lunch fit for a princess?

My fridge is currently screaming for food to enter it.  Besides a handful of fruit cups, some questionable salad dressings and some milk, it's lacking food big time.  Instead of bringing Ramen noodles for lunch for the second day in a row, I decided to not scrounge for food in the cupboards to bring into work, and just figured I'd pop some popcorn that I have up in my overhead bin at my desk for days like these.  I suppose you would consider this the "for emergencies only" stash.  I was actually kind of looking forward to this pitiful lunch as I made my decision this morning, as popcorn is one of my favorite foods and always has been.  I even debated on grabbing a can of Diet Coke to bring with me but then I thought twice and decided to up the ante a little bit and make my good lunch even better by treating myself to a vending machine Diet Coke with Lime.  I'm livin' high on the hog, I tell ya.

Five hours later, here I sit.  I have just polished off my bag of mediocre popcorn and am still working on the 20 ounces of pop.  The popcorn was this new kind--which is supposed to have less calories and it sure tasted like it too.  I only save microwave popcorn for work (all popcorn at home is done via the old fashioned way, which in my opinion, is the only way to make it) and I know why.  It's bland, it burns because the high powered steel-cased microwaves in commercial buildings don't have a "popcorn" button and you have to listen for the kernels to stop popping and it can be hard to tell at times so the bag comes out half burned and you drag the smell back to your cubicle and fill up the entire department with the stench while you're at it.  You then have people stopping by wondering if it's you that's the culprit who burned the popcorn and you don't really know if they are judging you or are just curious.  You also get the occasional remark from across three cubicle walls "who burned the popcorn?"  All and all, it's not a good situation unless you really hit a home run with your work popcorn meal and it smells better than it tastes and looks like it came from a movie theater.
Anyway, as I was finishing up my bag, I thought to myself..."I wonder if Kate Middleton ever has popcorn and diet coke for lunch".  Can you imagine??  Can you imagine her all dressed up and ready for her day of visiting local charities and the last thing she has to do is grab something to eat to satisfy her pregnant cravings between charity visits.  She goes around slamming cupboards and looking into the bare fridge in the morning, finally hollering to William as she prepares for her days events "Will, we have no damn food  in this castle!!!"  Then he gets pissed too and says "That's not my problem!  I have to play Polo today--we'll go to Kowalski's (becasue they no way shop at Rainbow or Cub)  tomorrow.  Just eat some popcorn for lunch and be done with it!  And there should be some diet coke out in the garage."
Will is obviously oblivious to Kate's schedule and knows that she won't be anywhere near a microwave today to be able to pop the bag.  He is also oblivious to the fact that that the diet coke has exploded all over the garage because he neglected to bring it in from the freezing cold and put it into the castle fridge.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure Kate's days of eating popcorn and diet coke for lunch are far behind her.  I bet she is the kind of person who looks forward to having it at the movie theater, though.

Bar? I don't think so.

Just look at this.  Seriously, when did these things get so small??  I do appreciate the fact that someone was kind enough to put them in a dish on their desk but c'mon Nestle.  There is no reason to even make this size of a candy "bar".  Speaking of...I don't even think you are legally allowed to call this a "bar".  I can think of four things off the top of my head that are referred to as "bars" and this is not one of them.  A bar of soap, a barbell, a bar that you drink at and the uneven bar(s) in gymnastics.  Ok, that last one was a stretch, but you get the point.  None of the items listed above even come close to resembling the size of this puny little excuse for chocolate goodness.  At best it should be called a "nugget" and even that's a stretch.  When people say drinking regular pop is just wasting calories, this is how I feel about this candy.  What's the point.  Yes, it gives you that glimpse of after-lunch-chocolate that people sometimes craze but it by no means satisfies.  I love the part on the back of the wrapper that says:  THIS UNIT IS NOT LABELED FOR RETAIL SALE.  No shit, Sherlock.  Can you imagine a mom with her 5 year old in the checkout line at the gas station and the mom tells the child he can pick out a candy bar and you have the King Size, the Regular Size and then the size shown here sitting on the shelf...which one is the kid going to pick?  Yeah, I am sure these babies would fly out of their cardboard cases if they were individually sold.  NOT!
Yes, i just used the phrase NOT! Yes, I took two Butterfinger's from the dish.  And yes, it was a total of two bites.

Chips (do you ever?)

How come chips are so dang delicious?  I swear I haven't met one person who doesn't love some kind of chip.  Wether it be a Potato, Corn or Pita chip, I love them all.
And you know what Pringles says:  "Once you pop, you can't stop."  And as Chandler Bing would say...Could that be any truer?
Currently sitting in my overhead cabinet at work I have some delicious Stacy's Pita Chips.  Parmesan Garlic & Herb to be exact.  YUM.  I find myself staring at the clock, waiting patiently until 11:35 so I can allow myself to break out the bag and have some with my home-brought lunch.  I have a little problem though and wonder if anyone else does the same (are you reading this, Colleen??).  I will usually pour myself my "ration" for the meal on a napkin.  I know that if I leave the bag sit open, there is a large chance the contents will be gone in the blink of an eye and i will not only be sad, but also depressed that I allowed myself to get so out of control.  Anyway, I pour out my ration and then as I am closing the bag, I grab a few more "extras" to shove in my mouth.  I tend to do the same thing when opening the bag.  My theory is that these "extras" don't really count as extras, because they have already been eaten and were never intended to be poured on the napkin and into the "ration" in the first place.  Does this make sense?  It's almost like they never existed.  I do this at home too.  I will make a grilled cheese or something and put some Cheeto's on a plate while I wait for my sandwich to turn golden brown.  Instead of putting the bag away, I instead eat "extras" form the bag sitting on the counter.  Why don't I just take the Cheeto's from the plate onto which I already poured them you ask?  Well that would take away from my "ration" and you know that's never a good thing.

Fourth of July Snack

Sorry for the lame title of this post - I couldn't think of anything creative.  Maybe one will come to me while I write.  If so, I will delete these three sentences.

As I was thinking of what to make for my Fourth of July snack to share, I really wanted to do something tasty AND festive this year.  I was talking about some ideas with a friend of mine and he mentioned red, white and blue Rice Krispies.  That was basically the extent of our conversation.  I wasn't sure what he meant by it, but the thought went through my head for a few days... hmm...I could make a pan of bars and use red and blue frosting to draw a flag on the top...I could make separate red and blue bars and have them out on a plate... but then the light bulb went on and I thought: I will layer them and shove a stick through them and add a cute topper!
After thinking my plan through, here's what I came up with.  (This is actually my first batch; I made another batch after some tweaking and the second batch tasted a lot better.  And unfortunately I didn't get some key pictures because my camera battery died!)

Take a simple recipe and divide it by three.
note: add a couple more marshmallows and 1/2 tbs more of butter and they will taste A LOT better:

Melt mallows and butter in pan on low to medium heat.  Mix in food coloring and add Krispies.

Although this photo shows the red food coloring in the pan, (photoshopped in for effect, as I forgot to take a picture of this step) I made the "white" part of the flag first to avoid any color transfer into the white stripe. Make sense?  Good.

Have three 8"x8" pans lined with parchment paper ready and waiting...

Make the rest of the colors and put into separate pans. (again, sorry for not capturing some of the key steps):

 Lift out each color, lay blue down first (although picture shows differently, I learned from my mistake on 2nd batch), remove parchment paper from bottom of white and blue, stack on top of blue:

Place another piece of parchment paper on top, and press layers firmly together.  

Although it's not shown here, I added a little drizzle of white Betty Crocker cookie icing (the kind in a pouch) and some red, white and blue sprinkles to the top for some extra fun.

Cut into squares and add a fun Fourth of July topper and you have yourself a festive snack!