Edit: Derp, there was a clear one in there already. Directions reading fail, that’s what I get for trying to multitask.
First time using the instant pot foiled by the ring thing. How the heck do I get it to stay in? I get part of it in and then it pops out before I’ve worked my way around. Spreading out my fingers as much as possible didn’t help.
Hook it on one side and then pull it over the other?
Thx buddy!
I really like “The intelligence” from the economist - it’s daily (except for weekends), around 25 mins, and picks 3 stories (usually 1 big recent news thing, then 2 ongoing but less attempting grabbing or slightly more off the wall) items. It covers global stories but does have a bit of a focus on US and UK stuff.
How would you categorize this food? Would this count as a processed meat or ultra processed food in your book?
It looks like a sausage to me. Which is both a heritage food and highly processed? Never really thought about that dichotomy before.
I personally wouldn’t consider that even a processed meat…but I think of processed meat more like deli meat, salami, etc or like…a hot dog. This to me is just like, seasoned meat…very similar to something I would make at home (with the exception of the natural flavor) and I definitely wouldn’t think adding spices to ground meat would make it “processed” in my opinion
Can a burger patty count as a sausage? I never thought about that before 
what counts as sausage.
I feel like sausage has to have some added component of extra fat…isn’t that what differentiates it from regular ground meat? I don’t know the rules though, haha
This is where I’m getting tangled. Like reading online it sounds like if you add salt to meat it counts as processed? But how is that different than seasoning chicken at home? Is it quantity? The duration of salt being on? Things being ground up?
That’s interesting, I never personally think of seasoning or grinding as processing but…I mean technically…cutting up the meat from the animal is considered “processing” so how technical are we getting here, haha. I guess I’ve heard people say “I processed 100 pounds of meat into burger and sausage” for example…so anything that isn’t the pure form would be considered processing if we are using the word in that way…
Well and we even say we “processed” an animal for farming and hunting. But trying to figure out basically mentally if I should lump this in more with “naturally cured sausages”, or just like… ground chicken 
Well it isn’t cured. But even “naturally” curing things is highly processing them for preservation. Leaving the nitrates out probably isn’t leaving the most harmful stuff out (from very cursory reading and chatting, if you have actual info please @ me)
But to the “is this sausage” question, I think if a breakfast patty is sausage than that’s a sausage. Unless there’s a % fat requirement I was unaware of. There’s a bunch of spices and even a veg in there!
This makes it sound like any finely chopped and seasoned meat counts as sausage, which is a little crazy to think. Meatloaf is sausage hamburger patties are sausage under this definition if you season.
And if anyone else is a deeply broken like me and wants to deep dive:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2021-03/FPLIC_4a_Sausage_Operations.pdf
I would classify it with burgers. Which us in the highly processed/processed meats category for my family (yes on weekends, rarely during tge week)
Money question!
I have a medical bill that I can’t cash-flow but I have enough cash savings to cover it and then some. We have HSAs with plenty of money in them. I usually don’t submit bills to the HSA, I just sort of stockpile them in case I want money in the future.
Would you take money out of the cash savings (ie, emergency fund) to pay the medical bill and leave the HSA intact for some other more worser emergency?
I personally use HSA money for that, since HSA can only be used for medical and emergency fund can be used for anything. But I am not an optimization expert by any means! I personally see no advantage to waiting to spend the HSA money, since it sounds like you have a good amount in them anyways (ie you don’t drain them completely all the time. And if you did, you’d probably be using emergency fund money to supplement anyways).
If you think you can successfully keep the receipt in an accessible place (and remember that you have it) then you can submit for reimbursement any time
Right, BUT you can submit receipts much later. So I could use money from the Ally account right now, but then later I could take HSA money out in the amount of the receipt.
LOL, I actually have an elaborate system complete with spreadsheet, Google drive folder of scanned receipts in case they become illegible, and paper folder of the actual receipts. I guess the real question is, how do you know when it’s time to actually take dollars out?
So far my plan is… never? But I’ve never had a bill bigger than a few hundred dollars
