I started this post yesterday but had to go to my sister’s house for dinner so I didn’t finish until today. We ended up playing mah-jong for about four hours and I ended up losing $12.

So Saturday after dialysis, I thought I would try something else other than my usual at Rising Cane’s, so I got a Philly cheesesteak sandwich at Jersey Mike’s on the way home after charging my car. It was okay. I’m not a big fan of bell peppers and this had a lot of them. The meat was pretty good but the nutrition information was saltier than it tasted. I’m not sure if it’s more healthy than fried chicken fingers though.

Nutritional Item	#17 Philly	#8 Club Sub	Box Combo
Total Calories	720 cal	1,100 cal	950 cal
Total Fat	29 g	72 g	47 g
Saturated Fat	14 g	13 g	6 g
Trans Fat	1 g	1.4 g	0 g
Cholesterol	117 mg	95 mg	160 mg
Sodium	2,187 mg	2,483 mg	1,030 mg
Total Carbohydrates	68 g	69 g	73 g
Dietary Fiber	3 g	4 g
Sugars	9 g	8 g	1 g
Protein	44 g	42.5 g	57 g

The Box Combo only has the chicken fingers and fries since I typically don’t eat the bread nor the coleslaw. If I’m most worried about salt intake, then the chicken fingers are not bad. The two sandwiches uses up the entire day’s DV for sodium. For about the same price, I probably like the chicken fingers the best, especially if you eat it as soon as they give it to you. They’re not as good when they cool down.

Long term thought, I need to find a lunch solution. I don’t mind getting take-out every day but it does get expensive. The Box Combo is $9 with tax. Most of Jersey Mike’s sandwiches are $9 before tax. If I get the chicken kabob at Panini Grill, it’s $15. I tried getting frozen meals but there are a lot of added phosphates that I should avoid. For awhile, I was eating salad that were freshly tossed at work but it turned out they used a lot of dressing. The salads taste great but the dressing basically kills the nutritional part of it with lots of calories, fat, and salt.

Instead of getting dim sum this morning, I decided to try out Holdaak, a Korean fried chicken place. I went online and ordered 5-pieces of chicken strips and six chicken wings (original flavor). Didn’t get anything spicy, which is what they are famous for. Maybe next time. The two chicken dishes(?) tastes very different. The chicken strips were very large, and the breading was very crispy. It tasted very similar to Raising Cane’s chicken fingers, though I think Raising Cane’s is a bit more tender and juicy. The sauce they gave looked and tasted a lot like Cane’s sauce too. The wings had a different taste, similar to the chicken from Fuari Chicken, another Korean Fried Chicken place inside Zion Market in Irvine. My mom came with me to pick up the food. I had trouble finding the place since it was in one of many strip malls on Tustin Avenue. There was a line of people ordering inside the restaurant, and another line for online order pickup. Overall, it was pretty busy, especially for noon on a Sunday.

I think I still prefer Raising Cane’s chicken fingers. The Box Combo cost about the same as Holdaak’s five chicken strips. Holdaak had better fries and you also get a piece of bread. Raising Cane’s combo gives you some coleslaw that’s ok, and a 22 oz. drink. It also feels like if you go to the restaurant an order, you’ll get your food much faster at Raising Cane’s. My mom really liked the Holdaak wings though.

Overall, I think I need to stop eating from both places. Fried chicken tastes awesome but you can tell how greasy it is just by looking at your fingers afterwards. This type of food probably led me to needing a heart bypass surgery so I need to avoid that as much as possible.

Today was the second day in a row that I just had one meal. Yesterday, I only had a breakfast burrito (with bacon) to eat for the entire day. Today, after dialysis, I decided to get a chicken kabob from Panini Kabob Grill. Typically I can make the food last over two meals but I ended up eating all of it (chicken) at 11:00 am. I tried to stay awake but each time I would sit down, I would start nodding off. I ended up taking a few naps, and slept through dinner again. It’s 11:40 pm now and all the leftovers are packed away so I guess I’ll have another protein shake and go to bed.

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I found another chicken finger/strip place that looks good. It’s called Holdaak and it’s basically Korean fried chicken sandwiches and strips. The location in Orange is pretty much across the street from Raising Cane’s on Tustin Avenue. I wanted to try Holdaaak earlier but they open at 11:00 am, which is a bit longer than I want to wait after dialysis. I could have gone there for lunch today since I went to charge my car after dialysis, but I had a craving for chicken kabobs so I went to Panini instead. Prices a Holdaak are similar to Raising Cane’s except you don’t get the Texas Toast and Coleslaw, stuff I don’t usually eat anyway.

I was all excited to finally get a Caniac Club card from Raising Cane’s. Since I eat there a lot, I thought I would get a lot of “points”, kind of like an elite mileage club at an airlines. I registered online then read the FAQ:

Q. What are visits, and can I redeem them for anything?

A. Caniacs can keep track of their visits every time they swipe. The Caniac Club does not currently offer promotions based on how many visits you have had in the past or how many purchases you have accumulated. You only really need to swipe your card to redeem offers or enter contests, though some Caniacs do like to keep a running tally of their visits. With that said, we are currently exploring ways to further improve the Caniac Club. While we do not reward Caniacs based on number of visits, 

What?! Then what’s the point of swiping the card each time? Contests? So disappointed. At least I’m supposed to get a free Box Combo but I haven’t seen the coupon yet. I did get an email yesterday about an online concert by some guy I’ve never heard of. I just checked the video link and it was ~1.5 hours long. Looks like a country music guy.

Our families usually go out to eat dim sum on weekends. My nieces especially love dim sum so they go a lot more. Since there’s only a few choices near Irvine, we usually go to China Garden on the corner of Jeffries and Walnut. Usually there is a line on weekends so often we try to go early and line up for the first seating after they open. Here is the dim sum menu:

Prices start from $3.88 per dish and goes up depending on what you order. I think we usually spend about $15/person since they also charge for tea. It’s not on the menu but if you order six dishes, you can also order a lobster yee-mein (stir-fried lobster noodles) for $10. Since the COVID-19 lockdown, the restaurant has become take-out only since they do not have outdoor seating. I guess I could have ordered from there but I found a 4-star rated place in Westminster that only sells take-out dim sum. It’s called The Dim Sum Company and it’s located in a Vietnamese supermarket. I can’t find a nice picture of their menu anywhere so here is a picture of the food from their website:

Most of their dishes are only $3.22. I ordered seven items and it came out to $25 including tax. They’re also a bit more tech savvy so I ordered online the night before for morning pickup. There also deliver but we probably live outside their delivery area (13 miles). My parents actually went to the Vietnamese supermarket before and though the dim sum was too “rough” or not refined looking. Having actually eaten the food, it’s only okay. Some of tie items at China Garden taste better but is also more expensive. It’s definitely good for the price. The place was pretty busy at 9:00 am on a Sunday. You can order there as well so there was a long line to order, and a long line for pick-up.

In the end, it was a bit too far to go for dim sum (20 minutes driving each way and a 15 minute wait for my food). If I get the craving for dim sum again during the lockdown, I’ll probably just order from China Garden, which is only a 10 minute drive. Obviously, there is no nutritional information for dim sum from a Vietnamese supermarket in Westminster so I have to guess at the sodium and fat content of each dish. I’ll probably go back to my standard oatmeal and toast breakfast for the rest of this week.

I went to charge my car after dialysis at Santa Ana Main Place. There are 14 Superchargers by the parking structure, 12 regular ones and 2 urban chargers. In the past, they were usually packed with people. However, with COVID-19, it has been fairly empty since no one is traveling or commuting. I took one of the urban chargers today and got about 45 kW of power consistently.

I was looking to buy something to eat before charging so I can eat in the car while waiting. I drove by the nearest Jersey Mike’s but they didn’t open until 11:00 am, an hour later. I thought about driving to Raising Cane’s or getting some chicken kabobs (my other standby lunch places), but decided just to wait it out. The charge took about 40 minutes to add 100 miles of range.

One the way home, I stopped by In-N-Out to get my usual Double Double with fries and a chocolate shake. I forgot how bad the food was for you; I should read my own blog more. There’s way too much sodium and saturated fat. Good thing it was more than three months ago so it’s not like a daily or weekly thing. Still…

The burger was awesome though. The fries, not so much.

I haven’t vomited for awhile but it came back with a vengeance today. My mom cooked two dishes and chicken soup tonight for dinner. I tried the first dish, stir fried shredded tofu, and it tasted funny. The vegetable dish was odd too so I just drank the soup. It was in a large cup and right when I got to the bottom, my gag reflex kicked in. I ran to the bathroom and the entire bowl of soup came back up. It looked like a lot more coming up than I remembered drinking. That went on for about a minute before the nausea subsided.

Having not eaten anything since breakfast, I quickly ordered a sub from Jersey Mike’s. The one closest to my house wasn’t taking orders since it was almost closing time so I had to drive about 5 miles to another store. I got a turkey sandwich, which is usually pretty safe. Actually, I’m eating it the sub right now and my stomach is still feeling a bit weird.

The store is located in a shopping plaza called Tuskatella Shopping Center. It’s a large strip mall on the corner of Tustin Street and Katella Avenue, hence the name. There are several restaurants in the plaza: Five Guys, Wingstop, Waba Grill, El Pollo Loco, Papa John’s, etc. It was pretty crowded and did not look like we’re in the middle of a pandemic at all. At least almost everyone had a mask on. Are all the anti-mask crazies concentrated in Huntington Beach?

I’m not sure what happened but my parents ended up not making food for me for dinner. Usually they make dinner unless we order out. Anyway, I went downstairs and put the last Marie Calendar’s frozen meal in the microwave. As I mentioned before, this was the beef and broccoli bowl. It looked promising but turned out disappointing.

I’m not sure what type of rice is used in these frozen meals but they come out kind of weird. The rice grains are a bit fatter than what I’m used to and I though it tasted kind of weird. Maybe it’s due to the microwave cooking. The dish was too sweet overall and had a strange taste. Also the beef was a bit tough for me so I would only give it a 2 out of 5 stars. I didn’t finish the bowl; I only ate about 1/2 of it.

Here is the nutritional information on the box:

Nutrition Item	Beef and Broccoli Bowl	Sweet and Sour Chicken	Baked Turkey
Serving Size	335 g	397 g	369 g
Calories	360	550	260
Total Fat	6 g	15 g	6 g
Saturated Fat	1.5 g	2.5 g	3.5 g
Trans Fat	0 g	0 g	0 g
Cholesterol	35 mg	35 mg	45 mg
Sodium	710 mg	1,060 mg	1,040 mg
Total Carbohydrates	57 g	88 g	31 g
Dietary Fiber	4 g	4 g	5 g
Total Sugars	12 g	28 g	6 g
Protein	19 g	17 g	19 g
Vitamin D	0 mcg	0 mcg	0 mcg
Calcium	50 mg	70 mg	30 mg
Iron	1.8 mg	3.5 mg	0.7 mg
Potassium	640 mg	430 mg	750 mg

I’m kind of ambivalent on eating more of these frozen meals. They seem to taste better in the past, whether that’s real of just my imagination. The sweet and sour chicken was not bad, but I probably wouldn’t get the bowl or the turkey again. Maybe I have to try more of them to find a small selection that I do like and stick with that.

I swear, I must have eaten a whole flock of chickens since I get food from Raising Cane’s so often. The location in Tustin is usually super busy. They marked off two lanes in the driveway for the drive-thru but since I go there around 10:15 am, there is never anyone in line. There was no line today and I got my food in <30 seconds. I still need to go into the store someday to get a club card.

I’ve also got into the habit of eating one (or two) of the chicken fingers as soon as I get it. I ended up parking in the back of the lot and ate two of the chicken fingers. They taste much better when they’re super hot. Usually bu the time I get home, the food has cooled off somewhat, and the fries are starting to turn soggy. It’s also too bad they mostly sell combos. I’m not too big into the toast and coleslaw. Maybe I can just get some chicken fingers à la carte next time. I think it’s $1.39/chicken finger, and $9 w/tax for a box combo. Definitely cheaper if you buy the combo, but only if you eat everything. Since I only ate the chicken and most of the fries, I’m going to try and prorate the nutritional information.

Nutritional Information	Chicken x4	Fries	Total
Calories	560	390	950
Fat Calories	240	170	410
Total Fat	28 g	19 g	47 g
Saturated Fat	4 g	2 g	6 g
Trans Fat	0 g	0 g	0 g
Cholesterol	160 mg	0 mg	160 mg
Sodium	720 mg	310 mg	1,030 mg
Carbohydrates	24 g	49 g	73 g
Sugar	0 g	1 g	1 g
Protein	52 g	5 g	57 g

Yeah, I think I will just order chicken fingers next time and leave out the fries. There’s probably a lot of extra potassium that I don’t need in the potatoes as well.

As a compromise, there is a Carl’s Jr. across the street from the dialysis center. I sometimes go there to get their $5 meal that includes three chicken tenders, small fries, small drink, and a cookie. It’s not the same taste or quality as Raising Cane’s but if you get it “fresh” as in right after they deep fried the chicken, it’s not too bad. Otherwise, the chicken is usually too dry, and the batter too hard and salty. Carl’s Jr. has much better tasting fries too. The cookie, usually chocolate chip, was terrible.

Someone from my parents’ church bought food from Ding Tai Fung (DTF) for us so they went to their house to pick it up. The food included two orders of xiaolongbao, two orders of potstickers, and three cups of chicken soup. My mom re-steamed the xiaolongbao to heat it up, and we microwaved the rest. It was okay. I’m not a big fan of DTF, especially how expensive the food is. Our dinner was probably over $60. It was nicely packaged for take-out though. They even included little containers of shredded ginger and packages of black vinegar.

The friends ordered from the South Coast Plaza location. I’ve never been to that location before. I’ve only eaten at the one in Seattle, and the flagship store in Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

I looked online and there doesn’t seem to be any nutritional information published. Typical for a Chinese restaurant. I ate about half dozen of the xiaolongbao, four potstickers, and drank only the soup; the chicken meat was super dry and tough. Probably wasn’t supposed to eat the chicken meat anyway.

For lunch, I had another Marie Calendar’s frozen meals, this time it was the sweet and sour chicken. This one got 3.5 stars on their website and again, that’s a pretty fair score. It was a bit better than the turkey breast I had last time. Again, I had to mix the chicken + sauce with the rice halfway through the heating cycle but the batter on the chicken wasn’t too soggy and the taste was decent.

Here is the nutritional information from the box.

Nutrition Item	Sweet and Sour Chicken	Baked Turkey
Serving Size	397 g	369 g
Calories	550	260
Total Fat	15 g	6 g
Saturated Fat	2.5 g	3.5 g
Trans Fat	0 g	0 g
Cholesterol	35 mg	45 mg
Sodium	1,060 mg	1,040 mg
Total Carbohydrates	88 g	31 g
Dietary Fiber	4 g	5 g
Total Sugars	28 g	6 g
Protein	17 g	19 g
Vitamin D	0 mcg	0 mcg
Calcium	70 mg	30 mg
Iron	3.5 mg	0.7 mg
Potassium	430 mg	750 mg

I included the information from the previous frozen meal for comparison. First, I thought the sweet and sour chicken tasted a lot saltier since the turkey breast was not that flavorful. However, the sodium content was pretty similar. There was a lot more sugars, probably due to the “sweet” part of the sauce. I left a lot of sauce behind since it was so sweet. That probably contributed to the calories and the total carbs number since both chicken and turkey are pretty lean. Finally, the potassium levels in the turkey breast was likely due to the mashed potatoes. Rice doesn’t have that much potassium compared to potatoes. Lots of carbs though.

This leaves me with one more meal in the freezer. I bought three of them last time since Albertson’s were selling them for $10/3. The last one is a beef and broccoli bowl, which got 4.0 stars on their website. Maybe it will actually taste “good” instead of just okay.

I usually get take-out lunch to eat at home after dialysis. The session usually ends a bit after 10:00 am so by the time I get food and get home, it’s usually almost 11:00 am. My list of food/restaurants is not that large:

• Box Combo from Raising Cane’s ($9)
• Charbroiled Chicken Shish Kabob from Panini Kabob Grill ($15)
• Club Sub from Jersey Mike’s ($10)
• Breakfast Burrito with Bacon from Johnie’s Jr. Burgers ($7)
• Teriyaki Chicken Combo Plate from Mos 2 in Santa Ana (no website) ($9)

I’ve ordered from some other restaurants as well but these are the ones I go to the most. They also have to be open by 10:00 am; some restaurants don’t open for lunch until 11:30 am and I’m too lazy to go home first then come out again. A lot of times I end up skipping lunch altogether. I guess if I was willing to drive further, there are a lot of food choices. There are several dim-sum take-out places in Garden Grove that I want to try.

Today I had the chicken kabob for lunch. It was a lot of food but I didn’t have lunch or dinner yesterday so I was pretty hungry. I wish I could get some of the meat juice to go on the rice. Usually when we order the family meal, there’s some juice at the bottom of the meat tray. Otherwise, the basmati rice is too dry.

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Dang it! I just found out that Raising Cane’s has a frequent visitor club where you get points for free meals. However, you have to go into the restaurant to get a membership; you can’t sign up online. I’ve never been inside the restaurant, especially now. I’ve always ordered from the drive-thru line. I must have eaten there over 50 times by now. <sad face>

On one of my last shopping trips to Albertson’s, I purchased a frozen pizza to try. I’ve actually never tried a supermarket frozen pizza before. I ended up getting a DiGiorno Supreme. It took about 20 minutes to cook in the toaster oven. I was surprised that the pizza fit into the oven.

I ended up having two slices. The pizza was not pre-sliced and the crust was pretty hard (I may have overcooked it), so we actually cut the pizza with a pair of kitchen scissors. The taste was on par with large chain pizzas like Dominoes or Pizza Hut. I think the pizza was $7.50 so about comparable to the chain pizzas. A good pizza that size will probably cost $20. Here is the nutritional information:

Nutritional Information	DiGiorno Supreme Pizza	% DV
Serving Size	1/4 Pizza (151 g)
Calories	360
Total Fat	10 g	21%
Saturated Fat	5 g	25%
Trans Fat	0 g
Cholesterol	30 mg	10%
Sodium	810 mg	35%
Total Carbohydrates	40 g	15%
Dietary Fiber	2 g	7%
Total Sugars	5 g	2%
Protein	15 g	19%
Vitamin D	0 mcg
Calcium	190 mg	15%
Iron	3 mg	15%
Potassium	180 mg	4%

I guess if you don’t eat the entire pizza, it’s not too bad for you. I think I’ll try a few different brands to see if I find something I like better. Not going to eat this everyday but good to keep one or two in the freezer in case no one wants to cook or order take out.

I decided to make another batch of crème brûlée tonight. Each time I make a batch, I hesitate a bit since it’s terrible nutritionally. To make six little cups of crème brûlée, I had to use two cups of heavy whipping cream, six egg yolks, half cup of sugar, and some salt and vanilla extract. I even added some strawberry jam to the bottom of each ramekin to give it some variety but probably adds a bit of sugar and other stuff too. I’m going to try and calculate the nutritional information of my homemade crème brûlée.

Nutritional Item	Heavy Cream	Egg Yolk	Sugar	Salt	Per Serving
Serving Size	2 cups	6 yolks	1/2 cup	1/4 tspn	5 oz
Calories	1,600	323	387	0	385
Total Fat	160 g	27 g	0 g	0 g	31 g
Saturated Fat	112 g	10 g	0 g	0 g	20 g
Trans Fat	0 g	0 g	0 g	0 g	0 g
Cholesterol	640 mg	1,260 mg	0 mg	0 mg	317 mg
Sodium	160 mg	49 mg	0 mg	560 mg	128 mg
Total Carbohydrates	32 g	4 g	100 g	0 g	23 g
Dietary Fiber	0 g	0 g	0 g	0 g	0 g
Total Sugars	0 g	1 g	100 g	0 g	17 g
Protein	0 g	16 g	0 g	0 g	3 g
Vitamin D	o mcg	109 mcg	0 mcg	0 mcg	18 mcg
Calcium	0 mg	131 mg	1 mg	0 mg	22 mg
Iron	0 mg	3 mg	0 mg	0 mg	0.5 mg
Potassium	480 mg	111 mg	0 mg	0 mg	99 mg

Yikes. The fat (from heavy cream) and cholesterol (from egg yolk) numbers are crazy high. I can probably cut one or two egg yolks out and replace some of the heavy cream with regular milk. Definitely shouldn’t be eating this all the time. I wonder what restaurant served crème brûlée looks like nutritionally. Probably just as bad or worse.

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This doesn’t include the thin layer of sugar added later to make the caramelized crust on top of the crème brûlée either.

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Update: 7/24/2020

Here is what the results look like after being half eaten.

Heh. I used to eat a lot of these when I was living alone. It was a quick and cheap meal but it’s been many years since I’ve eaten one. After my failed experiment with Freshly food delivery, I went to the local Alberston’s and bought a few frozen entrées. They were three for $10 so much cheaper than the food delivery services. I had this for lunch:

It was okay. Their website showed a rating of 3/5 stars, and it was appropriate. The taste was fine but they put the turkey and the mashed potato in the same divider. Instructions said to mix it after four minutes, then heat for 3 minutes more. Well, the gravy all melted with the mashed potatoes so it’s more runny that pictured. Since it was frozen, it took longer to cook in the microwave compared with Freshly, but the results were about the same. Here’s the nutritional information from the box:

Nutrition Item	Baked Turkey	%DV
Serving Size	369 g
Calories	260
Total Fat	6 g	8%
Saturated Fat	3.5 g	18%
Trans Fat	0 g
Cholesterol	45 mg	19%
Sodium	1,040 mg	45%
Total Carbohydrates	31 g	11%
Dietary Fiber	5 g	18%
Total Sugars	6 g	10%
Protein	19 g	24%
Vitamin D	0 mcg
Calcium	30 mg	2%
Iron	0.7 mg	4%
Potassium	750 mg	15%

It didn’t taste that salty but taste can be deceptive. The sodium and potassium numbers are higher than I’d like but acceptable if I watch what I ate for dinner. Again, for $3.34, it was not too bad.

I took three Renvela 800 mg tablets before eating since I don’t have the phosphorus numbers, and I’m cheating by drinking a can of Coke along with the frozen meal.

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I’m old. When I was growing up, we used to call these TV dinners. This was before the microwave oven was invented so everything had to be cooked in a conventional oven. The dinners were in aluminum trays covered by foil. For stuff like baked desserts and tater tots, you had to remove the foil over those compartments so it would come out browned and crispy. My favorite brand were the Hungry Man dinners from Swanson, especially the beef pot pie. Yum!

And everyone’s favorite…

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Another memory. Since my sister and I grew up as latchkey kids, we would come home after elementary school to an empty apartment (parents were working late), and often I would have to “cook” dinner for both of us. One of my favorite TV dinners was the pot pie from Swanson/Hungry Man. I believe there was both turkey and beef. I would have to go into the oven for about 45 minutes and invariably, the gravy would spill out so I always had to lay down a sheet of aluminum foil. I think we had to use a fork to jab the crust as well so some of the steam could escape. This was in the late 70’s and early 80’s so about 40 years ago.

Ugh. Another not so great meal choice. This time its the Springtime Chicken Pilaf.

The taste is a bit strong. I’m not sure whether because of the way it’s seasoned or if it’s getting close to the expiration date (tomorrow). The chicken was okay initially but was pretty dry near the middle of the piece. The pilaf was kind of mushy and the peas didn’t taste fresh. I got through about half-way through the chicken so I’d give it a 4/10.

I got three more of them that I have to eat tonight or tomorrow. I’ve already decided to skip next week’s order. I’ll likely end up cancelling my subscription as well since I can get decent take out for the $9/meal they are charging me.