Eat Like a Rabbit

Paul is in California without me for a death in the family. We'll skip over the fact that I feel horrible being unable to travel and unable to join the family in support. When Paul left Thursday night, he took my suitcase instead of his own, which is considerably smaller because he packs significantly less than I do when we travel--especially to Europe where you often have to carry your own luggage up stairs. Anyway, it's not surprising based on our past posts about our visits to Trader Joe's in California and Washington that Paul wanted as much space as possible to do a bit of grocery shopping while on the other side of the country.

Has it really been 9 days since I posted to this blog about our eating experiences? Worse. . .has it really been 9 days since I looked at my personal computer (work doesn't count)? I fear I am delinquent.

So let's recap where we've been and what the Baby Rabbit has been up to all this time. Firstly, we spent a long, but too fast, weekend in California with the rest of the family celebrating Paul's parents' 40th anniversary. Paul's mom is a fantastic cook, and his aunt, Marsha, has a Master's in Home Ec which tells you what kind of a cook she is. All vegetarian and all divine! However, we ate our way through the weekend. There will be photos and recommendations and reviews just as soon as Paul finishes editing all the pictures. Two giggles that stand out for the weekend (even though there were lots) was the sign over Cousin Gigi's sink that read I kiss better than I cook, (Allegedly when they remodeled the house, she asked Larry to just board up the kitchen, but they decided to keep it for when Marsha comes over.) and the morning after breakfast burritos when Gigi said "Why can't we just get together sometime and fast?"

The luncheon item in question is in the center right of the photograph. It is a package very similar to the Uncle Ben's 90 second Wild Rice packs that I love. I heated it at work and dumped only 3/4 of it out onto a plate with all eyes on me, amazed that such a tiny package could contain so much. It actually contains two servings, and I could barely eat half of it. I think for a guy, like Paul, it would easily make a full meal.

I was very impressed by the minimal ingredients in the jambalaya and the good amount of protein and fiber per serving (4g, if I remember correctly). The package says gluten-free, which is a wonderful thing--both that it is gluten-free and that the company is known for putting such important information on the front label. On the other hand, I was surprised that butter was one of the ingredients. I don't require butter in my rice when I make it. Why would I expect it in other rice packages? Perhaps the biggest reason that the thought upset me is because I might have accidentally served it to someone I knew who was allergic to dairy without thinking. Such an ingredient just isn't expected.

Eat Like a Rabbit celebrated its ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY while we were in Seattle! We were so excited and as a reward to ourselves, we agreed to go on a shopping spree to Trader Joe's, an unusual grocery store that has locations where everyone else we know lives--except there's none in Orlando. We did a lot of testing with our product selections and hope to have a set grocery list for any future visits. Perhaps they will go faster in the future, but I doubt they will be as much fun. Thanks to Leann and Jeremy who shuttled us around and waited patiently while we filled up our basket. In fact, I don't know the last time I've ever made a grocery cart that full! But honestly, a good bit of it was purchased for gifts, and we ate a good bit of it while we were still in Seattle, too.

Gourmet's April 2009 Magazine had this fabulous recipe, and they've even made it available online. When I first read it, I was intrigued by the recipe and curious to know how it would work. I'm always looking for ways to get extra heart-healthy nuts in our diet. Making this recipe for dinner actually turned out to be a very economical move on my part. Paul's aunts gave us raw almonds from Trader Joe's at Christmas. We also got Trader Joe's pasta as an Easter present. Garrett Nudd left the garlic a few weeks back when he was making concoctions in our kitchen. So, much of the ingredients for this recipe were free to us.

Trader Joe's always has interesting products to try. Some people complain that just when you find the perfect product, the store changes its selection. Other shoppers find it literally the "spice of life".