy candy from their website. They then combined all the information, crunched the numbers, and came up with definitive lists of the top 10 best and top 10 worst Halloween candies.

Here are the top 10 worst Halloween candies, according to the survey.

10. Bit-O-Honey

9. Good & Plenty

8. Licorice

7. Smarties

6. Tootsie Rolls

5. Necco Wafers

4. Wax Coke Bottles

3. Peanut Butter Kisses

2. Circus Peanuts (last year’s #1)

1. Candy Corn

Do you want to see the 10 best candies from the survey? Of course you do! Here you go.

10. Hershey Bar

9. Skittles

8. Sour Patch Kids

7. Butterfinger

6. Nerds

5. M&Ms

4. Kit Kat

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Afternoon essentials… ?

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3. Twix

2. Snickers

1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

I know that readers want to weigh in on this very controversial topic. Share your thoughts with us in the comments!  Don’t be shy!

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People Are Surprised About Where Cashews Really Come from

Prepare to be deeply confused and a little scared about where cashews come from. The truth is so weird that people on Twitter can’t stop talking about it.

First of all, these delicious nuts grow on trees. That in itself is not so surprising, as many types of nuts grow on trees—but it’s not the weirdest part by far.

Nope, that would be the fact that they grow from these things.

Excuse me, is that a nut or a monster?! I don’t know anymore.

That apple-looking thing is apparently called a “cashew apple,” which grows from the branches of the cashew tree. The shell below the apple contains the actual cashew.

To get to the nut, you have to pick the entire thing, cashew apple included, from the branch. Then you pull off the shelled nut, dry it, steam it, freeze it, and boil it to remove the shell. The shell is filled with caustic acid, so this is no joke—in fact, the extracting the nut is so grueling and dangerous that picking cashews is sometimes used as penal work in south- and southeast Asia where they grow.

Cashews are delicious and healthy, but are they really worth all this effort? Whose idea was this, anyway?

People on Twitter are understandably freaking out about the news.

“Who knew cashews look like angry, old men yelling at you to get off their lawn as they grow?” one user wrote.

Others pointed out that the middle cashew in this photo looks like it has a face.

FYI, you can eat cashew apples, too. The flesh is quite bitter, though, so it’s best to process it for jam or juice.

Now, excuse me while I go have nightmares about cashews for the rest of my life.

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Check out the Most Popular Halloween Candy in Every State

Has it been so long since you trick or treated that you can’t remember the thrill of getting something truly spectacular dropped into your pillowcase as you roamed around the neighborhood? (And then you took off your mask so they wouldn’t recognize you and went back to the same house for seconds?).

Ahhh, the good old days.

If you’ve ever wondered what the most popular Halloween candy is in every state in the U.S., you’re in luck.

Who knew Skittles are that popular? I’m not feeling it…but Mississippi, you’re speaking my language!

Here’s the full list for you.

Alabama: Hershey’s Mini Bars

Alaska: Twix

Arizona: Hot Tamales

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A romantic evening with moi ??

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Arkansas: Skittles

California: Skittles

Colorado: Twix

Connecticut: Milky Way

Delaware: Skittles

Florida: Skittles

Georgia: Jolly Ranchers

Hawaii: Skittles

Idaho: Candy Corn

Illinois: Kit Kat

Indiana: Hot Tamales

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Our time has come ?? #summer

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Iowa: Candy Corn

Kansas: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Kentucky: Swedish Fish

Louisiana: Lemonheads

Maine: Sour Patch Kids

Maryland: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Massachusetts: Butterfinger

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Wud up?

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Michigan: Starburst

Minnesota: Skittles

Mississippi: Snickers

Missouri: Milky Way

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Is it me you're looking for?

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Montana: Double Bubble Gum

Nebraska: Salt Water Taffy

Nevada: Candy Corn

New Hampshire: Starburst

New Jersey: Tootsie Pops

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Lollipop, lollipop ! #sweetstuffinc

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New Mexico: Candy Corn

New York: Hot Tamales

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Your #Thanksgiving break starter pack ?

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North Carolina: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

North Dakota: Candy Corn

Ohio: M&M’s

Oklahoma: Dubble Bubble Gum

Oregon: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Pennsylvania: Hershey’s Mini Bars

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#hersheysminibars #sooonice #superdark #thanksmom

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Rhode Island: Twix

South Carolina: Skittles

South Dakota: Starbursts

Tennessee: Tootsie Pops

Texas: Reese’s Cups

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New @Reeses Cups are arriving in stores in mid-April, but NYC was given a chance to get their hands on the Peanut Butter Lover and Chocolate Lover Cups early! Visit the Reese’s Swap Shop on 321 Canal Street to swap something in exchange for a new Reese’s Cup of your choosing. ? • ? (March 25th – 26th from 12pm – 6pm only). If y?u’re reading this, it’s too late…for today. But definitely go tomorrow while you still can! • ?? Chocolate Lovers – Although it doesn’t look tremendously different in the picture, the Chocolate Lovers Cup definitely does contain discernibly less peanut butter than the original Reese’s Cups. In fact, it was refreshing to eat a Reese’s Cup with a bit less peanut butter. Although this isn’t our preference, this may certainly sit well with those that don’t enjoy Reese’s Cups because there’s “too much” peanut butter for their liking. • ?? Peanut Butter Lovers – This cup is a game changer and it went away too fast. It doesn’t help that Matthew and I had to share it. ? There’s a hint of chocolate surrounding the cup, but the creamy peanut butter is the star of the show. The peanut butter in the center of the cup is the Reese’s peanut butter we are used to, but the peanut butter at the top of the cup has got a Hershey’s Gold vibe to it; but made of peanut butter. We absolutely can’t wait for these to release! (A peanut butter and jelly Reese’s Cup would be great to see one day too. ??) #mnmtwinzSnacks • #Reeses #ReesesCups #ReesesPeanutButterLovers #ReesesChocolateLovers #ReesesSwapShop #PeanutButter #Chocolate #Milk #JunkFood #Tasty #eatingfortheinsta #instagood #foodstagram #snack #sweet #sugar #Hungry #Snack #SoYummy #foodie #foodporn #CheatMeal #lickyourphone

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Utah: Jolly Ranchers

Vermont: M&Ms

Virginia: Hot Tamales

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Or both ?‍♀️ #doubletap

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Washington: Saltwater Taffy

Washington D.C.: Tootsie Pops

West Virginia: Blow Pops

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*CLOSED* #SweetSaturday GIVEAWAY ALERT‼ Happy #NationalLollipopDay ?. We teamed up with @tootsieroll to give away 100 Tootsie Pops 100 Blow Pops to one lucky winner! Here's how to enter: ________ ✔Follow @tootsieroll and @dylanscandybar ✔Like this photo ✔Tag a friend and guess how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? One winner will be chosen at random on Monday at 5pm and announced in our stories! Each comment with one tag counts as a separate entry. ________ *Per Instagram rules, we must mention this is in no way sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram, Inc. By entering, entrants confirm they are 16+ years of age, live in the continental U.S., release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s term of use. One winner will be chosen from each account @tootsieroll and @dylanscandybar ________ #dylanscandybar #giveaways #sweepstakes #candy #prizes #giveaway #entertowin #instacontest #tagtowin #tagafriend #iggiveaway #contestgram #contestday #tootsieroll #tootsiepop #blowpop #lollipopday

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Wisconsin: Starbursts

Wyoming: Saltwater Taffy

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Yum! #candy #saltwatertaffy

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What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

Share with us in the comments!

The post Check out the Most Popular Halloween Candy in Every State appeared first on UberFacts.