Protein Smoothie

This is what I'm drinking these days. It's a refinement of my all natural smoothie with more protein. It's delicious. It tastes more indulgent than healthy.

Ingredients

• 1 frozen banana
• 4 oz lite vanilla yogurt
• 1 tbsp all natural almond butter
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 3-4 ice cubes
• 4-6 oz water

Procedure

1. Blend until smooth.

Nutritional Info

	protein	carbs	fat	calories
totals	34.0	46.0	9.5	385
banana	1.5	31.0	0.5	120
yogurt	5.0	10.0	0.0	60
almond butter	3.5	3.0	8.0	95
protein powder	24.0	2.0	1.0	110

Notes

I use Dannon Lite & Fit for the yogurt. It doesn't have high fructose corn syrup and has little sugar in general. Also, they come in nice 4 oz containers.

I mostly use ON (Optimum Nutrition) 100% Whey French Vanilla Creme for the protein powder, but other flavors work well also.

Sometimes instead of using a full frozen banana, I use half and mix in some other kind of fruit. Half a frozen peach works well.

I drink this first thing in the morning and after workouts because of the high amount of simple carbohydrates.

Potato, Potatoe

Baked Red Potatoes

I used to think potatoes were bad for you (i.e. a high GI food) but my new idol Tom Venuto eats them, so now I eat them again. Here's my recipe.

• 2 or 3 medium red potatoes
• Pam
• fresh cracked pepper
• fresh ground sea salt
• garlic powder
• onion powder

Leaving the skin on, cut the potatoes into bit sized chunks. Put a thin coating of Pam on them and toss in a mixing bowl with the spices. Cook in (toaster) over at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

The outside should be a little tough or chewy, but the inside should be like mashed potatoes.

Baked Sweet Potatoes (Yams)

Ok, I know sweet potatoes are a great carb source (i.e. a low GI food). Here's my recipe for them

• 1 large sweet potato or yam
• Pam
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• cinnamon

Cut the sweet potatoes into bit sized chunks (leaving the skin on). Put a thin coating of Pam on them and toss in a mixing bowl with the sugar and cinnamon. Cook in (toaster) oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then finish them off on the grill (or toast) setting for 10 minutes.

These should come out with the skin a little chewy, but the potato part very very soft (like melt in your mouth).

The Dark Knight

I'm a Christian Bale fan. I like Batman. Take that for what it's worth while I bash this movie...

The movie basically treats the audience like idiots... and for good reason, the majority of the population is uneducated and just plain dumb (with respect to IQ). They need the underlying themes and messages repeatedly bashed into their skull before they "get it" and when they do, they feel like they've discovered something so deep and meaningful that they rave about what a spectacular, breakthrough and though provoking movie this is.

I'll admit, the characters were good and the acting was wonderful, but it was (in my opinion) completely undermined by being force fed the obvious themes and terrible action sequences.

Yes, that's right. I think the action is god awful... even worse than the movie holding our hands to get the super deep and complex themes (sarcasm). Again, treating the audience like idiots, we are inundated with feats of magic and stupidity as Batman defies physics by appearing behind enemies (unbeknownst to them) in fully lit rooms with dozens of people present, or as groups of bad guys armed with guns watch Batman beat up their friend while they wait their turn.

Ironically maybe, I found the "cellphone sonar" to be the most plausible piece of fictional technology that I've seen in a while.

All in all, I think it's a good movie, I would definitely recommend it. I just don't think it deserves the ridiculous amounts of praise it's getting, nor the number one spot on IMDB.

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey (variety pack)

I got the 16 flavor variety pack, here's the run down of what I thought of the flavors. This is how I make my protein smoothie...so take my taste analysis with a grain of salt (read: the yogurt and banana pretty much overpower the protein flavors).

Extreme Milk Chocolate

It tastes like watered down hot chocolate. Reminds me of the holidays. Might even have a hint of horchata. Chalkiness is minimal non existent. Overall, I don't really like it, but it is definitely non offensive.

Double Rich Chocolate

Very light flavor. I could barely taste it. It's a little chemically tasting too. This one isn't chalky at all either.

Caramel Toffee Fudge

I put in less water this time because I'm noticing a trend of very light flavors. Even with less water, I couldn't taste this one much. It still has the same chemically taste as the pervious ones and still no chalkiness. I think I like this one the best so far.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Another very light flavor. I could barely taste it. It did have that sort of chemically taste that all these flavors seem to have. It's not bad though; I think it's just a part of getting used to a new brand.

Delicious Strawberry

The strongest flavor so far; I can definitely taste it through the banana and yogurt... and it's good! Tastes like some kind of strawberry candy.

French Vanilla Creme

This is the best vanilla so far. It didn't seem to to have that chemically taste that Vanilla Ice Cream had.

Rocky Road

Tastes like all the other chocolates. I think I tasted a little marshmallow, but it might have been suggestive, rather than actual.

Orange Cream

Tastes like a melted creamsicle! I was impressed, but it seems like more of a "once in a while" type flavor.

Banana Cream

It wasn't as strong as Delicious Strawberry or Orange Cream. I could barely taste it. It just seemed like vanilla.

Strawberry Banana

Tasted like a lighter version of Delicious Strawberry

Chocolate Malt

Another chemically tasting chocolate.

Tropical Punch

Tastes like Hawaiian Punch. Pretty strong too. Kinda good, kinda weird.

Cookies and Cream

I just don't like ON's cookies and cream.

Mocha Cappuccino

This one is good, I would buy this.

Chocolate Mint

I like this one also. I think the mint masks the chemically taste that the chocolates tend to have.

Root Beer Float

I didn't try this one; sounds gross mixed with fruit.

Top 5 (in no particular order)

• French Vanilla Creme
• Delicious Strawberry
• Mocha Cappuccino
• Chocolate Mint
• Caramel Toffee Fudge

I'm surprised by the fruit flavors. Most of them are good enough to purchase. Compare that with Muscle Milk's Strawberry Banana which makes me want to throw up.

Optimum Nutrition 100% Casein (cookies and cream)

This protein is a blend of micellar casein and calcium caseinate. In theory it's suppose to digest much more slowly than whey protein, thus it is supposed to be used before bed to keep you anti-catabolic while sleeping.

Regardless of the theory, I don't feel bad taking right before bed because it's only 110 calories of nearly pure protein (0.5 g fat, 3 g carb, 1 of which is fiber).

The taste is kind of nasty. Casein protein is much thicker than whey, and unfortunately, isn't nearly flavorless like pure whey isolate. This cookies and cream flavor tastes strongly of licorice to me. I don't really like it, but it's not unbearable.

Take my opinion on its taste with a grain of salt, because it seems like this flavor is a hit on the interwebnetstubes.

Seared Scallops

Photo from Google Images

These are healthy, delicious and super easy to make. For best results, use "dry" scallops. I actually use the frozen sea scallops in a bag from Costco. They turn out pretty good.

Procedure

1. Dry the scallops with a paper towel. The drier, the better.
2. Spray some Pam into a pan and turn on high heat.
3. Season the scallops. I spray them with a little Pam and sprinkle garlic powder, sea salt and (a little) cracked pepper on them.
4. Place them in the pan one by one, not touching. Do not move them at all.
5. Let cook for 2 minutes, flip them over, and cook for two more minutes.
6. I eat them straight out of the pan. :D

Notes

There are a couple of tricks to searing scallops...

1. You have to dry them as much as possible and cook on high heat; you don't want your sear to turn into a soup.
2. Do not move them once they are placed in the pan; this will ruin the burnt crustiness.
3. Do not overcook them; they are supposed to be rare in the middle.

Driving on the Edge, Part V

Yes, that is me in the black Vette

Highlights

• Past an ACR Viper and Ford GT.
• Past a few people on my "nemesis" list (red Solstice GXP, that mofo is really good).
• My friend Mike sold his C6 Coupe and showed up to the track in a new C6 Z06!!
• Past Mike a few times... :D
• R compound tires do not work miracles.
• I burned through my track pads on the first day and had to put my stock ones back on. :(
• My rotors are cracking. :(
• My friend Jason now has racing slicks on his Z06 and completely dominated the blue group (why is he in blue anyway?!?).
• The yellow group isn't as fast as I thought it would be.
• Mike on being an older guy in a Z06 being revved at by kids, "I used to have a loud car when I was young, now I have a fast car."
• Me on riding in my instructor's full tilt race car, "It's like falling, but I know he's in complete control."
• I did a textbook example of what to do when going off track.
• I did a textbook example of what not to do when going off track (see video). :(

So I had a really bad "off" in the last session of the weekend. I came out of ricochet too fast and put two wheels off and yanked on the steering wheel, then shot back across the track, all while someone was behind me. That is really really bad. Cutting across the track is very dangerous.

I know better than to shoot across the track like that. The day before, I went off track in a very controlled and safe manner, exactly like how it's suppose to be done. So what went wrong this time? Here are my best guesses...

• I was trying to impress my instructor (I had an extremely good session previously driving solo).
• I was not committed to going off track. I thought I could save it.
• We were driving the track backwards so corner worker stations were at corner exits instead of entrances.
• I freaked out because I thought I was going to hit the corner worker station. I lost my head and yanked the steering wheel to get back on track.

You've heard a million times not to do that (pull the steering wheels to get back on track). You've seen other people do it and told yourself, "I won't be that guy." But it all happens so fast. There is no time to think, just react. Unfortunately, I reacted to the panic of hitting something on the left, so I swerved out of control to the right.