Sun Lite for Jan. 13, 2003

Lisa Ferguson

Monday, Jan. 13, 2003 | 8:21 a.m.

Ode to oats

So, we're wondering whose bright idea it was to make weight-loss resolutions a New Year's tradition, when January is jam-packed with reasons to eat.

And you thought the annual gorgefest ended with the holidays. Turns out there's no need to leave the chow line anytime soon particularly if you're a big fan of that breakfast staple, oatmeal.

January (as we're sure you didn't know) is Oatmeal Month, so designated because people purchase more oats this month than any other.

That's just one of 10 fun oatmeal facts ( fun?) that can be found where else? on quakeroatmeal.com. Among the tidbits:

Last January, Americans packed cupboards with enough oatmeal to serve 346 million piping-hot bowls of the stuff (80 percent of U.S. households have a box of it in their pantries). But oatmeal alone is, well, gross. No wonder milk ranked as the top topping, followed by sugar and fruit.

Quick: How many individual rolled oats are in an 18-ounce box of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats? About 26,000. Speaking of the box, the Quaker Man mascot portrait, which adorns each package of Quaker Oats, has only been updated three times since debuting in 1877, most recently in 1972.

A TV classic

We'd be remiss if we failed to recognize the cultural impact of TV dinners, seeing as how today is National TV Dinner Day.

This compartmentalized frozen-food mainstay was born in 1953, apparently of necessity according to TV dinner makers Swanson, which that year was (for reasons the company doesn't make entirely clear on its website, swansonmeals.com) overloaded with Thanksgiving turkeys.

Culinary reference website hungrymonster.com picks up where Swanson leaves off: TV dinners were introduced in 1954, and more than 10 million were sold that year at a cost of 98 cents each.

Available as main courses in the divided, oven-friendly aluminum trays (a retired tray was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution in 1986) were the entrees Salisbury steak, meatloaf, fried chicken or turkey, all served with mashed potatoes and peas (those tongue-scorching fruit cobbler desserts came later).

In the '60s Swanson scratched the "TV Dinner" name from packages. It introduced its Hungry-Man Dinners, featuring larger portions, in 1973.

Here's some useless trivia: Which came first, Swanson's TV dinner or its pot pie? If you guessed the pie, introduced by the company in 1951, you're right.

Salad days

Here's news that's sure to make astrologers giddy: There's more reason than ever to look to the stars for guidance ... when choosing between ranch dressing or Dijon vinaigrette.

In a complete waste of time and resources, the mental giants with the Association for Dressings and Sauces (we don't make this stuff up, folks it's an actual industry association) decided to sponsor a survey of 1,000 consumers to determine diners' salad dressing preferences in relation to their astrological signs.

Let's see: Consult the heavens and hope to uncover a cure for cancer, or find out that Cancers like their blue cheese dressing on the side. Sure, that makes sense.

Giving new meaning to the old, pathetic pick-up line, "Hey, what's your sign?" it turns out that Aquarians and Taureans are the ranch fans, while Pisces and Libras prefer Italian. Scorpios and Virgos favor both ranch and Italian.

"Health-conscious" Aries warm up to low-fat vinaigrettes; Sagittarians are swayed by French; Leos roar for Italian, blue cheese and French. Geminis don't have a favorite dressing, but sample many different flavors. It's a similar story for Capricorns, who tend to have at least four varieties of dressing on hand at home at any given time.

If only salad bars doubled as meat markets, this information might actually be useful.

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