Muffin Tin Lunches

Okay, so apparently this has now become Lunch Week! We'll pretend it was intentional.

Today's find is Muffin Tin Mom. She has tons of ideas of how to make lunches or snacks that fit into the little compartments of a muffin tin, as well as some other crafty uses for the tins.

If you have two eaters, you can each eat from your half of a larger muffin tin.

Isn't that cute? I'd be totally happy to eat that (minus the ham).

Or, if it's just a meal for one, you can use a smaller tray.

Who wouldn't want to snack out of this tray?
(Not sure I'd want to do the clean-up though.)

Kids who normally wouldn't touch a certain food might be enticed to eat it if it comes from a fun little compartment in a special tray. Worth a shot, no? 

Of course, there's no real need to eat your lunch out of a muffin tin, but just because it isn't necessary doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Live a little!

School Lunch "Food"

I've been reading through a blog I found recently called Fed Up With Lunch. It's written by an anonymous elementary school teacher in the midwest. "Mrs. Q" saw the poor quality of the food being offered to students, and decided to eat (and photograph and blog) the school lunch each day for a year.

Raise your hand if that grayish meat looks appealing.

 

Bueller? ...... Bueller? 

And why is the entire meal brown? Not exactly enticing.

But, her beef (pun intended) with the school lunches isn't just about monochromatic meals, but the lack of nutritious options, the completely wasteful packaging, the dearth of anything remotely handmade, and the lessons that eating chicken nuggets and pizza daily teaches kids.

Apparently the tater tots are the "vegetable" in this lunch:

  

And she never did figure out what this bitter-tasting mystery vegetable is, but I'm pretty sure if she couldn't eat more than a bite of it, the kids probably didn't even try it.

 

It's a quick read with short daily entries, and if you have kids it'll make you think twice about letting them buy lunch at school without checking out the lunch program first. Gross. 

StumbleUpon

If you're wondering how I find all these delightful little websites, here's the secret: StumbleUpon. It's an addictive website and/or brower add-on that I guarantee will suck hour upon hour out of your day as you sit there clicking the little "stumble" button. Consider yourself warned. Seriously. It's dangerous.

After you register, you'll be asked to check off topics you like from a bunch of categorized lists. Once they know what you're interested in, they'll send you to a random site that fits one of your interests every time you push the stumble button.

I added this to Firefox about four years ago, and I don't even want to think about how many hours of my life are now gone because of it. BUT, I've also found some really good blogs and websites that I love and learned a lot of random information. I like random information. You never know when you're going to need to know the process of growing a prize heavyweight pumpkin. (The winner this year was over 1600 lbs, FYI.)

So, this is fun, but also deadly for your productivity. So be forewarned.

Uncommon Goods

If you're looking for gift idea inspiration for the holidays, I like the site Uncommon Goods for discovering fun little products. A lot of them are expensive/impractical, but there are some cool, reasonably priced things to be found.

What little kid wouldn't want to have this plate set? Okay, I'll be honest...I would totally eat off this plate right now. Just give me some mashed potatoes and corn to push around and I'd be set.

I'd be all about these as well:

 

So maybe I just like to play with my food. I do take about an hour to finish any meal, so I figure I might as well do something fun while I'm sitting around forever with my plate.

Texts from Bennett

The site explains itself:

"These are text messages I exchange with my 17 year old cousin Bennett. He is a white boy that thinks he's a Crip, works at Amoco, has a girlfriend named Mercedes, and is one of the most unintentionally funny and brilliant souls on the planet."

Bennett is apparently unaware of the blog. Although judging from his text messages, I'm not sure he would be literate enough to find it even if he knew about it.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

TED is a conference in which really interesting people present short (usually about 10-20 minute) talks about whatever their area of expertise is. They're usually educational yet entertaining. I watch an occasional video now and then, and I usually learn something new. 

You can't actually attend the conferences, unless you have $6,000 burning a hole in your pocket. Also, there's an application and invitation process to go, even if you had the money lying around. But, they post all the content online for free, so who needs to sit in the room anyway?

As a sample, here's an interesting proposal that complex scientific ideas should be taught through dance, rather than PowerPoint.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a new site where people can share and browse through pictures of cool stuff, whatever that may be. It's supposed to be like a virtual cork board, and you can "pin" photos you find on the internet or ones you take yourself onto various "boards" based on whatever categories you assign them.

It sounds a bit silly and unnecessary, but it's actually pretty cool to scroll through and see some really pretty or funny things people have found. You can also subscribe to your friends' boards so you can see what they're pinning, similar to the idea of the facebook newsfeed.

If you're at all into DIY projects or crafts, you'll find tons of good inspiration on there. All of the pictures link back to the sites they came from, so you can go see how they made the items too.

Last I checked you had to apply for an invitation to the site, but that just means you give them your email address and about two days later they send you an invitation to sign up.

Along the same lines is the site Wanelo, which stands for Want-Need-Love. It's pretty much the same thing, actually, but a bit more focused on products you can actually buy.  So you can peruse both if you're feeling extra bored.

Postsecret

Frank Warren created an art project in which people write an anonymous secret they have never told anyone on a blank index card and mail it to his home. Then, he posts them on his blog, PostSecret, with a new batch of secrets going up each week.

There are also PostSecret books, lectures at colleges, museum exhibits, an iPhone app, and websites in other countries. Check back every Sunday for a new set of secrets.

If you want to submit a secret the project, you can follow these instructions:

"Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Create your 4-by-6-inch postcards out of any mailable material. If you want to share two or more secrets, use multiple postcards. Put your complete secret and image on one side of the postcard."

The Sneeze

This guy is weird, but in a really good way. He entertains himself (and us) by eating weird foods, doing odd activities with his children, and making fun of his family members. He hasn't posted anything new in a while, but you can go poke through all his archives.

One of my favorite series of posts by The Sneeze is called "Steve, Don't Eat It" in which he proceeds to eat the most disgusting things he can find in the grocery store. I'm a picky eater and germophobe, so this sets off every alarm bell in my head, but it's still awesome.

 

The Oatmeal

Matthew Inman, aka The Oatmeal, is a funny man. A really, really funny man. And he writes really awesome comics, so you probably want to be reading them.

A good place to start would be the Bobcats.





















Then maybe head over to learn some grammar:

Then just go read the rest of the site. Be prepared to giggle. You might learn something about grammar, animal behavior, and human nature. So you could even consider it an educational activity if you want to rationalize your internet time wastage, which is always a good thing.

Not Always Right

For anyone who works in a job that's even remotely customer service related, this site will make you feel better (or maybe worse) about your life.

It's basically a huge compilation of completely ridiculous customer interactions. I can read about five before it goes from really funny to really depressing, but it's awesome up until that point! :)

Regretsy

So, there's this site called Etsy where people buy and sell handmade stuff. A lot of it is pretty cool. And then there's rest of the stuff...

Lucky for you, some woman has taken on the duty of combing through Etsy to find you the weirdest, creepiest, and worst things available for sale on the site! Saves you hours and hours of time! This wondrous place is called Regretsy, and I suggest you visit there.

One of the common plagues of Etsy is the phenomenon known as "gluing shit to other shit" which people mistakenly believe instantly qualifies something as "art". For example, you could be the proud owner of this combination cake plate / appetizer stand / jewelry stand / make up tray / ugly cup glued to an ugly plate. And it's only $35!

You can view the rest of the post here. A chihuahua gets involved.

Warning: not good for people who dislike profanity, hate ridiculously bad "art", or are easily offended.

Hyperbole and a Half

If anyone has not been introduced to HyperboleAndAHalf.blogspot.com, you need to go visit it right now. It's basically my favorite website ever. This site is awesome. And hilarious. It's hilariously awesome. So go now.

I suggest you start with this post about the dog.

And then maybe this one about the party. 

Then just nose around the rest, and kiss the rest of your day goodbye.

Warning: Do not read during class, at work, or at any other location where snorting and laughter is not approved.