Saturday, February 7, 2009

Top Ten Simple Foods

This post is dedicated to the joy of simple and delicious eating. Back when I listed my ten things I love (no, eleven!), I totally forgot to include food, which is crazy, because I love food. I eat it all the time.

So, here are my Top Ten Simple Foods. These are foods that are good any time of day, any time of year. They are simple, delicious, satisfying, and easy to come by.

10. Toast. Simple, right? And yet so warm and comforting, crunchy and delicious--especially when you spread butter (real butter) on it, and it melts down into the crevices. Toast is simple, and yet versatile. Dress it up with grape jam! Cut it into triangles! Eat it plain when you're recovering from an intestinal virus and your poor tummy can't handle anything else.

9. Fresh corn and tomato salsa (with chips, of course). This is my Survivor island food--meaning, if I'm dropped on a deserted island and I get to bring one kind of food with me, this is what I'd bring. (I know it's actually more than one kind of food, but it's my list and my rules here in The Green Room, so have a glass of wine and lighten up.)

8. Speaking of wine: Wine. Mr. Peevie is a budding oenophile, and I am reaping the benefits. We frequently stock up on the reds and the whites now that we're not shy about opening a bottle for dinner several nights a week. It makes me feel like a grown-up.

7. Peanut butter. I feel sorry for people who are allergic to nuts and cannot enjoy the nutty comfort of peanut butter. I practically survived on it during more than one of my pregnancies. In a pinch, I'll eat it with a spoon straight from the jar.

6. Sourdough bread. Good sourdough bread, with a chewy crust and slightly tangy middle, must be the kind of bread they serve in heaven. It doesn't even need butter--although butter does make everything better.

5. Chocolate milk. In my advancing age, I like milk better than milk likes me. But I'm willing to pay the malodorous price for the occasional glass of ice-cold, chocolatey chocolate milk. In pregnancy I would combine a cold glass of chocolate milk with No. 7 (above) for the perfect breakfast, lunch, dinner, and before-bed snack. Maybe it shouldn't count as a food, but who's blog is it, anyway?

4. White rice. I know I'm supposed to be eating foods with nutritional content, like brown rice and whole-grain cereal. But sometimes, and not just when I have GI problems, a big bowl of white rice with butter, salt and pepper just hits the spot. I could eat it for breakfast.

I think it's because I grew up eating that faux-grain, MinuteRice. Yuk. Seriously. My mom is a great cook, and put delicious gourmet meals in front of five kids every night, completely color and nutrition balanced--but when she served rice, it was always MinuteRice. I just do not get it.

3. Cheese and crackers. When I was a kid, this was our dinner sometimes on Sunday nights: a big chunk of sharp cheddar cheese and a big chunk of Swiss cheese, that we'd slice up and put on Ritz crackers. Sometimes we'd smear a little peanut butter on the cracker first, which acted as a kind of glue to hold the cheese in place.

2. Popcorn. With the advent of microwave popcorn--and now with my discovery of DIYMP--this simple food has become a major source of deliciousness and fiber for our household.

1. The number one top ten simple food in the universe EVER is BACON.

I should not admit this, but I buy bacon in bulk at Costco. That's how much we love bacon. In soup, sandwiches, and salads. In quiche, with green beans, and with scrambled eggs on toast. We even put it on our homemade pizza sometimes.

What are your top ten simple foods?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I am with you on the toast! The grainier the better. My favorite weekend breakfast is buttered toast with coffee. Simple and delicious. I also love plain milk and cornflakes. I lived off of these things before marriage and kids. Kept me skinny too LOL. White rice is good but try brown rice made with a tablespoon of butter and a little bit of salt. Divine! The trick is cooking just right so that it gets fluffy. Perfection.

jill said...

if you love bacon, you should play with this fun thing:

add this short url in front of ANY url and watch what bacony goodness transpires:
http://bacolicio.us

for example: http://bacolicio.us/http://www.greenroomthoughts.blogspot.com.

fun, huh?