I’ve recently discovered the snackibility (probably not a word…) of granola. It’s a great food to munch on instead of super sweet candies or chocolate. Experimenting, I came up with the following healthy, and easy, treat.

• 1/2 cup of granola
• 1/2 cup of Rice Krispie cereal
• cinnamon to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a sandwich bag and shake.

As I said, it’s a pretty simple recipe.  This is a great mid-afternoon snack, especially for kids in school.  I often make 2-3 cups and use it over multiple days.  It is also good with milk.

Has anyone tried this or a similar recipe?  What other things can you add to this to make it healthier or more interesting?  Share it in the comments!

From WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2009 #wordcampmidatl

(slides per @brandonsavage)

• What is caching?
• Why we need caching?
• Improving your code’s performance
• Improving the content’s performance
• Building your own caching plugin

Things that you cache…

• code (HTML, sidebar)
• login status (sessions, username)
• content (MySQL queries)

Things you don’t want to cache…

• dynamic content
• user permissions
• passwords
• security settings

Why is caching important?

• Caching improves the speed of the page load.
• Caching reduces server load.
• 9,829 function calls to load WordPress!

WordPress by itself is extremely inefficient!

WordPress Performance Benchmarks:

• WordPress by itself (with plugins):  almost 6 seconds
• APC enabled (without WP-Cache):  about 2 seconds

Caching the code

• Opcode cache

1. PHP is not a complied language; code is compiled and executed at run time.
2. Compiling code takes extra time, extra CPU, and extra resources.

• Benefits of Opcode Cache
• Drawback of Opcode Cache

1. Still must invoke PHP (which requires resources)
2. Executes “expensive” stat() calls.
3. Doesn’t play nice with some WordPress caching systems (e.g. WP-Cache)

Bottom Line:  You’re crazy if you don’t have an Opcode cache!

Caching the content

Why cache content?

• Most blogs don’t have content changes that often.
• Cached content reduces server load and increases delivery.
• When high traffic shows up, you’ll be ready.

Typical WordPress process

• WordPress loads the plugins, then the theme, then the content and returns the page to the user.

With WP-Cache

• Checks for a cached file.
• If found, it serves the cached file and terminates WordPress.
• If not, it continues on with typical process and caches.

WP-Cache is a file-based cache.

File based caches:

• Write directly to the disk, and read directly from the disk.
• This can be slow, as a disk read is required.
• This can be more reliable, as the files persist after Apache or MySQL start.

Drawbacks of WP-Cache

• File based cache (slower)
• Might have thousands of files
• WP-Cache still required the PHP parser
• WP-Cache evaluated the file before it serves it

Preparing for the Digg Effect

• WP-Super-Cache

1. Uses same code as WP-Cache
2. Replaces dynamic page hyperlinks with static HTML page hyperlinks
3. Removes the need for PHP parser

The rule of web servers: Static always beats dynamic.

Warning! If you used WP-Cache, it created a symlink for advanced-cache.php.

Words of caution…

• WordPress has not initialized a databse connection or the WordPress framework at the cache execution time.

I’m attnding WordCamp MidAtlantic this Saturday.  It should be a great experiance.  WordCamp is a blogging conference for individuals who have chosen to use WordPress as their blogging engine.  I hope to learn a lot, make some new connections, and prove you with plenty of information.  Also, after this Thursday, I am officially finished with school for the semester which means that I will have plenty of time to blog.  I’ll try to update at least once a day.  Let me know if you have any ideas for articles that you want to see.

Trying to find a new way to eat your chicken?  Try out this quick and easy marinade.  I put this together on a whim but it turned out pretty well.

• 1 lime juiced
• 2 teaspoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• 1 tablespoon of Mrs. Dash or other sodium-free spice

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir thoroughly until all ingredients are equally blended.
2. If using with frozen chicken:  Apply marinade generously after turning chicken in the oven.
   If using with thawed chicken:  Put marinade in a Ziploc bag and let chicken soak for 6-8 hours.  Cook as desired.

Unlike most marinade, this recipe is low in sodium and is about as healthy as you’re going to get.  It adds a lot of great flavor, especially when the chicken has soaked for 8 hours.

Has anyone tried this marinade or a similar kind?  What are your thoughts?  Share with everyone via the comments.