Plain cooked chicken calories isn’t exactly a dieter’s main worry.  A single cup contains about 200 calories, is high in niacin, vitamin B6 and protein. 

Compare that with barbecued chicken wings or fried chicken and you are going to double or triple the calories and increase your fat intake.

As with many food items, look for recipes that do not use oil or fat.  If every calories counts, then look to chicken salads or use chicken sparingly for flavor and protein.

One downside to chicken is its cholesterol content.  A plain cup of diced chicken (about 5 ounces) contains just over a third of the daily recommended cholesterol input.  If your doctor prescribes a “heart healthy” diet, then keep the portion size small.

A Chicken in YOUR backyard!

10. Start by removing the skin – that is where the calories are.  Or simply buy boneless and skinless white meat for convenience.

9. Extreme high calories in a fast food chicken sandwich – Crispy FlameThrower Chicken Sandwich from Dairy Queen weighing in at 860 calories.

8. Calorie conscious fast food chicken sandwich – Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A – only 260 calories

7. COLOR OF SKIN – From FoodReference.com: “Chicken skin color varies from cream-colored to yellow. Skin color is a result of the type of feed eaten by the chicken, not a measure of nutritional value, flavor, tenderness or fat content. Color preferences vary in different sections of the country, so growers use the type of feed which produces the desired color.” http://www.foodreference.com/html/fchicken.html

6. White meat vs. dark meat – which wins?  That depends: there are slightly fewer calories in white meat but dark wins handily when it comes to iron, B vitamins and other nutrients.

5. Jerk Chicken – The term jerk refers to heavily spiced and often spicy hot seasonings which are dry rubbed or wet marinated.  Jerk recipes have their origins in Jamaica and the Carribean in general as a way of preserving meat similar to “jerky” or dried meat.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_jerk_spice for more information.

4. You are probably aware that eating raw or partially cooked chicken is dangerous because of salmonella. Chicken must always be cooked thoroughly to 167° F  (75° C) as measured using a meat thermometer pierced into the center of the meat.

3. Chicken bones can be boiled with vegetables and spices to make chicken stock and are a great starting point for flavorful chicken soup.

2. Chickens that are raised specifically for meat are called broilers.

1. Capons are castrated male chickens.  They were once commonly available in the US, but are hard to find today.  Chefs prefer them for their fattier, tastier meat.

Cooking Light Cook’s Essential Recipe Collection – 58 recipes for healthy, low fat meals.  Easily obtained for less than $10.
Betty Crocker’s Best Chicken Cookbook – A popular classic, need we say more? Inexpensive, too.

There are over 60 chicken breeds.  An amazing compendium of detail on each breed, complete with information on egg color, origins, behavior, etc. , is maintained by John Henderson of Ithaca College.

There’s a huge renewed interest in keeping backyard birds – you don’t need much room at all and it’s easy.  Witness the incredible following on the BackYardChickens.com web site. 

Raising Chickens

Are you in an urban environment?  Check out http://www.urbanchickens.org for lots of good information and advice.

Chickens not legal in your neighborhood?  Lots of people are pressuring their local government to allow small backyard flocks.  You’ll find support and advice on sites like http://urbanchickenunderground.blogspot.com/

Just how popular is this trend??  If Martha Stewart is in on the game, then it must be big time.  She recently had a show on backyard chickens – as reported on urbanchickens.net

Start at your local hardware or feed store (in the springtime) or shop online at places like Murray McMurray or My Pet Chicken http://www.mypetchicken.com McMurray has a minimum order requirement of 25 while MPC has the advantage of a low minimum order of just 3.

© Courtesy of California Avocado Commission.

10. The avocado once had a well-entrenched reputation for inducing sexual prowess. Avocados were not bought or eaten by any person wanting to keep their good name.
9. Fallbrook, California is the Avocado Capital of the World.
8. September 16th is National Guacamole Day.
7. The annual California Avocado Festival attracts 100,000 visitors to southern California every October.
6. Avocado is the only fruit color to define a generation.
5. The most common recipe for the avocado is some type of guacamole. During Super Bowl Sunday, in the US, about 50 million pounds of avocados are consumed.
4. All Hass avocados trees are grafted from one original Hass discovered by Rudolph Hass in the early 20th century.
3. Avocado calories have the highest protein content of any fruit.
2. The avocado tree is used as a warehouse; avocados can be kept on the tree for months after reaching maturity. They only soften when picked.
1. Avocados are a nutrient booster – Avocados act as a “nutrient booster” by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha- and beta-carotene as well as lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit.

Absolutely Avocado – “Take your taste buds beyond the ordinary with more than 50 recipes featuring the buttery smoothness of this favorite fruit. Soothe your palate with the delicate flavors of Avocado Crab Puffs. Warm up a cold winter’s night with Avocado and Almond Soup or impress your friends with your zesty Guacamole with Attitude. 24 color photos.”

Guac Off! – A humorous look at the avocado while presenting irresistible recipes. Every review has given it 5 out of 5 stars! “With 30 recipes for classic exotic and extreme guacamoles there is a guac to suit every occasion from the green chile-enhanced Brooktown Classic to the ultra-spicy Scarface Guac.”

Avocado varieties, known to botanists as “cultivars,” are created by grafting branches from an original “mother tree” onto rootstock. The seeds from a given tree will not produce trees with fruit of the same quality and characteristics.

Avocados from different varieties vary in overall size, while avocados are long and skinny, others are much more round. Different varieties also ripen at different times of the year so we can enjoy avocados year round. Skin color also varies – from a somewhat smooth green skin to a very rough, bumpy dark green/black.

Hass avocados are probably the best known here in the US – it produces fruit all year long and accounts for over 80 percent of the worldwide commercial product and over 95% of what is grown in California.

© Courtesy of California Avocado Commission.

Other named varieties include Anaheim, Bacon, Creamhart, Duke, Fuerte, Ganter, Gwen, Hass, Jim, Lula, Lyon, Mexicola, Mexicola Grande, Murrieta Green, Nabal, Pinkerton, Queen, Puebla, Reed, Rincon, Ryan, Spinks, Topa Topa, Whitsell, Wurtz, Zutano. Over 1000 named varieties are known, but only a small number are grown commercially.

Here is a brief primer at Gardenweb.com with questions and answers. They say it takes between 3 and 4 years before a tree will “begin setting fruit.” Note that the growers at the Avocado Growers Association suggest it could take much longer.

Buy a 5-year old avocado tree from Clifton’s Nursery for $69 at Amazon.com. According to avocado.org, it takes 7 to 15 years for an avocado tree to begin producing fruit. We found Zutano and Bacon varieties.

The Avocado Growers Association has the best concise directions for growing an avocado from seed.

Finally, a discussion with video of one person’s experiments with growing avocados from seed.

Avocado.org has almost 200 videos, many are discussions with growers or watch this video on cutting an avocado.

Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co. is a United States-based manufacturer of alcoholic beverages, also known as “malternative” or flavored malt beverages. It is named after its flagship and original product, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, which is a mixture of vodka, and either carbonated water or a flavored malt base, in Canada and the United States, respectively.

The company was founded in 1999 by Anthony von Mandl. The company’s U.S. headquarters moved from Lakewood, Colorado (Denver) to Seattle in 2005. One reason for the move was to be closer to its parent company Mark Anthony Group Inc. of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, a privately-owned manufacturer and distributor of wines, hard ciders and other alcoholic beverages.

LinkedIn Profile: Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co.

Mike’s Calorie Facts:

• There are 222 calories in the Mike’s Hard Lemonade
• Mike’s contains 5 percent alcohol by volume
• Go with their Light Lemonade instead and save about 124 calories
• The HARDER Lemonade contains more calories and is 8% alcohol
• Mike’s Hard Lemonade is categorized as a Malt Beverage
• A bottle of Mike’s contains 11.2 ounces which is about 331 milliliters

Mike’s Summer 2009 Sweepstakes. Win an Airstream Trailer. To win enter here before September 1, 2009. And check out winmikes.com for other great Mike’s Lemonade Sweepstakes.

I don't care about the calories - I'm thirsty!

The Mike’s Product Lines

Mike’s® Premium Malt Beverages

• Mike’s Hard Lemonade
• Mike’s Light Hard Lemonade
• Mike’s Hard Cranberry Lemonade
• Mike’s Light Hard Cranberry Lemonade
• Mike’s Hard Raspberry Lemonade
• Mike’s Hard Lime
• Mike’s Hard Berry
• Mike’s Pomegranate Lemonade

Mike’s Hard Punch™

• Mike’s Hard Mango Punch
• Mike’s Hard Pomegranate Punch

Mike’s Harder Lemonade™

• Mike’s HARDER Lemonade
• Mike’s HARDER Cranberry Lemonade

Mike’s Premium Malt Cocktails®

• Mike’s Mike-arita
• Mike’s Crantini
• Mike’s Pomegranate Martini
• Mike’s Lemon Drop
• Mike’s Screwdriver
• Mike’s Mojito

Mike’s Hard Tea®

• Mike’s Hard Tea
• Mike’s Hard Light Tea

Goats are indifferent but you won't be!

Home Brew Recipes

If you are searching around the Internet, you will find lots of discussion in the home brewing community as to how to recreate Mike’s Hard Lemonade. One such recipe can be found on the Home Brew Digest web site.

Mike’s Videos

Mike’s Movie:

Think it’s hard to cut calories in your diet? Try starting a company with a great product only to battle the monetary might of big corporations.

Beer Wars, a new documentary by former Mike’s Hard Lemonade general manager Anat Baron. The film recounts the struggle of independent American craft brewers to compete with the ever-consolidating conglomerates of the industry, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Miller Coors.

Mike’s in the News

Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/living/article/665488 For the summer of 2009, Mike’s is donating a percentage of profits on the sale  of their red berry lemonade to the Canadian Breast Cancer Network.

Lewiston, Maine Sun Journal http://www.sunjournal.com/node/38115/ Obviously the guy in Lewiston who robbed the Big Apple convenience store of Mike’s Hard Lemonade and other goods is unfamiliar with Mike’s well-known slogan, “Mike’s is hard. So is prison.”

Mike’s in Perspective

Bestweekever.tv http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008-6-4/who-exactly-is-mikes-hard-lemonade-trying-to-convince-with-these-super-manly-commercials/ This blog post ponders what their advertising is up to – are they fighting the idea that drinking fruity non-beer alcoholic beverages is somehow not manly?

Rateitall.com http://www.rateitall.com/i-28769-mikes-hard-lemonade.aspx When we looked, 20 people had chimed in with their opinions on Mike’s Hard Lemonade and most love it. Biased results? Who knows. Interesting: no mention of calories here.

ExpoTV.com http://www.expotv.com/Mikes-Hard-Lemonade/1U-1cGF Four video testimonials for Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

From Mike’s Hard Lemonade Press Releases..

New 1 carb/only 76 calorie Mike’s Light(TM) available nationwide for Victoria Day long weekend.

Great-tasting single carb beverage targets light beer, diet soft drink market in battle for backyard barbeques

TORONTO, May 19 /CNW/ – Canadians concerned about their carbohydrate and calorie intake have a great-tasting new beverage choice with the launch of Mike’s Light(TM), an innovative single carb, lower calorie vodka-based drink from the relentless R&D team at Mike’s Hard Lemonade(R).

The first of its kind anywhere in the world, Mike’s Light(TM) contains only one gram of carbohydrates and just 76 calories – the result of two years of intensive research and development. The result: a crisp, refreshing lemon- lime beverage with less sweetness and acidity than other ready-to-drink (RTD) products.

“Mike’s Light(TM) is the great-tasting result of mixing low-carb/low cal drinking with innovative thinking,” says Anthony von Mandl, creator of Mike’s hard lemonade and chairman and chief executive officer of Mark Anthony Group, Canada’s largest private distributor of alcoholic beverages. “Mike’s Light(TM) is for people watching their carbs and calories – but refuse to compromise on taste. Whether they’re hosting parties, or just rewarding themselves after a hard day, Canadians will have an entirely new choice.”

For Mike, it’s like 1996 all over again In 1996 Mike’s hard lemonade created the RTD category in Canada and started an international phenomenon, appealing to legions of beer drinkers with its trademark vodka-lemon taste and smart personality.

For the alcoholic beverages industry, this was an unexpected move from a little known Canadian company. Today, Mike’s hard lemonade, with a new, more drinkable formula that is less sweet and has a drier finish, is a leading ready-to-drink beverage in the domestic market and is the number 2 “malternative” in the USA, outselling Molson south of the border.

Like the original Mike’s hard lemonade(R), Mike’s Light(TM) is likely to inspire a whole generation of beer drinkers to ditch the brew and try something new. With nearly 14 million Canadians counting carbs to lose weight(1), Mike’s Light(TM) also hopes to quench the thirst of the vast market of Canadians who are looking for a great-tasting, low-carb/lower calorie alternative to the ordinary – this summer and all year round.

Today, Canadians compare carbs, calories & taste. According to Statistics Canada, Canadians drink more than 381 million cans of diet soda annually. With 48 per cent of the Canadian population overweight(2), food and beverage manufacturers are stepping up to the increased demand for healthy, lower carb products. Since 2001 more than 800 low carb products have been launched in North America(3).

“Canadians will compare the carbs, compare the calories and – most of all – compare the taste,” says von Mandl. “Canadians are looking for great tasting low carb and lower calorie alternatives to diet soft drinks and beer. If we can even draw a fraction of this market to Mike’s Light(TM) – the RTD category in Canada is destined for new success.” In 2003, Canadians drank 210 million bottles of RTD beverages, generating more than $450 million in sales.

By early accounts, Mike might just do it. Early orders for Mike’s Light(TM) have surpassed the company’s expectations in all markets nationwide. “The entire Mike’s team has been working overtime to make sure store shelves and bar fridges are stocked with Mike’s Light(TM) for Canada’s unofficial first long weekend of summer,” von Mandl adds.

About Mike’s Hard Lemonade(R): Created and produced by Vancouver-based Mark Anthony Group, Mike’s Hard Lemonade(R) is a leading ready-to-drink beverage with distribution in Canada and the United States. Mark Anthony Group is Canada’s largest private distributor of alcoholic beverages.
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(1) Canadian Diet Study 2004, Decima Research

(2) Canadian Community Health Survey, Statistics Canada 2000-2001

(3) Low Carb Foods Article, Agriculture & Agrifood Government of Alberta 2003