TheSnackHound

Right now, Zenni Optical is offering a variety of $6.95 prescription eyeglasses for Valentine’s Day. Some are merely in solid red or pastels, but some are a bit more blatant with cupids and hearts on the arms.

This little number, at left, has the Chinese characters for happiness on the side. That’s a very long string of characters to only mean “Happiness, ” sister. I’m a little suspicious. It’s kind of like a friend who was a foreign exchange student had their sister visit. She asked her sister a question and the sister went on for four minutes and my friend translated, “She said she’s happy.” What??

The glasses may be fine and good bebopping around town, but what if you read the reviews of a new, sit-down, classy restaurant that offered the best Chines cuisine? What if you sat yourself down with your glasses, made it a point to brush your hair away from the arms so the owner of the restaurant could see how coordinated you are to your dining experience, and found out that they way you had smudged something on them, the character has been altered to be perceived as a naughty word? Would everyone laugh or kick you out?

I digress. Cheap eyeglasses can help your coordinate your astigmatism for any occasion, but be really careful out there.

Guest post written by my buddy Fidel Hernandez

My brother kept telling me, “you’ve got to get Satellite TV For Your Business” but I was really resistant. I need to spend a lot of money on other things having to do with the business and I didn’t really see what good having some extra TV channels would do in my office. But after a while I finally gave in and as it turns out per usual, my brother was right…

Patient put really responded to having the news on or the cooking channel or whatever it is in the waiting room while they are waiting for me. I feel like when there’s an interesting TV show on they don’t get so upset with me when I’m running behind in their appointment is pushed back.

I love being in business for myself but it’s tough having to answer to other people when you’re not running on your schedule or something happens that’s totally out of your control. I guess it’s all part of the trade-off you get when you work for yourself.

If you have a fancy last minute brunch, a “day after the wedding” breakfast for guests or suddenly the Queen of England knocks on your door at 5 AM and asks to use your bathroom, it is pretty poor form to say “I’m on a budget” and offer guests a few crumbs out of the end of a generic vesion of Corn Pops and a stale piece of toast.

Make your guests think you just walked over to one of those expensive chain coffee shops and brought them all yogurt parfaits.

1) Firstly, scour the world for Kashi coupons. There sometimes are coupon codes from Kashi, including occasional deals on Amazon, but you can also try to combine electronic coupons, your store sale, and manufacturers coupons. What you’ll want to buy is the Honey Almond Flax cereal. Then scare up one tiny container of in-season fruit. You’ll only need a slice or two for each parfait.

2) Get out your good crystal. If you don’t have any, before the party, visit the thrift store and consignment shops for mismatched water goblets and fancy wine flutes. Sometimes you can find whole sets, but sometimes you can cheaply buy mismatched singles.

3) Fill the goblets with a few spoonfuls of Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal, then add a few dollops of plain yogurt. After that, add a few slices of strawberries or even a drop of chocolate syrpup, then more yogurt and Kashi. Ultimately, the top layer should be raspberries or some other more expensive fruit.

4) Inspect for chips. If one is chipped but won’t cut a lip, all the better. You now can knowingly gaze over to the guest with the chip and announce that they have either won the prize or feign embarrassment while you scoop the goblet up and tell the story of rich but crazy Aunt Felicity who brought the goblet over on the Mayflower. Actually, use “Uncle Oceanus.” Apparently, someone named Oceanus was either born on the ship or born slightly later in the “new world” and folks could actually look up and verify that he was a real person.

One last thing, you’ll want to purchase one actual yogurt parfait from the pricey coffee shop. This way, you can have a receipt lying around somewhere, so everyone will know that you at least spent $3-7 a piece for them, and they’ll do the math.

As far as clean up? Just set them on the back porch. When no one sees goblets in the sink or on the counter, they’ll assume you have a staff.

When you have a theme restaurant, where the theme is not merely “let’s nail as many reproduction metal signs on the walls and suspend as many sleds and bike parts over patron’s heads,” but razor sharp specific, you really have to “sell it.” Johnny Rockets just doesn’t work if your soda jerk is sporting a mullet. And Strawberry’s Magical Blueberry Bunny Cupcake Patch doesn’t work when Mrs. Santa is wearing a Lady Gaga shirt, nor does “Braveheart” become more endearing of a movie once you notice the wristwatches and boxer shorts.

Among the cheap eyeglasses you can buy to finish off your crew’s uniforms in a way that mob caps and fake mustache’s without robbing anyone but the most ardent fans their dignity are candy heart and Christmas cane embellished spectacles. If you have a bakery, a princess party tea room or breakfast with Santa that runs to sold out crowds for several weeks, you can find the appropriate eyegoggles. After all, they can more easily swap their regular eyeglasses out at break time. It’s easier than ratting down a purple beehive, no?

So, if you are really adamant that your elves aren’t wearing Ray Bans and your fairy princess is wearing proper pink with roses without tripping over the little angels, it seems that the Zenni site has every manner of spectacle starting at $8.99 and up for prescription.

Thanks for the post from Al Mills

Ever since my husband and I signed up for Directv through http://www.cannonsatellite.com/ we have gotten totally into Top Chef. The new season is in Texas, and since we live in San Antonio it’s really fun to watch. Most of the beginning of the season was filmed here, so it’s really cool to see a lot of familiar places on TV. I also love to cook, so it’s cool to watch all the chefs and learn a thing or two.

Since we’ve started watching I’ve been thinking abut taking some cooking classes so I can improve my skills. I guess I’m a good cook for an amateur, but I’d love to make beautiful meals for my family. I don’t think there is anything better than having people over and feeding them delicious and beautiful food. I’ve learned to make a few really amazing meals, but I’d love to take it to the next level and get really good knife skills. If I could only do things faster, it would be much easier. Sometimes I get tripped up in the simplest things like chopping vegetables.

Sometime in the 90s, I was wandering around a health fair. There were all sorts of elaborate booths – from booths offering vision screenings to massage therapists doing chair massage. One booth was plastered with worded placards and in the center was a woman on an elevated platform, with a tiny tray of small cups in front of her hawking Noni Juice. For only $45.00 a bottle, you could achieve optimum health. It tasted okay, and I imagine that if your diet consisted of potato chips and deep fried bacon, it would create a miraculous result in your health.

Every few years, another juice form an exotic fruit is introduced, sold through multi level marketing and is not available in stores. The last one I remember was Acai, and supposedly there was a special patented form. The folks who sold it at $40 a bottle swore that the Acai juice in stores was a watered down, low grade version. But now you can even find Noni at the health food store.

The latest juice product is Nopalea (pronounced No-pah lay’uh), and its put out by Trivita . The fruit is harvested from the Nopal cactus plant that has survived the harrowing weather of the dessert. Adherents claim that it reduces inflammation and rids the body of toxins. Antioxidants found in various fruits do just that. But, does it do more than readily available antioxidant juices and supplements?  The jury is out. Everyone wants a magic cure. While Nopalea doesn’t cure, most consumers wish a single dietary change to make a miraculous difference, whether than the miraculous difference coming from an overall balanced diet free of saturated fats.

On the other hand, drinking a high antioxidant juice and replacing soft drinks or “junk juice” drinks with it may have individuals noticing enough of a difference to inspire them to make other changes necessary in their diet.

If you have tried superfruit juices like Nopalea, write in and let me know what you think.

(* = By the way, this site, nor any of its friends, affiliates, or advertisers, including The SnackHound, Foodbuzz, Mrs. Butterworth, the good people of Hershey, Pennsylvania, Frankenstein, my nextdoor neighbor Tiffany, Dr. Watson, nor PayPerPost are affiliated in any way with Trivita)

This post brought to you by Swifto. All opinions are 100% mine.

Attention on all Four Legged Snack Hounds:

Has the human left the room?

I’ll give you a minute to check. Good.

Dear Snack Hounds:

If you are currently living in New York City or you are visiting New York City now or through the holidays, don’t always rely on those dogmoms and dogdads. They are going to be extra busy and might get caught up in holiday traffic. You surely will be crossing your legs. They might even spend hours some afternoon doing crazy things like drinking colored liquids at something they call “brunch,” or flapping their lips and then sticking greasy pizza in it. That will surely mess up with your afternoon potty break.

Help is on the way. You can type, right? Well, my dog can.

Go check out the nice folks at Swifto. They have a dog walking service that will bring a qualified, experienced and insured dog walker right to your door. A one hour lead time (or more) is needed.

• Online payment is accepted. No embarrassing moment of you delivering cash in your mouth.
• $20 covers walk and tip.
• For $5 extra, bring a friend! Yes, that new baby pup they just rescued IS your friend, you just don’t know it yet.
• For $10 extra, double the fun. You’ll receive a whole ONE our walk.

Whoops…here comes a person! Click on the sidebar of this site somewhere and bring up another article.  We have to keep this secret amongst ourselves, don’t we?