Food is Good

This is my birthday dinner. I cooked this dinner, basically from scratch (but as it was MY birthday, I did not clean up the dishes afterwards, at least not much). We have whole grain pasta with homemade pesto (I grew the basil and I bought the parmesan, but that's pretty much scratch) and shrimp & cod. There is also a side of steamed asparagus and several glasses of white wine purchased at the winery (not by me).
This is the zoomed out version of my kitchen table. Tres classy, no? The plastic microwave steamer basket serving the asparagus right on the table. The open bottle of wine. The plastic booster seat at the table. The fish sticks on child's plate (along with no salt added canned carrots, asparagus, and the pesto pasta). I was once asked my theory of food. It is "EAT GOOD FOOD". Do not eat food products or food-like substances or chemicals. If you want something sweet, have a piece of fruit. Or some sugar. Avoid the sucralose and the aspartame.


This is my birthday cake which Chuckles and I made together. He's really quite a big help. He cracked the eggs, dumped the cake mix, dumped the water, and dumper the oil right into the bowl and then held the mixer. He also poured teh batter into the two cake pans since this is a layer cake. So you know what I said one paragraph ago about eating real food and not food products. It's all out the window for this cake from a box. There are two "ingredients" which I try to avoid at all costs: hydrogentated oils (trans fats) and high fructose corn syrup. Tubs of store-bought frosting have both. It was good. I guess I should see whether Whole Foods sells a pre-made frosting tub.
And here we are after my birthday was all over. Chuckles got his Toby the Tram engine from my birthday. He was pretty excited and cannot wait until someone else has a birthday.