Lesson #12: As a general rule, recipes modified to be low cal taste just like they were modified to be low cal. (Feel free to prove me wrong)

I had never been so excited about buying cookbooks. Actually, before this little experiment, I had never been excited at all about buying cookbooks. But I ran out to B&N to find something besides Jamie Oliver to keep me into all this cooking. I did find another one of this cookbooks, something that dovetails nicely with our garden, but I was appalled to see it contained a recipe for EFR, or Essex Fried Rabbit. Complete with picks of little dead bunnies. I have since paperclipped all those pages together so that I don't have to see them ever ever again. Now if I could scrub my mind of those images, we'll be all set.

I bought a couple of low cal cookbooks, too, thinking that I'd just substitute organic and natural versions of some of the things they call for that aren't Jillian-approved and make an even healthier meal. Problem is, those pretty pictures in the low cal cookbooks LIE. I tested about 6 recipes, and none were anything to write home about. Some were not edible. None tasted anything near what their high-cal cousins taste like. It was a waste of time and waste of food and made me want to give up on cooking altogether. I was not inspired.

So I'm back with my old pal Jamie and excited about the menu this week. Tonight is a yummy cauliflower soup with onions and carrots and garlic--all things Miss J would love--and it all simmers and gets good and gooey and then blended up into a cream and we add a bit of yummy cheese to the goo, and voila! I've already got it cooking and my house smells like a really good restaurant should smell. Making some grilled cheese sammiches on fresh sourdough to go with the gooey soup. Lots of veggies, some yummy natural cheese, and fresh-baked bread. I think we have a winner of a meal. Call me inspired once again.

Until next time, may all your recipes be happily, blissfully unmodified yet healthy, and may all your food be real!