the fruitier side of Atkins

I'd like to start by saying that the Atkins diet and fruit couldn't possibly put too much more distance between each other - did you know that you can't even eat an apple until you've nearly reached your weight loss goal?

I've made my feelings about the Fadkins diet pretty clear over the course of multiple snide remarks snuck into myriad posts, so I'm not going to babble on too long about what a horrible diet it is and how backwards the "nutrition" is.  I would like to state, though, that there is something very wrong with a diet that tells you not to eat lean cuts of animal (oops, I mean meat) and not to pull the skin off of that animal (let that sink in), and that if you really feel like you must do one of those things, for heaven's sake, add a pat of butter (not margarine, even) to your vegetables (God forbid they escape the fat-fest unscathed) to "make up for it."  Don't believe me?  Check it out for yourself - prepare to be horrified.

Actually, I spent a large part of my day today in a horrified state.  The time I wasn't horrified was spent in confusion, I think.  In order to more thoroughly equip my new hires to answer objections to our weight loss program, I was doing research to update our competitor comparisons.  Some of our competitors impressed me, to a point of near-disappointment in our own program.  Others mystified me in that way in which you don't know whether to be more impressed with the skill of the snake oil vendor or the stupidity of his patrons.  I've settled for a contemplative place in between.

Against my better judgment, though, I found myself surprised and impressed with one "improvement" or innovation taken on by the folks behind the Atkins diet.  They have assembled a group of chefs to create Atkins-friendly/approved recipes.  This is nearly identical to something my company launched this Diet Season, but is still in the preliminary stages of development....but hey, 2012 should be a great year...as long as the world doesn't screech to a halt on May 21st.  Anyway, I was intrigued by something on their chefs' page - something I didn't think could possibly be reckoned to a meat-and-fat-oriented diet: Mark Reinfeld, of The 30 Minute Vegan fame is one of the chefs.

That's right.  Vegan Atkins.  Does that blow your mind as much as it blows mine?  I spent the rest of the day pondering that one.

So, it seemed only fitting to make Pasta Florentine, from 30MV, for dinner tonight.

This could actually be a meal in The Twenty Minute Vegan, if such a book existed, because it really doesn't take 30 minutes.  Do you want to know what took me the longest in making this dish?  Boiling the pasta water.  The rest is such a snap, whether you use organic frozen spinach (highly recommend) or fresh spinach.  I love the "cheesy" sauce, and I especially love how Mister eats it all up without realizing that the source of the savory is nutritional yeast, not cheese.  I also like how the strength of the nooch's flavor covers up the "soyness" of the milk.  I can't really taste it, but Mister can, so whenever I can cover it up, I do.

Well, time to clean up...right after I spend a little quality time with the slice of Apple Spice Coffee Cake that's been whispering to me the whole time I've been typing...