Timely nuggets of information and ideas we want to share with you.

It’s BBQ season! There are three primary condiments people reach for during BBQ season – mayonnaise, mustard, and hot sauce/ketchup. How to choose which brands to buy? Here are some tips.

Hot Sauce:

Choose the brands that have no artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners.
Look for added sugar and if it’s among the first three ingredients, find a better brand.

Mustard:

Don’t buy brands with added sugar, gums, or artificial colors or flavors.
‘Natural’ as a flavor description implies that it’s not flavored with real ingredients like herbs or spices. Find a brand that uses the real thing.

Mayonnaise

Look for mayonnaise and salad dressings made from olive oil or avocado oil. Those are healthier oils.

In general, avoid any of these products if they have refined sugar, white flour, preservatives or artificial coloring.

Did you know that onions, garlic, and potatoes should not be stored in the fridge? They should be stored in a cool dark place, which will extend their life. These Tupperware containers have good ventilation and are stackable. They come in two sizes – one for potatoes and one for onions, shallots, and garlic. If you stack them, place the one for onions, shallots, and garlic on top of the potato container.

Potato Smart Container by Tupperware is $30.00.

Onion & Garlic Smart Container is $28.00

McDonald’s has a new “juicy burger” made with a plant-based patty and it is called the McPlant. It was co-developed with Beyond Meat and is only available at a limited number of restaurants now. If it is successful, it will go mainstream. It is topped with onions, pickles, shredded lettuce, tomato slices, ketchup, mustard and mayo and a slice of melted American cheese. It is on a toasted sesame bun. It is 510 calories.

Zoom’s hidden filter “Touch up my appearance”.

I might be the last person to discover this lovely option, but in case you are also in the dark, so to speak, I thought I’d share. My sister and I were looking at a Zoom video of me running a meeting and my sister asked me if I knew about the appearance filter on Zoom. Hmmm, why did she pick that time to ask me that? I know she meant well, and I am very happy to have learned about this filter! Here’s how to find it:

On your desktop device:

Download the Zoom app if you haven’t already

Act as if you are starting a meeting

Click Settings, the little gear icon in the upper right-hand corner

Click the option “Touch up my Appearance”

As long as that box remains checked, that skin smoothing filter will be activated for all your future Zoom calls

For the mobile app:

Open Zoom app

Click Settings in bottom right-hand corner

Click meetings and then check ‘Touch up my Appearance ‘and you’re done.

Here is what else we wrote about this week;