Thursday, August 21, 2008

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!

8 comments:

pigbook1 said...

oh man, I am with you on the jam thing. Except, I refuse to eat store bought jam, so every summer I have made jam. Wow. so good

Unknown said...

Try American Spoon Foods. They make amazing jams and fruit butters. Fabulous!

Nutella is sooooo good. Toast with a thin layer of nutella and tea. (Or hot chocolate!) that's heaven. I learned of it's virtue when I went to Europe for the first time. Yum!

Montreal Mama said...

The cake of the nasty foot with gross nails totally made me want to vomit! Thanks for sharing the bad cake site!

Anonymous said...

Nutella rocks! I learned about it from some other internet friends on a bbs I used to frequent. I don't keep it in the house because I would eat it all.

We are overstocked with jams and jellies here since the kids left home. Maybe we could spare some...

Yarnhog said...

That cake site just sucked a good 30 minutes out of my morning. So funny! I don't feel nearly as bad about my homemade birthday cakes as I did 30 minutes ago.

WandaWoman said...

Dang, why did you have to mention Nutella. I think I will have to buy some. Yum!

Heide said...

We love Nutella too. Sometimes Costco carries large two-pack jars for a good price. It's hit and miss finding them though. I am a jam snob and only eat homemade because I'm paranoid about the factories using old fruit and not sorting it, etc. So far this year I've only made strawberry and raspberry, but soon it will be time for peach and blackberry too. If you send me your address I'd be happy so send some jam to you!

Sharon said...

Thanks for posting the Cake Wrecks web site, it's hilarious!