Rachel

I tend to quickly rule out any recipe I find on a “diet-friendly” website because they usually suck and never let me use entire sticks of butter, but I decided to go against my big ol’ gut* and make this Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip from Skinnytaste for dinner. It was pretty delicious and I’d probably whip it again for guests… especially when Caitlin comes, maybe! (Also: linking much?) I really like the taste of mayo, but if you don’t, I’d try to find a substitute. Also, I added more cheese and garlic because that obviously makes everything yummier. 

Dan was totally in the zone while I took this picture and got in my shot, but I thought it was cuter this way.

*I actually lost about 30 lbs since September 2010, if I may brag about it for a second. I attribute the first 20 to Couch to 5k, Dan’s support, spin class, just liking running in general now, going healthy vegetarian, cooking most of my own meals, Dan making most of my lunches and belonging to a gym that is in my work building that does my mothafucking laundry for me for FREE. The last ten is thanks to my seven cavities that I went to the final of six dental appointments for today. I guess this was kind of a celebratory meal, of sorts. 

But I just really like spinach and artichoke dip, you know?

As usual, Dan was awesome at Christmas presents this year and signed me up for Brooklyn Kitchen’s “Hearty Vegetarian” cooking class. Yesterday was the big day, and even though out of 15 people I was the only person there without their significant other (seriously, what even?), I still had a good time and learned a lot of helpful cooking tips. I also learned that maybe I’m a bit better of a chef than I give myself credit for, and that I might be an intermediate cook rather than a beginner.

Anyway, tonight I made a vegetable galette based off a recipe I learned from the class. This baby doesn’t look as appetizing as it ought to (I think), but it was pretty phenomenal. It’s got homemade dough, roasted Brussels sprouts, onion, shallot, garlic, sage, parmesan and a little bit of a brie-ish type cheese.

I foolishly looked up how many calories are in a stick of butter, and now I’m just glad that I didn’t eat too much today before chowing down on this. And like, fuck it, this was so good and I made it with my HANDS.

Funny tidbit: While this was cooking, I told Dan it was going to basically be “a giant Crescent Roll full of shit” which I meant in a good way, but he got really grossed out, for obvious reasons. Also, it was way better than anything I’ve eaten out of a can.