Gluttony for Punishment #3 Video

We attempt to eat a mock of the Super Potato Ole from Taco John's but our Mock Ole is roughly 5 times bigger. Enjoy!

New BK fries are free 12/16/2011!

Just as the title says, BK fries are free tomorrow! Get some! They are just like the old Wendy's fries.

6 Bad Fast Food Breakfast choices

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Morning meals are essential to revving your metabolism and kick-starting your calorie burn, but indulging in a fat- and calorie-laden breakfast from your favorite fast-food chain could easily send you into sugar shock and pack on the pounds. Research shows that people who ate a big morning meal consumed an extra 400 calories per day, setting themselves up for muffin tops and pancake bottoms. Here are six breakfast drive-thru disasters and their Prevention-approved healthier, make-at-home options.

1. Starbucks® Zucchini-Walnut Muffin
Muffins are calorie sinkholes-they pack in the calories but somehow still leave your stomach grumbling. This muffin from Starbucks® seems healthy enough, boasting both zucchini and walnuts, but don't be fooled by its veggie-based name. This morning baked good has close to 500 calories and 28 g of fat.

Try Instead: Zucchini-Raisin Muffin These scrumptious zucchini muffins are half the calories and nearly a third of the fat as their coffee-house counterparts. Tricks of the trade: Load up your bread batter with tons of zucchini shreds and add raisins for a touch of natural sweetness.

2. Sonic® Sausage, Egg, And Cheese Breakfast Toaster®
A classic sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich can seem like a filling, protein-packed breakfast, but the Breakfast Toaster has over 620 calories, 42 g of fat, and a whopping 1,400 mg of sodium. That's the sodium equivalent of finishing off a whole bag of salty potato chips before lunch time rolls around.

Try Instead: Open-Faced Broiled Egg, Spinach, And Tomato Sandwich Swap the fatty breakfast meat for a tomato slice and some spinach to get a serving of veggies first thing in the AM. This version has nearly a third of the calories of that Sonic® bomb, a quarter of the fat, and over 1,000 mg less sodium.

3. McDonald's Big Breakfast® With Hot Cakes
When your breakfast came off a fast-food menu and had the word "big" in it, your waistline is headed in the same direction. This hearty breakfast has scrambled eggs, sausage, a buttermilk biscuit, hash browns, and two hot cakes piled onto a plate, making it no surprise that one order has 1,090 calories--over half your day's worth--and over 55 g of fat. The worst part? This lumberjack breakfast is sky-high in sodium: 2,150 mg.

Try Instead: Pancakes With Berries And Cinnamon Satisfy your hot cake cravings with these light and fluffy low-cal flapjacks.The secret to cutting fat and calories without losing any buttery flavor: Bake them in the oven. Top with berries and cinnamon, and you've got a mouth-watering, guilt-free pancake breakfast the whole family will love.

4. Cinnabon® Regular Caramel Pecanbon®
Once you stand within 100 feet of a Cinnabon® shop, it's hard to stop salivating over the sugary, cinnamon scent of its signature cinnamon rolls, but resist the urge to make a beeline for the pastry counter. One of these caramel-pecan buns is the ultimate calorie bomb, coming in at almost 1,100 calories per bun-not to mention it's oozing with more fat than nine chocolate chip cookies.

Try Instead: Maple-Pecan Cinnamon Roll This homemade version from the Flat Belly Diet has all the ooey, gooey characteristics you love about the fast-food variety with nearly a third of the calories and a quarter of the fat. You can even create that "just baked" taste-and scent-by popping one in the microwave.

5. Hardee's® Double-Loaded Omelet Biscuit
This "Double-Loaded" omelet from Hardee's® packs 800-calories and has three types of breakfast meat-bacon, sausage, and ham-on top of a buttery biscuit.

Try Instead: Hearty Egg Sandwich This breakfast sammy fills you up without weighing you down by swapping out the trio of artery-clogging breakfast meats and adding in rich Hass avocado and tomato slices. This less-than-400-calorie version also slashes the fat and calories by using reduced-fat Cheddar.

6. Dunkin' Donuts® Chocolate-Coconut Cake Donut
While you already know that a doughnut isn't diet-friendly food, you should know that one of these chocolatey treats has 550 calories, over a quarter of your day's worth. It also has nearly as much sugar as a whole chocolate bar.

Try Instead: Strawberry-Banana-Topped French Toast Satisfy your sweet tooth without breaking the calorie bank with this decadent strawberry and banana French toast. You would never guess this entire rich meal is less than half the calories of just one doughnut.

Food Trends 2011

When you’re in a competitive market, you have two options to stand apart from the competition: You can make a superior product, or you can come up with a gimmick. And while many companies move their industries forward by striving to achieve the former, many inevitably succumb to the temptation to do the latter. In the past few years we’ve seen film studios race to churn out 3-D movies, fast food companies introduce goofy, high-calorie menu items and beer companies find new ways to modify their cans and bottles.

Of course, pinning down what does or doesn’t constitute a gimmick is tough.

“It depends on who you ask – one person may call something a gimmick that’s deconstructive and degrading, but if you ask the creator, they’ll call it an innovation or a feature,” says Sasha Strauss, a branding expert and managing director of brand consulting firm Innovation Protocol. But he adds that whatever you call it, a product gimmick is only a bad thing if it detracts from the main event and hurts the brand.

“When companies add on unnecessary supplements that distract us, it degrades our connection to the brand to begin with,” he explains. “When they say, ‘Check out A, now check out A-plus-1,’ what they’ve done is distracted the audience from importance of A and put the attention on the plus-1.”

There are good gimmicks and bad gimmicks, in other words. Here are four gimmick products from 2011, some of which flopped and some of which accomplished exactly what the company set out to achieve.

Burger King’s Stuffed Burger

2010 was very much the year of weird fast food, with such gimmicky offerings as a sandwich with fried chicken in place of bread (KFC’s infamous Double Down) and a quesadilla filled with macaroni and cheese. And while 2011 couldn’t quite match that level of fast food lunacy, the year kicked off with a bang when Burger King introduced the BK Stuffed Steakhouse Burger in January.

The burger featured jalapenos and cheddar cheese, both eminently reasonable toppings for a burger. But the toppings weren’t on top – they were incorporated into the meat of the patty, little chunks of flavor to encounter as you eat.

As we said at the time, Burger King didn’t invent the idea of a burger stuffed with its toppings – blue cheese-stuffed burgers, for instance, can be a culinary delight. But we sampled the Stuffed Steakhouse Burger and found it to be a step down from its usual burger offerings. And given that Burger King has been pulling out all the stops in a desperate bid to play catch-up in the fast food wars – including a brief flirtation with a “Pizza Burger” in 2010 – we feel comfortable tossing this sandwich in the “gimmick” category.

The menu item has since been discontinued, and unless it attained a McRib-style cult status we’re not aware of, we don’t expect to see it again.

To Strauss, though, that doesn’t matter. Gimmick though it may be, the burger was meant to project an air of innovation while strengthening the customer’s connection to the brand.

“Imagine if you just had the same burger once a week for three years: You’d need to be reminded of why it was great to begin with,” he explains. “In my perception, it wasn’t about trying to sell you a new burger, but about reminding you why you loved Burger King’s burgers to begin with … And at the same time, it’s designed to get your attention.”

Even if Burger King never expected the Stuffed Steakhouse Burger to take off, creating this strange product projected an air of innovation and change while simultaneously reminding customers how much they love Burger King’s staple menu items.

Coors Light’s Cold Activation Cans

In the crowded light beer market, brands such as Miller Lite and Bud Light generally try to stand out by making outrageous commercials and introducing product gimmicks (just look at Miller Lite’s “vortex bottle,” which apparently swirls your beer around before it goes in your mouth). Coors Light is no different, but all of its marketing efforts are in keeping with the central attribute of the brand: The idea that the beer is really, really cold.

Previous attempts to hammer this point home took the form of the cold-activated can, which featured an image of mountains that turned blue when the contents reached a low enough temperature. But this year the company took things to the next level with a two-stage cold activation can, featuring two color-activated bars indicating when the can was “cold” and “super-cold.” The result was a series of commercials, including one where a man assures his girlfriend that he’s studying for the “bar exam,” only for it to be revealed that he’s examining the bars on a can of Coors Light (get it?). The company also introduced the Cold Activation Window – a beer case with a special window that allows you to peer in and see the cold-activated cans inside.

Given that this latest can design reinforces Coors Light’s existing brand perception, it’s hard to call it a misstep by the company. Still, the relentless gimmicks have some people rolling their eyes.

“I can’t help thinking it’s dangerously close to a SNL parody,” wrote Steffan Postaer on his blog, Gods of Advertising. “In my view, the brand is jumping the shark.”

Bud Light’s Writable Labels

You didn’t think Bud Light was about to get out-gimmicked by Coors, did you?

While Coors Light has built its brand around low temperatures, Anheuser-Busch has always sought to position its flagship light beer as a uniquely social animal that brings people together and fuels endless good times. Just look at its dual slogans, “The sure sign of a good time” and the vaguer “Here we go.” To that end, it’s created a gimmick bottle of its own in the form of a label you can write on.

The label has a small section where you can scribble out messages by applying pressure with a key or coin. In the commercials, revelers are seen using the label to scribble out their names, phone numbers or, for some reason, a picture of a football. This is dubbed “the latest innovation in social networking.” Another commercial has two bachelors inviting loads of beautiful women to their party by handing out bottles inscribed with their apartment number. In a press release announcing the bottle, the company explains that it “allows adult beer drinkers the unique opportunity to add their own personal touch to the bottle.”

Now, we don’t really have a gripe with the company giving drinkers the chance to let their creativity run free. And we can kind of understand why it would be useful to scratch your name on the bottle if everyone at the party is drinking Bud Light and you want to remember which one is yours. But the other applications seem pretty limited. Are people really going to start sharing phone numbers at bars by writing on each other’s bottles of Bud? You can’t exactly stick an empty bottle of beer in your wallet, and it’s a lot easier to just tell the other person your number so they can put it in their phone. Oh, and if you find yourself drawing pictures of footballs on your bottle of beer, you’re probably not at a very fun party.

Agata Kaczanowska, a beverage industry analyst with market research firm IBISWorld, says there’s a simple reason why light beers such as Coors Light and Bud Light tend to use this sort of gimmicky packaging.

“[Light beer] is really the most homogenous product that the beer industry has,” she says. “They don’t differ much in price or taste and they have very similar brewing processes, so they’re creating a way to differentiate their product and associate the brand with fun.”

The good news is that Anheuser-Busch has (for the moment) turned its attention to improving the product inside the bottle rather than the bottle itself with Bud Light Platinum, but who knows if it will be anything special.

Gluttony For Punishment #2

In this challenge we are eating some extremely spicy hot wings, so spicy that they cause tears, sweating and pain!

Gluttony #1

It's finally here! The first Gluttony For Punishment challenge is here and we are happy to give you a look into it. And if you like the look of what we are cooking, there are recipes for the dish at www.gluttony4punishment.com

Big thanks to the cast! We hope you enjoy

Saltiest Foods

In the food world, that thing is sodium. This mineral plays a critical role in a healthy diet and maintains the correct balance of fluids in the body, but only in small doses. Unfortunately, the average American consumes more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium every day—easily 1,000 milligrams more than the absolute maximum amount we ought to be taking in, and nearly 3,000 milligrams more than the amount our bodies need to function normally!


Why is this so dangerous? Well, for starters, a high-sodium diet can wreak havoc on your blood pressure, increasing your risk of heart attack or stroke. And frighteningly, researchers at the Scripps Research Institute found that the effects of sodium over-consumption eerily resembled those of drug addiction—meaning that the more we eat, the more we crave. That means salty foods tax you twice: They cause an initial strain on your cardiovascular system, and by tempting you to eat more salt-riddled calories, they hit you again around the waistline.


So here’s the question: How do you protect yourself from the dangers of sodium? Avoid the salt shaker? Nope—the salt you add at the table has little effect on overall sodium intake. The real culprit is restaurant food, which supplies a staggering 80 percent of the sodium in the American diet.


Every fall, the Eat This, Not That! team scours restaurant menus looking for America's saltist foods—and gives you the smartest ways to fight back and lose 10, 20, 30 pounds or more. This year's list (below), from the new guide Eat This, Not That! 2012, includes a host of new menu items along with a couple of repeat offenders. But they all have one thing in common: They're making America's cardiologists rich.

#8: Saltiest Pasta

Ruby Tuesday Mediterranean Shrimp Pasta3,737 mg sodium
1,102 calories
65 g fat 
SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 10 Large Orders of McDonald’s French Fries  
Congratulations, Ruby Tuesday! This dish makes our list for the second year in a row. How the chain manages to infuse a pasta dish with nearly two teaspoons of pure salt is beyond me. I just know that they're good at it. The chain makes only one pasta dish with fewer than 2,000 mg of sodium (almost an entire day's worth!), and it has only two pasta dishes with fewer than 3,000 mg. The other four pasta dishes on the menu each have more than 3,000 mg.

#7: Saltiest Mexican Entrée

On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos
3,740 mg sodium2,150 calories
144 g fat (31 g saturated) 
SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 275 Tortilla Chips
There’s not a single redeeming quality about these fish tacos. For starters, they pack more nearly two days’ worth of sodium between their soft tortilla shells. Follow that up with more than a day’s worth of calories (we’re talking nearly 8 McDonald’s cheeseburgers’ worth), and as much saturated fat as you’ll find in 31 strips of bacon. Just say no.

#6: Saltiest Starter 

Applebee’s Chili Cheese Nachos
1,680 calories107 g fat (40 g saturated, 2.5 g trans)
4,270 mg sodium
SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 18.5 orders of Taco Bell’s Cheesy Nachos!
The fundamental problem with nachos is that most of the ingredients are already fully sodium-saturated foods. Chili, cheese sauce, tortilla chips, and salsa are all notoriously high in sodium, so together they create a perfect storm of blood-pressure spiking, waistline-expanding damage. Pair all of that with Applebee’s mammoth portion size, and you’re looking at roughly two days’ worth of sodium

#5: Saltiest Breakfast

IHOP Thick-Cut Bone-In Ham & Eggs
1,170 calories
61 g fat (19 g saturated)
4,310 mg sodium
SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 32 strips of Oscar Mayer Center Cut Bacon! 
Here's another two-time defending champion! This one plate provides your body with as much sodium as it would need over the course of a full week. You can still indulge your salt craving by opting for the more conservative Turkey Bacon Omelette instead. Not only are the levels far more reasonable, but the fruit side dish is filled with sodium-neutralizing potassium.

#4: Saltiest “Healthy” Entrée

Applebee's Weight Watchers Chipotle Lime Chicken
4,990 mg sodium490 calories
12 g fat (2 g saturated)

They should call this place Saltybee's, because sodium is pretty much impossible to avoid here. The six items on the Under 550 Calories menu—the "healthy" options!—average 2,341 mg of sodium per entree. The five items on the Weight Watchers menu average 2,448 mg. Even the side dishes are dangerous. A side of Loaded Mashed Potatoes will cost you 1,340 mg, and a side of Broccoli Cheddar Soup will cost you 1,660. If you eat here, you'd best make it a party of two—and bring your cardiologist with you.

#3: Saltiest Soup

P.F. Chang’s Hot and Sour Soup Bowl
400 calories  
15 g fat (5 g saturated)
5,000 mg sodium 
P.F. Chang’s has long published its nutrition data without sodium counts, and now we know why. Chinese food runs high on the sodium spectrum because of its reliance on viscous stir-fry sauces and salt-laden condiments like soy sauce. But this is an unfathomable amount of salt to pack into one 400-calorie bowl of soup. Unless you stick to vegetable sides and small servings of a few entrees (Orange Peel Beef, Lemon Scallops), you’re all but guaranteed to absorb 1 or more days’ worth of sodium in a single sitting at P.F. Chang’s

#2: Saltiest Burger

Chili’s Jalapeno Smokehouse Bacon Burger with Ranch Dressing2,210 calories
144 g fat (46 g saturated)
6,600 mg sodium
SODIUM EQUIVALENT: 6.5 McDonald’s Big Macs! 
Chili’s secures the title of America's Saltiest Restaurant for a simple reason: The salad below is the only meal with fewer than 1,000 milligrams on the menu! In fact, the vast majority of meals range between 3,000 and 4,500 milligrams per plate! Know that if you’re going to Chili’s, your blood pressure is in for a rocky ride.

The #1 Saltiest Food in America

P.F. Chang’s Pork Double Pan Fried Noodles1,652 calories
84 g fat (12 g saturated)
7,900 mg sodium
SODIUM EQUIVALENT: Five full-size bags of Ruffles potato chips—that’s roughly 600 chips!
We searched long and hard for a dish that could unseat this one as the #1 Saltiest Food in America. But, fact is, nothing comes close. Sodium has long been the Achilles tendon of Asian cuisine, and P.F. Chang's is Exhibit A. That makes recommending better options a bit tricky. The dumplings and the steamed Buddha’s Feast come in at under 1,000 milligrams a plate, but the Garlic Noodles are your safest bet among the starchier options. Just pack your ACE inhibitors, study up on the 9 Ways to Eat Healthily at the Chinese Restaurant and order with caution.

Second Minisode!

Here is our second minisode, where we are teaching people how to make sauceless buffalo chicken tenders! Its pretty simple, and here is the recipe.

Recipe

Boneless Chicken Tenders or Breast sliced
1 cup of Hot Sauce of your choice
Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Spinkles of Red Pepper Flakes
Flour
Garlic Powder

Directions

1. Thaw chicken...
2. Make buffalo sauce from hot sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic and cayenne. Dip thawed chicken into buffalo mix.
3. Put dipped chicken into flour, make sure every inch is covered in flour.
4. Re-dip floured chicken into the buffalo mix.
5. Re-dip buffalo mix into four, and make sure every inch is covered in flour.
6. Warm oil to 325 degrees. Place buffalo chicken into fryer once heated.
7. Deep fry until crispy golden.
8. Enjoy

First Gluttony Minisode!

This is the first minisode for the Gluttony For Punishment webshow. This minisode is to teach people how to cook the food that we are eating. In this minisode, we are cooking and teaching how to make fries.

Recipe (Directions)

1. Clean potatoes (Peel skin before cleaning if thats what you prefer)
2. Chop potatoes to preferable size.
3. Place chopped potatoes in a mixture of 3 gallons of water (cold) and 2-3 cups of vinegar. Set for at least 12 hours
4. Take the chopped potatoes out and dry.
5. Set deep fryer to a temperature below 320 degrees (preferably 250), place potatoes in until its cooked through, but not golden. Take out of oil and let dry.
6. Set deep fryer to at least 375 degrees, cook until its golden crispy. Then there ready to eat, once cooled of course.

McRib is Back

For us fattys who love the McRib, its back for a limited time!

Has Nothing to do with Gluttony But Awesome

We at Gluttony have decided to do some post while we are waiting on the editing of our first challenge. So this is an article that we have found that completely interest us and makes me want to eat!

Fast food chains like McDonald's don't become global brands by cooking up the same old burgers and fries in every country.Chains wishing to hang a shingle in a new country generally follow a strategy known as "localization," tailoring their menus to fit local tastes. In some cases it's subtle (in China, for instance, you can get chili garlic sauce with your McNuggets) while in other cases the menu is almost unrecognizable (in India, you won't find any beef or pork at burger chains).That means that fast food fans in other countries get menu items that Americans can only dream of. Here are a few we wish we could have.

The Meat Monster (Burger King, Japan)

Photo: burgerkingjapan.co.jp

When most people want to put something on their burgers, they usually think of toppings like cheese, bacon, onions and tomatoes. The geniuses at Burger King put all of that on, then decided to throw on a chicken breast for good measure.

The result is the Meat Monster, a sandwich available at Burger King in Japan only. Perhaps the beast of a burger was meant to appeal to Japan's love of kaiju (monster) movies; in any case, we know it appeals to us. Bring this one stateside, Burger King.



McVeggie (McDonald's, India)

Photo: mcdonaldsindia.com

McDonald's has never been a preferred destination for vegetarians. While the fries no longer contain beef flavoring (the company discontinued the practice in 2001 in response to a lawsuit), meat-free customers still don't have too many choices beyond a few token salads.


Things are a bit different in India, though. Hinduism is the dominant religion there, which forbids consumption of beef and pork, and vegetarianism is widespread. The result is the rare spectacle of a McDonald's with no hamburgers. In addition to the standard Filet-O-Fish, you also get the Chicken Maharaja Mac and the McVeggie, the latter of which uses bread, potato, peas, carrots and Indian spices.

McZüri (McDonald's, Switzerland)

Photo: mcdonalds.ch

Starting this month, McDonald's Switzerland has starting rolling out experimental new items that cater to local tastes. While the McGrillschnägg — a sausage made from Swiss pork — certainly looks appetizing, the standout star for us is the McZüri, made from 100% Swiss veal. Yes, we said veal. The patty is accompanied by mushrooms and caramelized onions. Apparently McDonald's is a bit more upscale in Europe.




Paneer Tikka Sub (Subway, India)

Photo: subway.co.in

Subway's menu isn't as beef-intensive as McDonald's meat-centric offerings, so its 223 Indian locations aren't as unrecognizable as McDonald's Indian restaurants. But there's definitely some local flavor there in addition to the usual lineup for sandwiches, including chicken tandoori and tikka subs. And there are plenty of options for vegetarian customers, including the paneer tikka, which the site describes as "cottage cheese slices marinated with barbeque seasoning and roasted to a light crispness."



Krushers (KFC, Germany)

Photo: kfc.de

In the U.S., KFC has focused on chicken products and generally stayed away from doing anything too creative in the dessert space, but in other countries it's a much different story. KFC locations in Australia, Germany, South Africa and other countries offer a line of dessert drinks known as Krushers, which come in such flavors as mango, strawberry, Kit Kat and Triple Choc Crunch. The drinks are mixed with large chunks of fruit or candy (including sliced-up strawberries and Oreo cookies). To slurp up the chunks, the drinks come with extra-wide straws.


Bubur Ayam McD (McDonald's, Malaysia)

Photo: mcdonalds.com.my

Apparently bubur ayam — which translates to "chicken broth," according to Google — is a traditional Malaysian dish. And according to the English-language McDonald's Malaysia website, the Bubur Ayam McD consists of "juicy chicken strips in mouth-watering porridge, garnished with spring onions, sliced ginger, fried shallots and diced chilies ... just like mum's cooking!" We're guessing that this dish won't be coming to the U.S. anytime soon, but we'd still be curious to try it.



Trio Supremo (Burger King, Brazil)

Photo: burgerking.com.br

Burger King is now owned by a Brazilian company, 3G Capital, so we expect the Brazilian locations to have top-notch cuisine. And Burger King Brazil has indeed come up big with the Trio Supremo, which comes with chicken nuggets, onion rings and French fries smothered in cheddar cheese and bacon bits. The whole thing amounts to 1,072 calories and 58 grams of fat. As far as we're concerned, America is up to the challenge of this one.

Stills from Challenge #1

This is chef and host Bobby Smith holding the beautiful fried chicken that he spent a lot of time preparing and cooking.

This is an up close view of the crispy breaded buffalo chicken. Want the recipe? Make sure you check out Geeky Foods soon for their post of Gluttony For Punishment exclusive recipes.

The cast of Gluttony For Punishment, Eric Edge, Bobby Smith and Phillip Meyer (from left to right). Look at all of the food, which turned out to be an estimated 14 lbs. of food.



The 14 lbs. of food broken down in estimated amounts. 8 lbs. of double fried fries, 2.5 lbs. of fried buffalo chicken tenders, 2 lbs. of chili with onions and bell peppers, and 2 pounds of cheese.We also added jalapeno ranch dressing and hot sauce for flavor. Thats not to even adding the 2 bacon wrapped hot dogs that all of the competitors eat in addition to the fries.

We all enjoyed the food, though it was a lot of food to enjoy!

First Post!

I want to first thank you for visiting our page! We are excited and will be posting our first video on youtube by the end of the month! Excited? We are...

Just to prepare you, we are going to give you a Scoville Scale, because we are going to have alot of spicy foods in our challenges.

And we got some news regarding the first webshow that we are going to do... We are going to do a show based off my favorite food, FRIES!!! Over 4 lbs of fries, but that's not all we're making. Stay tuned to see all that we do, and watch the minisodes to see how me make it.