Junk Food, You Know You Want It...

Tonight we discuss Junk Food and before I get too far into this I must say I truly believe one person's Junk Food is another's nirvana or maybe Junk Food is your nirvana?  Perhaps nirvana is your Junk Food...?  Uh oh there it goes again, my head is starting to fold in on itself.

Anyway...

My most junkie food indulgence is Coca Cola.  There, I said it and I'm out of the closet about it.  I love ice cream, especially good ice cream (Molly Moon's comes to mind and if you live in the Seattle area and you haven't visited yet, it is a must stop; balsamic strawberry anyone?  Salted caramel?), doughnuts are another big one (again, in the Seattle area we are blessed with some fine doughnut-eries; Top Pot is a fave, and Mighty O for a vegan organic choice plus newcomer Frost with their now famous bacon maple bars but my favorites are the Aztec chocolate).  Perhaps you consider fried chicken as junk food and a crispy hot juicy chin drip at a local soul food joint comes to mind with mashed potatoes and mac & cheese.  Burgers and dogs tend to be up ther in the pantheon of what many consider to fit in the Junk Food category too.  Dare I forget pizza?  Noooooo...

The point is, many peeps consider different things to be Junk Food.  Now I KNOW Coca Cola is Junk Food; filled with engineered extra sweet corn syrup and although I'm sure the original recipe was based on herbs and spices along with real cane sugar, we still all know that if you drop a steel nail in a bottle of the stuff it'll be gone by morning.

The other night the Younger Hunger and I were running late and we were both a bit on the non-commital side of choosing what to have for dinner; perhaps something to grab on the way home?  Order a pizza?  Mexican, Italian, sandwiches...?  Well we opted for a bucket of the Colonel's finest and in retrospect it was not our finest hour but it was a relative bargain; 12 piece bucket w/ 6 biscuits, 2 large mashed potatoes (these must be instant eh?  I haven/t eaten these for so long I just can't tell), gravy, 1 large cole slaw (this I do like even if you do tell me the dressing is filled with chemicals) and a chocolate chocolate chip bundt cake for $19.99.  A bargain!

Let's break this down a bit though...

• The cake was indeed something that was baked more than halfway across the country from us and certainly shipped to us here on the left coast frozen.
• The gravy is more than likely some sort of powdered form earlier in the day mixed with water.
• I do suspect the taters are instant.
• And the grease...what a mess to eat!

So we went for the extra crispy because for some reason I remembered it being less greasy but although the flavor was that of my youth, it just didn't get me too excited and even drenched in the recent household favorite Frank's RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce I was still disappointed I spent my dollars and my Junk Food conscience on this.  But hey!  I suppose it is something to which most of us succumb from time to time yes?  Please tell me you do too!?!?  Pretty please?!?!

Another point to bring up about what many of us consider to be Junk Food is that a lot of it is not necessarily Junk Food.  Take pizza or burgers; considering the addage "all things in moderation", if you have a burger with whole grain roll, a bit of cheese, load it with tomatoes, lettuce and onions and use relatively lean beef cooked on the 'que so the grease drains - you end up with what our Mums all told us for so many years is a balanced meal.  Don't add the milkshake, fries, beer or soda and it stays pretty good for you.  Pizza is the same thing; whole grain crust, not too much cheese and a bit of charcuterie and loaded with shrooms, onions and peppers - POOF! another balanced meal but again forget the addition of soda, garlic bread (on white flour bread!), beer, etc.

Although I mentioned not adding the beer, I have to take a moment and state that beer and wine are food and have quite a lot of nutritional value but again that is in the "all things in moderation" camp.  It's good for you "to a point" so a beer or two, that glass & a half of vino with dinner - all good so that way it doesn't fit the Junk Food discussion but I ask you...who among you ALWAYS stops and the one or two?  I myself try but many time I am weak and I fail, especially if the occasion is social and I don't have to drive.

Now I'm not sure we can use the same rationalization on doughnuts cuz I just don't think there is a lot we can do with fried sugary dough to healthify them but hey, we gotta have some food sins right?

Anyone for a doughnut ala mode with a Coke?

Hasta