Giving It Up
 

Does anybody here ever "give up" something they enjoy on a temporary basis? I'm giving energy drinks up for Lent this year (which I don't always do, but felt like this year) which is going to be tough. I drink them before and after I work out, during work, while driving... sometimes before bed. It'll be good to keep that crap out of my system but I in no way intend on keeping it out. I gave up smoking, I get to keep my other vices. :)

I have been giving up cocaine for the last 5 months.Not an easy thing to do.

smoking..hard to give up.

Good things to quit you two. Have you ever attempted to give something up for a certain period of time KNOWING that you're going to go back to it?

***********sorry, edit, wrong thread**************




I worry every day about a baggie, cotton, spoon, and dart.

my ever loving passion of eating toast in bed. :o

I've decided to give up dieting, abstenance, sobriety, and work ethic

Sobriety is overrated.

Yeah, but those are things you don't really want to go back to anyway. From what I hear some of those things can lead to depression, stomach problems, and even erectile disfunction!

Exercising is over-rated..!!
Don't do it i say..its bad for you.. :o

So is giving up eating toast in bed going to be hard for you? Do you do it often? Are your sheets like sandpaper after?

I don't know how i got this addiction..but yeah..its going to be very hard.
Have been doing this since i was very young.
Started off from when i was sick and had my food bought to me in bed.
Toast in bed..under covers..LOL..as for my sheets..hrmm..
very uncomfortable'

I haven't completely given up any of the following, but cut down significantly.
Weed...liver issues.

Coke & most softdrinks...They're too sugary...after hearing that you literally had to do a half hours excersize to work off the SHIT you put into yourself with one can of coke...I thought about how much of the stuff I drank, and in fact most people drink more...but it's bad news.

Fast food - Trying to eliminate some of the foods I KNOW I shouldn't eat...McDonalds and KFC are something I will seldom indulge in anymore, even though the urges are sometimes really fucked up...Pizza has been cut down to about 1/4 of the amount I used to eat, and even then, out of those times, sometimes I'll make my own on flatbread with lots of fresh vegitraian ingredients...of course sometimes I'll still hit the pepperoni from a home delivery place, but...yknow...
Even when I eat subway most of the time I don't really even get the things there I really want anymore.
The fast food thing isn't only about good health...it really is one of the biggest rip-offs when you look at it. It's usually cheap crappy product, unhealthier than it ought to be, sold at the highest possible prices. You want an example, go find out what McD makes on an average burger vs how much they spend.
Then figure out how much it'd take you to make a superior product, and you'll feel like kicking your own ass every time you consider eating at those places.

Drinking and smoking have never been a problem for me...I'll only ever smoke by stealing a draw from someone elses when I'm along the way to being drunk (admitedly, I like the headspin when I'm drunk, but wonder the next morning how people smoke regularly, if their breathe smells anything like my mouth tastes when I wake up after having smoked...), but then I don't drink enough for it to be a real issue, we're talking once every 2 weeks maybe, and most of the time among nonsmokers...

Had to give up some sports a while back due to illness.
That's about it really.

I LOVED the taste of smoking... the smell... hell I still walk by smokers once in a while just to catch the fleeting scent of their cancer sticks.

Cigars and pipes, I could understand more, in fact sometimes I'll buy a cigar or two for beer nights, and dig it...cigarettes...just smell chemical and gross to me, and just taste weird. Cigars seem more "purfumed"? More real somehow...Of course I wouldn't make those a regular thing either.

I've also decided to give up child molestation.



...like I haven't said THAT before...

I frequently give up caffeine because I drink WAY too much of it. Usually when I "give it up" it's for about a week at a time.

I've given up watching or reading the news in the last couple of months. I just couldn't be that angry all the time.

I feel like I'm a bit cast adrift now, though. All I know about current affairs is through watching satirical comedy shows.

How could you turn your back on coke!!!
you Heathen :o

I've given up crisps (potato chips to you americans). The transfats get under your skin, react with sun light and they're what cause skin cancer, not just the skin on it's own.

Things i refuse..and i MEAN.adamantly refuse to give up..

tayta chips
coke
snickers bars
marshmallows
burgers
kebabs
all them unhealthy crap..

I'm a man of appetites, I won't deny it. I eat a lot I drink a lot. So periodically I find it beneficial to go "raw" for a week at a time.

No booze, no meat, no grains, just raw fruit, nuts and veggies for a couple of days...part of the fun is the self-denial, also tend to drop 4-5 lbs over the week which is always welcome.

Do you mean those kebabs on sticks or real kebabs?

(spicy meat and veg ((like onions and such)) in a pitta type thing, held together with fat but tasting so damn good.)

I've never heard of a kabob not on a stick but it sounds great!Give us a recipe!

You don't get kebabs off the spit like we do?cut off in strips of greasy meat dripping in fat?

Where i am from, Kansas(not that we are technologically advanced) but all the kabobs I have ever seen are on a stick with meat(chicken, pork, beef) with veggies in between(mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, pineapple and so on).
and usually grilled.

we do get them in the way you do but the more popular form is the one i mentioned, in pitta bread with salad(not for me thanks).You guys usually beat us hands down when it comes to fast food.:)

I am craving some grease in pitta bread.I love pitta bread-someone give the recipe, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could walk out my front door and be at Pietro's(a great kebab house)in like 30 seconds!

DAMMIT, STOP PLAYING WITH MY EMOTIONS!:mad: :p :mad: :p

:eek: !!!!!!!!!!!

........shish

I want to know how to make a pitta bread kabob!!!!!!!!!!!

A shish kabob is something completely different.
They can be made with all manner of meat of seafood, and more often than not, they contain vegetables as well as meat, cut in rather large peices, then ideally bbq'd or char-grilled, yes?
We have those here too, but it's more something you prepare yourself (we bbq a lot here), not too many places will sell them as such.

A "kebab" is another thing completely.
Traditionally it's of middle eastern (I believe right at the beggining it was lebanese, then the turkish picked it up and make their own styles....etc etc) origins.
There are a few different versions of this...one particularly NICE one is made with a particular recipe of marinated spiced meat called 'shawarma'. It's lamb, but you CAN do it with beef.
Get
(plain) yhogurt, lots of chopped garlic, some chillis + vinegar (or alternatively, hot sauce), diced onion, black pepper, cayenne pepper, a little salt, some chopped corriander, and some MACE (which is like nutmeg, and easily substitutable), olive oil, and some lemon juice...Make to your own taste preferance.
Slice up your lamb or beef relatively finely, and marinate it overnight.
When you cook it, cook it over a low heat under a closed lid, and for quite a while, allowing the meat to absorb much of the liquid.

Again, traditionally...you'd serve this on some kind've afghan or lebanese bread (more popularly lebanese bread, the big round flat stuff), with some

* chopped red onion in sumac

*Taboleh or tabouli
...which is a 'salad' made of diced tomatoes, burghul wheat (which you have to soak in hot water prior to crushing), chopped parsley,
white onion, chopped mint, a little olive oil, and lemon juice.

*Hoummous, which is a paste, or "sauce" made of ground chick-peas (which is another thing you have to soak in warm water overnight prior to crushing), garlic, paprika, lemon juice, salt, tahini (which is sesame seed paste, available in stores) and white pepper. Olive oil to consistancy.

Get your bread, throw it in the over for a while to heat it up (warm and soft, not cooked to the point of crispiness), get that out, spread a little hummous on it, throw on your tabouleh and onions, then your meat, and wrap it all up in a roll....That there's your classic kebab, aka "donner kebab".

That is, as I said...one of the originals.
Some of the ingredients may be already available in stores if you don't want to make them (hoummous and tabouleh are most likely at delis here and there)...but yeah, when you put it all together, very nice.



Of course, this in itself will probably NOT be what these folks are referring to by "kebabs" either...see, what I told you might be available in a lebanese joint, but there's a lot of other places that have come over here that sell a more "westernised" kebab...
Which is essentially either chicken or pepper-spiced processed beef sheared off a turning rotissierie, not generally very high quality stuff...but it's ok.
They'll put it in the lebanese flatbread or pita, along with plain onions, tomato, lettuce with optional cheese, and like, ketchup or bbq sauce...
SOME of these places will have tabouleh and/or hoummous available, but strangely enough, usually as an "extra" on top of their standard kebab.
These things are pretty good when you're wasted or drunk...but really a pretty far cry to a "good" kebab.
These ones are probably the most common, I guess they'd be a little easier to make?


Then there's the turkish kebabs...which are alltogether another kind've goodness...I haven't looked into their recipes, but they cook their meat/chicken over charcoal in different spices (One example is the "adana kebab", they use turkish bread, and have different vegetables such as chargrilled eggplant, cabbage based salads, and marinated tomatoes.
Generally the ingredients are of MUCH higher quality than the shops I mentioned above....These ones aren't around half as much. If you get the chance, I'd highly reccomend them.

Thank you phalanx-i will try and make something close-sounds great!:)

Me and a few other dudes at school have a Seinfeld-inspired "contest" going on. Take that as you will.

(If you're not a Seinfeld fan: You're shit outta luck cause Im sure not explaining this one:p)

them ones in the leboneese bread..
we call them souvlaki's..

'drool'

Souvlaki is slightly different to a traditional kebab too.
Those are greek.
They generally use a softer bread (when IN bread...although it's not always in bread, that's just a takeaway thing) or pita - lebanese bread is bigegr and "dryer., better meat, and "tzatziki" - a cucumber yhogurt as one of their seasonings. They are mainly lamb or chicken, and can also include fish (more available in Greece, I assume) swordfish being among them.
I'm not sure, but I THINK that prior to it becoming a regular fast food item, the meat was cooked on what you'd call a shish-kebob, over coal or fire.
This is probably the common factor that relates "shish kebob" and "kebab".

Sorry to nitpick, but hey...the more you know...

mouth- watering

Here's some mouth watering pictures. Over here they're just known as Doner Kebabs. If you want one go on google and search Doner Kebab Recipe. Remember the hot sauce!

First we get some suculent beef and slice strips off
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...aked-2-DHD.jpg

Then we get some pitta, throw in some lettuce and onions
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...ed_tray_uk.jpg

Finally
We cover it in hot sauce and put it all together.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...00980549d-.jpg