ARRRRRGH. SO CUTE. I HATE CUTE BOYFRIENDS.

healthyalternative:

Today, for the first time, I have a guest contributor. :)

My lovely boyfriend snuck down to Virginia from Brooklyn and surprised me in the best (Healthy Alternative) way. He told me on the phone to go to the spice section of Giant grocery store because he wanted to do a cooking challenge with me, and that we needed to discuss spices before we bought ingredients. We were going to mimic the show Chopped by cooking a meal based around only a few select ingredients. We were going to each take a pic of our meal, then show the pics to our fiends and let them vote on whos was the best and most creative. He acted like he was in the spice section of his local Brooklyn grocery store. He told me that he was getting a call on the other line, put me on hold, then walked up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I was a little startled, but more than that, I felt like I was dreaming or something … like it wasn’t real. It was the craziest feeling. So Happy! It was the best surprise ever.

Anyway, back to the contribution. He ended up making me a lovely (almost entirely paleo) feast. He drizzled a roasted anaheim chili and seared garlic aioli that he made from scratch over the top of a broiled lean cut of beef. It was sided with a grilled garlic and onion eggplant mash, topped with tomato and avocado (a weird, but delicious combo). And he also made up the most amazing salad. The corn in the salad was the only non-paleo thing in the meal, but it was worth it. It was sweet corn that was cooked on the cob then cut onto the salad. No salt, no preservatives, no grains, beans, rice, or potatoes. Only veggies, meat, balsamic, EVOO, herbs, and spices. He wanted me to give a big thank you to all of my followers on his behalf for inspiring me and also for being inspired by my posts/dishes/journey.