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A Basic Guide to Ordering Espresso Drinks

March 23, 2016/in TwentyFive Main Blog /by Skyler Saville

coffeeGuideInfoGraphic

To a lot of people, this type of stuff is general knowledge. With that in mind, I’m still deciding to post this, under the pretense of educating others in the future. We are not born with an extensive knowledge of how the world works. We have to learn all of the things that we find important, in order to grow and evolve. Yes, even coffee must be learned. The included infographic describes what drinks are produced by mixing other ingredients with and espresso base. In this example, I tried to keep it brief, I only included 5 basic beverages: espresso, Americano, macchiato, flat white, cappuccino, and caffe latte… 6, if you count the water added to the Americano. I suggest you try every single one of these.

If you have any questions or any other suggested espresso drinks, give me a shout out on Twitter or Instagram: @25main

Eating Healthy on a Budget

March 2, 2016/0 Comments/in TwentyFive Main Blog /by Skyler Saville

Much to my displeasure, I often find myself torn between eating healthy and saving money. Sadly, the two don’t often intersect well with each other. Although there are many options for healthy eating these days, since it’s become a recent trend in the past 5 years, there still feels like a trade-off between shrinking your belly or shrinking your wallet. This is why I thought I could give some pointers on where to look for the healthiest options, but keep some of those hard-earned greenbacks in your pocket.

Eat Out Less?

As common knowledge goes, dining out would seem like the obvious first choice on my list. This is where my mind went first, but I also eat out A LOT. I consider myself a fairly busy person, so I don’t like to fill my time with things that can be streamlined a little. For example, when we fix a meal there are hours of prep that go into it. Even fixing a simple sandwich requires you to plan, make a list, drive to the store, shop at the store, drive back home, and prepare your [healthy] sandwich… not to mention the clean-up that comes afterwards. So, for lack of a better reason, a busier lifestyle seems more in tune with eating out more frequently.

You may find this a bit shocking, but eating healthier options at restaurants usually cost less than the higher caloric meals. This tells us that if eating out is your main go-to, then you can actually save more money by eating better. A word of warning, however… Soft drinks are the deal killer here. Most restaurants make a good amount money from soft drinks alone. So, if you can fight the urge to have your favorite soft drink, replacing it with water and a lemon, your pocketbook may thank you for it.

Shop The Walls

If you hadn’t taken notice before, don’t worry… most people don’t pay attention to where food is located inside the grocery store. For those select few who knew that the healthiest options usually hang out near the walls of the grocery store, go ahead and pat yourself on the back. I’m not sure why it’s done that way, but if you look at almost any grocery store, most of the fresh food stays along the perimeter of the store. The heavily processed and preservative laden food (if you can call a lot of it “food”) hangout on shelves, waiting for some unsuspecting future victim of heart disease or diabetes. I would start off by shopping the healthier options first, that way your cart is full of good stuff before you take your chances with what may be lurking in the middle of the aisles.

Read the Labels

Sure, I’m just like most people who never liked to read labels either, that makes us completely normal. In my younger years, I could pretty much eat anything I wanted to, without giving it much thought. But now, there are these things called calories that I have to worry about. I admit it; calories and I have a love/hate relationship. I need them so I don’t pass out as I go about my day, but if I get too many I start wanting to run past mirrors so I don’t have to come to grips with how fat I’ve become.

There are a lot of sugars and other junk hidden in our food. Reading the labels can at least help you make the best choices possible. The nice thing about it, reading the label once should be all that it takes. Once you have purchased it, it should be fairly easy to assume that you could purchase it anytime afterwards.

Prepare Larger Meals

Something we do at my house, make a delicious dinner that can be used for lunch the next day. It helps a little by taking some of the guesswork out of things and it’s nice to spend less time making a second meal. Leftovers can be very advantageous for the long term… It costs less money to cook one large meal, rather than two smaller ones. One easy trick is to make something like soup that you can heat up throughout the week. You can use it as the main course for one night, but follow up the next time by using it as a side dish.

There you have it. Of course these are only some suggestions. If you have any suggestions or tips that work well for you, give me a shout out on Twitter or Instagram: @25main

Acai Berries – The Super(est) Superfood

February 28, 2016/0 Comments/in TwentyFive Main Blog /by Skyler Saville

Buzzwords, Always a Trustworthy Source

A lot of times, yes even in the food industry, we witness trends begin to rise and gradually fall. We hear buzzwords like:

paleo
gluten-free
low carb
organic
probiotic
antioxidants

We hear these words passed around like fruitcake around the holiday season… unless you like fruitcake, I guess.

Superfoods

One of the biggest superfluous words in this category may actually be superfood. What is that?! Even as I just typed that, spellcheck was like, “Um… no. That isn’t even a word.” But I know you’ve heard of an abundance of superfoods in the last several years. Haven’t you?

Standing Out

Okay, playing devils advocate here, let’s say there is such a thing as a superfood. How does a food get promoted from a typical boring, run-of-the-mill, everyday food to a superfood? Is it like achieving sainthood; does it have to accomplish several miracles? Leap tall buildings in a single bound? Maybe it isn’t so much that it’s super, but that the foods we typically are surrounded by have become lack-luster that these unfamiliar foods standout better.

Acai, Superfood Level: Master

This leads me to what I wanted to talk about. There is one-such food that (if you can really call it a “food”… but I guess, technically, it) is. The acai berry (which, because I want to save you the embarrassment of saying it wrong when you go buy them, is pronounced ah-sigh-ee) has been getting a fair amount a press in recent years. This little berry is packed to the brim with tons of awesomeness! They are packed with antioxidants. Yeah, there are even more buzzwords packed into this tropical little Brazilian berry. It’s totally paleo, gluten-free, organic, nutrient-rich and it may be the next best thing, next to actual unicorn tears… but the search is still out for those. Apparently, unicorns aren’t big criers.

What does this all mean? Well, if you had the opportunity to eat better and feel like you’re doing something good for your body and your health, all while eating something that actually tastes good… wouldn’t you say that sounds like the best thing ever? (The answer is yes.)

You get a radical, you get a radical, you all get a radical!

Why are antioxidants important? Well, I could go on and spout off some science jargon, like how they may protect cells from damage caused by harmful molecules in your body called “free radicals,” but I’m not going to. I’ll just tell you that they’re good and may possibly help against diseases like heart disease and cancer. Trust me when I say you don’t want either of those.

So there you have it. The acai berry, which has been blowing up your Pinterest feed since late 2014. Go grab some and make an awesome smoothie, drop some in some oatmeal or granola, or hop back on Pinterest… I’m sure you’d be able to find some terrific recipe to try out.

Have you tried them before reading this? Let me know what you think about them. Drop me a comment on Instagram or Twitter: @25main

Top 10 Cupcake Flavors of 2016

February 27, 2016/0 Comments/in TwentyFive Main Blog /by Skyler Saville

In no particular order, I have scoured the Internet in search of the ground-shaking (and ground-breaking) cupcake flavors of 2016. Are you way past chocolate? Bored by vanilla? Has the salted caramel train come to a screeching halt for your taste buds? Well, take a look over this list and see if any of them appeal to you.

Orange Crush

One of may favorite drinks from my childhood… ah, who am I kidding? I still love this stuff! There are a lot of “orange sodas” out there, but none of them quite have the distinctive taste of Orange Crush. I mean, c’mon… R.E.M. even wrote a song about it back in 1988! Imagine drinking an Orange Crush, but then imagine it in cupcake form. You’re welcome.

Egg Nog

Always a popular flavor for the last few months of the year, but I’m willing to sign a petition to make it publicly acceptable to drink egg nog all year long. So, if you hear about such a petition, please send it my way. Maybe the reason why we love this flavor so much is because it brings back some of our favorite holiday memories… and, of course, memories of that one work party that got just a little too out of control?

Raspberry Lemonade

Maybe the exact polar opposite of the previous flavor, this is a true-blue Summer flavor. Brings to mind the joy of children embracing the capitalist mindset, by building lemonade stands all across the country. Nothing says American Dream, like a bunch of 10 year olds trying to get you to buy watered down, over-priced lemonade.

Key Lime Pie

When is a pie not a pie? When it’s a cupcake. I’m a huge key lime PIE fan, so this almost had me torn, like Natalie Imbruglia in 1998. But I can happily admit, it tastes like the real deal.

Dr Pepper

Why stop at just one flavor? Dr Pepper (or “D.P.” as it is referred to in my family) has not just 1, but 23 flavors to tantalize your palate. The supposed mix of flavors range from birch and clove, to amaretto and licorice… though the secret formula has been under lock and key since 1885. There is a level of complexity to this cupcake, which makes me feel even more sophisticated… even though I just ate a cupcake made from soda pop.

Maple and Bacon

Whoever decided that bacon needed to be made a meme movement, the likes of which the Internet has never seen before? I don’t care… I’m eating bacon! There are popular donut shops out there who pride themselves on “inventing” the maple and bacon donut… but rest assured, they have nothing on the dense buttercream frosting that could dance circles around their don ut shop, all by itself… but then, you add bacon.

Carrot

Going from a cake to a cupcake, this may be one of the more obvious choices on this list. But sometimes it’s those things that are sitting so obviously right in front of us, that rarely get noticed.

Apple Pie

MMmmm. Warm apple pie–I mean cupcake. I have a certain fondness for the flaky crust of apple pie, which is definitely missing in its cupcake form. Besides that, there are no other complaints from the peanut gallery. Apples and cinnamon are a thing of legend.

PB&J

Choosy moms may choose JIF, but picky kids all over the world should never have to look any further for their favorite lunch/dessert combo. My favorite flavor of jam or jelly is raspberry. This combo may be overly simplistic, but I love it!

Mint Chocolate Chip

If I had to pick my favorite ice cream flavor, it would be mint chocolate (something), hands down. In a cupcake, I just think that dark chocolate and mint have a yin-yang type of relationship. They balance the galaxy in a perfectly tasty Zen-like way.

Have you tried them before reading this? Let me know what you think about them. Drop me a comment on Instagram or Twitter: @25main