A have a confession. Some of you may find this hard to take. I have to admit that even I was a little disappointed. I hope it doesn't send you into a tailspin and I hope you won't think any less of me. Ready for it? My name is Vonda, and I no longer like Velveeta and Rotel cheese dip.
It happened on Sunday. Edgar and I were preparing tacos with our stockpiled HEB taco seasoning, topping them with Ranch, made from our stockpiled dry Hidden Valley Ranch stash. We thought we would take it one step further and whip up some cheese dip with our stockpiled Velveeta and Rotel. The cheesy delight was melted and ready for Taco Cabana style flour tortilla dipping. I took one bite and almost couldn't swallow it. It tasted so salty and so...unnatural. I only took 3 bites. Edgar managed to polish off a whole tortilla dipped into it, but even he has agreed that he has lost his taste for it. I just couldn't get over how salty it was! I dug the cardboard container out of our recycle bag to check the ingredients (a very scary thing to do with processed food) and nutrition content. Sure enough, that stuff is loaded with sodium! A half inch slice alone contains almost 20% of your daily intake. We used the small one pounders, so if you use the big box, I'm sure the portion size is even smaller than a half inch. We surmised that the average cheese dip amount we used to eat or anyone probably eats is equal to the entire amount of sodium you should have in one day. The dip is still sitting, very lonely, in our white corning ware dish in the fridge. We may have a proper burial for it soon and say goodbye forever.
So this all got me thinking about how my taste buds have changed these past three years. I always ate what I thought was healthy in the US. I cooked alot and didn't eat junk food. But I also had Sonic, Wendy's, Taco Cabana, and every other food place at my disposal, at least until midnight and sometimes 24 hours a day. When I think back, I indulged more than I should have. I ate too many Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops as snacks. I'm sure I partook (is that even a word?) in too many summer 99cent Sonic sundaes. The list is endless. The don't really have drive-thrus over here, with the exception of the occasional McDonald's or Burger King on the motorway. They don't have a Texas Roadhouse or Olive Garden or Cracker Barrel at every exit. In fact, if you are on a road trip, it's sometimes hard to find a restaurant. You usually have to drive into an actual village and find a pub or something.
But I have also learned that even when I thought I was being healthy, the food in the US can tend to just be flat out unhealthier. For example, next time you buy chicken breasts at the grocery store, notice how gigantic they are. Then read the label...I'm sure it will say something about "broth" or "salt solution". This is just salt injected into the meat to plump it up. Here, the meat is just meat. When I first started buying chicken, I thought I was getting totally jipped because the pieces were so much smaller. Then I realized I was paying for the same amount of actual meat. It's just that in the US, they throw in the salt water to make you think you are getting a great deal. Next example-soups. I admit that the canned soups over here are rubbish. I don't eat them. In the US, canned soups are sometimes the only soup options you have (thanks, Campbell's). Over here, there are tons of refrigerated, fresh soups to choose from...chunky, seasonal, cream of whatever... I bought a carton of Cream of Mushroom soup to pour over my chicken last night. I decided to compare its ingredients with that of Campell's cream of mushroom soup. The soup here had just basic ingredients that you could pronounce and would use if you were making it homemade...mushrooms, milk, celery, onions, etc. The Campbell's, which I looked up online, had at least 3 or 4 different types of oils near the beginning of the list, meaning they are some of the main ingredients. I couldn't believe it! All those tasty meals I used to make with all things Campbell's Cream of ---(reduced fat, reduced sodium or whatever) were just junk. I knew that creamy soups were not exactly healthy back then, but I didn't realize the extent until I had another alternative.
I'm not saying that everything over here is healthier. Trust me, they have their share of processed nasty food. It's just that I feel there are more healthier alternatives that are not considered "healthy" or "low fat", it's just they way they are. There are generally less preservatives, additives, and salt. The milk, bread, yogurts, etc. expire more quickly. And don't even get me started on the bread. I think I'm going to have to buy a bread machine and make my own when we move back. The cereal aisle is an eye opener. Instead of the healthy stuff being pushed into the health food aisle or squeezed into the end of the regular cereal aisle, it's the main selection. The sugar cereals with cute cartoon characters are in the definite minority. One last thing about the grocery stores...there are no temptations at the checkout. That's right...the only thing you have to look at and contemplate slipping on the conveyor belt are a few magazines and maybe some brochures of the store, no candy bars, no refrigerated cases with over sized bottles of Coke. That alone has saved me plenty of calories from peanut M&M's (my checkout vice). The exception to this being Asda, which is Wal-Mart. I don't know why they don't just call it Wal-Mart, but for some reason, when WM opened stores over here, they decided to call them Asda.
Now I am in a quandary. I've not really developed taste buds for many of the foods over here...the meat tastes different, the veggies that are popular are not my favorite, and I just can't make myself crave Indian food (the TexMex of England). Now I'm afraid that I have lost my desire for US foods. Will I still like the bread in Carraba's, the hot fudge sundaes from Sonic, the cheese enchiladas from Romero's? I guess it wouldn't be so bad if some of these things are knocked off my favorites list, I just don't want to be in limbo where nothing tastes good. I guess only time will tell. All I know is that as of this past June, I still enjoyed my last ditch chips and queso from Pappasito's in the airport and I had probably one too many DQ treats. Whether I liked them for nostalgia's sake, hormones, or I truly liked them, it will definitely be another post-expat adjustment.
