Junk Food Nation, just a couple of quick thoughts as I watched TV last night:

1) The State of the Union Address was last night, and for those of you who don’t live in DC, it’s like the Super Bowl here.  DC people have parties, where they play drinking games, buzz word bingo, they stand and clap in their own living rooms, they boo mercilessly at the TV.  DC people go out to bars, where they scream and cheer and hiss, and bars turn off all the college basketball games and put CNN, CNBC, FOXNEWS and other news networks on their 22+ flatscreens.  They have articles like this in the paper. People will watch pre-State of the Union coverage, post-State of the Union coverage, the response, the coverage of the response, and the backlash to the response like it’s coverage and analysis of the Super Bowl.  This is real. That’s what living in DC is like. It’s Hollywood for nerds. And yes, I am one of them.

2) Speaking of the Super Bowl, when I wasn’t watching the State of the Union, I had the TV on ESPN. They’ve, of course, already begun the 24-hour cycle of “Let’s talk about every single effing thing possible regarding the Super Bowl until we beat down your soul.” Non stop. All the time. Til my ears bleed.  I realize it’s the biggest game of the NFL season, but can’t we tone it down a bit? No, of course we can’t. My buddy Nilo said he saw the talking heads once discussing the topic, “What type of conversation will we be having if Tom Brady wins a fourth Super Bowl ring?”

Nilo: “Dude, they were talking about…what they MIGHT talk about…if Tom Brady wins.”

Pure insanity, but that’s what ESPN is.  And that’s why these two weeks in between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl, I try to avoid sports media – but its so hard. BECAUSE IT’S EVERYWHERE.  Somebody shoot me.

It’s been a while since I did a homemade Junk Food, so here’s one my friend Emily shared: No Bake Nutella Bars!

The Money Shot

OOOOH YEAH.  No Bake Nutella Bars.  That is what it looks like.  These look so good, I’m going to show you the same thing again, from a slightly different angle.  Very slightly different:

Homemade Junk Food: Nutella Bars

BOOOM! Yeah that’s what moving the camera 3 degrees gets ya!  Your mouth watering yet? It should be.  According to Emily, these No Bake Nutella Bars are simple to make – melt brown sugar into butter, and dump over a pan full of oatmeal.  Then take some big ass jars of Nutella and spread over the top until finished.  Let set in fridge and BAM you’re done.

Gotta give Emily some credit here – love the swirl on top.  Very artistic.

Crunchy crust

Yep, that’s not healthy.  The bottoms of these bars are clearly just a crust of sugar, butter, and oatmeal that have fused together to form this brick-like candy.  That’s some solid sugar surface there, boy.

Tender tender Nutella

One bite of these No Bake Nutella Bars, and I was on cloud nine. (By the way, where does the term cloud nine come from?  Etymology dorks?  Anyone?)  The oatmeal sugar butter combo had solidified so it wasn’t the softest bar in the world, but it was definitely chewy – almost like a really dense granola bar.  Super super sweet.

Good lord, this thing is like HALF NUTELLA

And of course, the best part of this bar was the Nutella, which, as you can see from the cross section above, comprised almost half of this bar.  This held my teeth marks well, that’s for sure.  With each bite, you got a crusty sugary crust that came apart with good oatmeal flavor mixed heavily with the delicious chocolate hazelnut flavor of Nutella.  One of the most indulgent homemade treats I’d had in a long time.

Sometimes it’s nice to take a break on all the pre-packaged unhealthy stuff and eat some homemade unhealthy stuff 🙂  Don’t you agree?

Thoughts? Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy