Good Food, Bad Food

I've been eating some really good food lately. As in, good for you. Tasty, too!

I've gone on a cookbook binge at the library. I've been checking out lots of low-fat cookbooks and so far it's been really good stuff! I've been writing the favorites into a notebook. There was a creamed chicken that was excellent - even our little guys loved it.

Also, I've been coming up with some stuff on my own. I got a huge thing of fresh spinach from Costco and almost made it all the way through before it went bad. I'm the only one in this house that'll eat spinach. The two favorite things I've made with that spinach:

Salad - with mandarin orange slices, dried cranberries, warm leftover rotisserie chicken and my favorite dressing (Newman's Own Sesame Ginger)

Concoction - saute some minced garlic (I get the jarred kind - lasts longer then the fresh in this house), add 2 or 3 BIG handfuls of spinach (it cooks down to nothing); meanwhile, make some Minute Rice brown rice (the 4 serving amount); once the rice is done, add a drained/rinsed can of beans (my current favorite - kidney beans, but it's also good with navy or cannelini), then mix in the garlic/spinach; Add a couple of spoonfuls of 505 Chile Verde sauce and warm through. This is a recipe that serves as my lunch for about a week. It's soooooo good!

The not-so-good stuff I've been eating still hasn't been all that bad. Every year for my birthday, my inlaws give me a pretty big check (Dave gets one for his birthday, too). I know - it's like we're little kids or something but we love it! We're usually pretty good with these checks and pay bills with them or buy something we've had our eye on for awhile.

With my check, I also usually indulge in a bit of yarn and some foodstuffs that I love but my family maybe doesn't. This year I bought some tasty spreads. I have this thing about jam. I LOVE jam. Can't get enough. When I was single and I'd be home alone watching a movie, I wouldn't pop corn, I'd sit there with Saltines, a jar of jam and a spreading knife. mmmmmjammmmm.

I bought some Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter (which actually wasn't nearly as good as it sounded), some really good cherry jam and some Nutella.

You know how I just expounded on the virtues of jam? Nutella is even better. It's a chocolate hazelnut spread that makes me drool just thinking about it. I first had Nutella in high school when we hosted a German kid for a week one summer. He brought some of this deliciousness for a gift and I've been hooked ever since. Used to be, you couldn't get this stuff in the states. When I was stationed in Germany, I always had some on hand. And when I came back stateside, I brought back a case of it. You can usually find it in any grocery store nowadays. It's near the peanut butters.

One of new my favorite things is to make toast (another favorite food) and smear it with a thin layer of Nutella and then a thick layer of cherry jam. Holy Dog - it's so good.

I was futzing around on Etsy and found some really good jam makers. sigh. Gonna have to try to restrain myself but it won't be easy.

And now I bring you some really bad foods. This site, CakeWrecks, is a blog where people send her pic's of really bad cakes. And she only allows professionally done cakes. People are so strange! Click the links, you'll see....

Off to buy more jam, Ruth!