Food

Thanks to the recession, more Americans are interested in growing their own vegetables. Bad timing, according to an Associated Press report that seeds for some popular veggies might be in short supply this spring.

However, I had the chance to speak by phone with George Ball, chairman of the home-garden seed industry leader W. Atlee Burpee & Co., who told me that its supply of home garden seeds was plentiful.

The AP reported that an industry representative from the Chas.C. Hart Seed Co. expressed concern that, thanks to increased demand from Europeans and a poor growing season last summer, cucumber, onion, snap pea and carrot seeds could be in short supply. Ball told me that while this could be true for some smaller companies, overall the supply should be adequate for even the increased demand that he's seen over the past two years.

It's sophomore year, and suddenly you're finding that your jeans don't fit like they used to? You're not alone. Although so-called "freshman 15" is an exaggeration, most students gain weight in college. Stress, a less-active life style, and those buffet-style cafeterias lead many students to pack on pounds. A Rutgers University study showed that if students keep up their freshman weight gain, they would gain 27 pounds by graduation.

Tuesday Feb. 9, is the day Denny's is offering free grandslam breakfasts from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. You might have seen the commercial announcing the freebie during the Superbowl when the Saints spanked the Colts.

Get to Denny's early or be prepared to wait! Last year when I walked by my local Denny's at about 10 a.m. the line was wrapped around the restaurant, stretching 40 people deep into the parking lot. Um, no thanks.

If you can stomach the line, the free Grand Slam breakfast includes four choices from this list: bacon strips, buttermilk biscuit, one chicken sausage patty, two egg whites, two eggs, English muffin, grits, hashbrowns, two wheat pancakes, oatmeal, two pancakes, or two sausage links. A free Grand Slam breakfast is also available on your birthday with identification.

In the second legal challenge to a Starbucks store's fair treatment last week, a Florida man is suing the Starbucks on Powerline Road west of Boca Raton. Robert Friedman suffers from Tourette's syndrome, a genetic disorder which is characterized by uncontrollable outbursts, often laced with obscenities. Last year, he was visiting the Starbucks and suffered from such a flare-up; customers said he banged on the wall and shouted curse words.

Although Friedman says he later apologized for the eruption, the employees called the local sheriff's office, asking deputies to remove him from the premises and give him a "no trespass" warning.

If you couldn't resist buying a box or two of Thin Mints or Samoas (both are favorites in my house) from a Girl Scout recently, don't feel bad. These pint-sized dynamos have honed sales skills that rival those of some of the most savvy adult professionals. If fact, some Scouts sell thousands of boxes per year.

"I have no doubt my top sellers will become very successful business women someday," says Kim Lasden, a troop "cookie mom" in Chicago. "These girls could teach Wall Street a thing or two."

It's hard to say no to a pint-sized cookie peddler, sweetly asking: "Would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies?" But in an age where you're watching every penny, it can be equally hard to cough up between $3.50 and $4 for a box of 15 cookies -- even if those Samoas are perhaps the best thing that will ever cross your lips.

Despite their undeniable tastiness, there's no denying that, at $3.50 to $4 per box, Girl Scout cookies can be costly. But it might soften the blow to know where your cookie money really goes.

General Nutrition Centers, or GNC, is hardly known as a haven for budget-minded dieters. This is, after all, the place that will sell you 24 cans of green tea for $53.69 to go along with 60 packets of low-carb fudge for $155.99.

But in my quest to gain weight and build more muscle, I've turned to GNC -- and with the easy combination of a discount card and soon-to-expire clearance items, I've found that shopping at GNC can actually be cheaper than buying junk food at Walmart.

Here's how it works: For $15 per year, you can get a GNC Gold Card, which entitles you to 20% off almost anything (including almost all sale/clearance items) for the first seven days of every month. On top of that, GNC offers deep discounts on soon-to-expire bars, shakes, and other nutritional products. If you buy stuff two months before it expires, you can save a fortune.

I'm in week five of the Money Diet, where I try to lose weight by counting how much I'm saving every week by not eating junk food. And it's still working. I'm really pretty shocked by my weight loss. When I started this, if anyone had asked me to be truthful, I would have admitted that I was full of bravado and would have predicted that, by now, I'd have stormed a White Castle, scarfed down 132 of their little burgers and would have been waving the white flag.

But I've managed to resist the temptation, and I've lost weight again this week. I'm losing it slowly, which is frustrating, but I know that's what you're supposed to do.

Anyway, here's how I'm doing:

My weight when I began: 264
My weight last week: 250.5
My weight this week: 248

When we consider the rogue's gallery of devilish, over-sized, greedy and disproportionately powerful corporations, we generally come up with outfits like Microsoft, Bechtel, AIG, Halliburton, Goldman-Sachs, Exxon-Mobil and the United States Senate. Yet somehow, Monsanto, arguably the most devilish, over-sized, greedy and disproportionately powerful corporation in the world has been able to more or less skulk between the raindrops -- only a household name in households where documentaries like Food Inc. are regarded as light Friday evening entertainment. My house, for example. But for the most part, if you were to ask an average American for their list of sinister corporations, Monsanto probably wouldn't make the cut.

It should.

Founded by Missouri pharmacist John Francis Queeny in 1901, Monsanto is literally everywhere. Just about every non-organic food product available to consumers has some sort of connection with Monsanto.

Taking your honey out for Valentine's Day? A prix-fixe four-course special at one of Atlanta's finest restaurants, Aria, will set you back $85 per person BEFORE tax and tip.

Fear not, though; those of us of more modest means can still enjoy dining by candlelight at a southern restaurant famous for its unique menu: the Waffle House.

When a recent Nielsen report published in the Boston Globe said sales of grocery chains' own discount brands had increased 8% since 2007, I thought the number was conservative. Who is going to sweat the negligible difference in packaging and quality -- if any -- when buying ketchup when the rent is due?

So I talked to Bob Peterkins, a manager at a Foodtown in Brooklyn, N.Y. He estimated that in the last year alone, his store experienced a 20% rise in sales of products with the Foodtown label. The chain has supermarkets in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Disneyland may indeed be the happiest place on Earth. At least, that would help explain why the park's extremely expensive and exclusive Club 33 has managed to accrue a 14-year long waiting list -- in the middle of a recession.

Located behind a nondescript green door marked "33" in Disneyland's New Orleans Square, the members-only five-star restaurant was built by Walt Disney in 1967 as a place where he could privately entertain guests and dignitaries that visited the theme park. However, Walt passed away before he could enjoy the highly-rated food and the unique features that he had installed in the club, including talking chandeliers and a mechanical vulture who can participate in the dinner chit-chat.

Get a free food sample from Prepare then Share, a site that sells emergency preparedness kits, when you sign up here. Share your name, email, address, and phone number to get the sample. Ohh, phone number? That makes me hesitate. Why would they possibly need my phone number unless they were going to CALL me? Ugg.

Prepare then Share has a menu of long-lasting food items with pictures that make me hungry. But how will their beef stroganoff taste after hiding out in my trunk for months?

One cool feature on the site is a calculator to determine how much food you need to have in your emergency stash. It asks you how many adults and children you need to feed three times a day and how many days you want your grub to last. For two adults and two children to eat for 30 days they recommend 464 servings.

I'm going to start with my free food sample and see how it tastes.

Thanks, Hey It's Free!

Denny's will announce a free breakfast giveaway during a Superbowl commercial just like it did last year. Folks will be able to get a free Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010, two days after the big game.

"We are leveraging the power of the Super Bowl once again to connect with our customers to keep Denny's in their hearts and minds," Denny's executive Nelson Marchioli said in a press release.

A new report says coupon use is up 27% from 2008 to 2009. This is the first time coupon clipping has increased in 17 years, but puh-leeze, tell me something I don't know. The Great Recession made folks frugal? NO!

The list of folks not surprised by this trend includes Stephanie Nelson, a long-time coupon clipper who runs CouponMom.com. More people are using her site and her tips to become effective clippers than ever before.

Nelson's new book, "The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half" compiles all her tips. In 295 pages spread over 21 chapters, she shares practical strategies for folks who want to dramatically reduce their bill at grocery and drug stores. Following her tips will take a few minutes extra, but the savings pay off. And you'll get quicker over time.

If you don't buy her book (selling for $9 on Amazon, marked down from $15), I've summarized some of her best tips: