Top 10 food addictions

Yes, even very skinny girls like me have food addictions. Please don't roll your eyes, I have been blessed with a high metabolism (thank you very much Mommy and Daddy). And believe it or not, as I creep up into the mid to upper 30s I do have to watch what I eat. But none-the-less I have food addictions that I cannot turn a blind eye towards. So here it goes:

1. Cheese

Every kind and any kind of cheese. Omigosh Cheese!!!! It is my drug of choice. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I'm not addicted to drugs - prescription or illegal, I don't gamble, etc etc. In the words of Adam Ant "Don't drink, Don't smoke, what doya do?" I eat cheese, and lots of it. More specifically soft cheeses. They are HEAVEN to me, and hell to my intestines and my skin. But regardless of those set-backs I am perfectly happy to sit down with a plate of Brie, Mozzarella, and Camembert and some water crackers and sliced apples, over anything else. At weddings you can usually find me loading up on all the yummy cheeses and skipping the rest of the buffet. It's about this point my husband shakes his head and says, "Babe, you are going to be so sick later." He's right, but I go temporarily stupid and decide the benefits outweigh the consequences. Cramps schramps...I've birthed a child, right?! RIGHT! Just like people who consider themselves wine connoisseur, I would call myself a cheese connoisseur. Wouldn't it be great to open up a cheese bar?! I thank God for cheese every time I indulge. Because EVERYTHING is better with cheese!

2. Chile (green or red)

Okay, this is not your Texas-beans-and meat variety. That is chili. Chile is the actual chile from the pod. And as a New Mexican born and bred girl I LOVE and crave my chile. Luckily, we did not live far from Hatch, NM - the chile capitol of the world. So we always had chile on hand, fresh, roasted, and peeled. DELISH! If you travel to my fair land of enchantment you will hear, "red or green?" They mean which chile do you want with your meal? Depends on my mood, and sometimes when feeling especially undecided I go Christmas (read: a little red, a little green...a lot caliente!) NM chile is not for the faint of heart. It's HOT! Chile is good on everything and anything. We ate it with every single meal, like bread. Yes, even with spaghetti and things that don't seem to lend themselves to chile. Because like cheese, chile also goes with everything. So do yourself a favor and get yourself some chile. You will understand why I do NOT eat crappy Tex-Mex food. Lucky for me and my sister, who also live here in Texas, Central Market has a Hatch chile fest every year. Yes, we do go snatch up the Hatch. We'd be crazy not to.

3. Salami slices

God bless Salami. I don't buy it in the deli to eat on sandwiches. I prefer to indulge in it a la carte. I get a 1/2 lb of hard salami sliced thin at the deli, every trip at the grocery. I can down it in roughly a week, if I pace myself. The urge to sit down and eat the whole 1/2 lb is tempting. Throw in some cheese....WOW, it's like a buffet of sinfully bad food that is so incredibly satisfying. Sure it gives you bad breath, but I love it too much to care. That's what God gave us toothbrushes and toothpaste for. I'm sure my arteries clog just a little more with each slice...can't a girl enjoy one bad thing??

4. Metromint water

Okay, technically not a food, but it does go in my mouth to my belly when I eat. I discovered this delicious bottled water about 2 years ago. Funnily, my sister had shown up at my house with it, to which i promptly turned up my nose. Should've known it'd be the death of me later. Most things I adore are things I turned my nose up at in the beginning...Gossip Girl, Roswell, Veronica Mars, Lox, Lady Gaga, and skinny jeans. No "mint" water can outscore the taste of Metromint water. WOW, it's just...WOW! It comes in 6 flavors: Spearmint, Peppermint, Chocolatemint, Orangemint, Lemonmint, and Cherrymint. All are delicious, but Orangemint and Lemonmint are my personal faves. I love when Sprouts and Whole Foods has Metromint on sale. Even my little petite loves the "minty water," as she calls it.

5. Fresh Cut Coconut

DELISH! Recently we've attempted to go all organic with our food. We're now buying a majority of our food at Whole Foods. With that said, I find myself snatching up all sorts of delicious fruit and veg. WF has a whole section with pre-cut fruits, and to my delight...coconut. I first fell in love with fresh coconut when I visited my sister in Hawaii. She was living there and we took a little trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center where we had fresh coconut. HOLY COCONUTS BATMAN! I can sit down and eat a whole little tub of coconut in one sitting. The best part, there's nothing to feel guilty about afterwards. And it goes with everything! DISCO!

6. Butter Lettuce

Completely my lettuce of choice. I happened upon this tasty leafy green this fall when we ducked into the Cheesecake Factory for some dinner with the parentals. Their menu completely overwhelms me. Really 100-some choices? Give me a menu with 1 page and I'm satisfied to find what hits my hot button. But I digress. This lettuce is velvety soft, has a buttery taste, and all but melts right in your mouth. This is Paula Dean's wet dream. The drawback is that it's darn near impossible to find out of season, even at Whole Foods where absolutely anything produce-wise is available. Lucky for me it's just come back in season. In my opinion the hydroponic version is the best. I know I know....you can make all the pot jokes you want, but this leafy green is legal and delicious.

7. Chicken Salad

I consider myself a chicken salad expert. I have tasted chicken salad at nearly every single restaurant in the states I've visited, and even in Canada. It comes in all sorts of forms, spicy, oniony, sweet, nutty. All deliciously sinful. But my favorite is only found in Fort Worth, at the one restaurant I do not miss when I'm in Frog town, and that is at Yogi's Bagel Cafe. Not the one on Bryant Irvin, but the original on Hulen, across from Stonegate. Yogi's opened my senior year in college. It was just across the street from my apartment complex, and I couldn't have been happier. No cure for a hangover was better than a 12 o'clock lunch at yogi's with the girls. I rarely order anything other than my ultimate favorite...chicken salad on a plain bagel, toasted, with lettuce only. MMMM! They hand shred their chicken and mix it with a bunch of deliciousness, including lots of pepper. (side note: i hate pepper normally) It's like a culinary explosion in your mouth. Oh how I wish I were in FW now. This little humdinger of a sandwich is a pre-game ritual during football season. I should have picked one up before I headed to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl....

8. Lox

Sure, to some raw smoked fish sounds nauseating and foul. To me it's nothing short of spectacular. Funny story here is that the first time I was introduced to Lox was when I was in high school, by my Grandpa's very quirky friend. He brought it over for breakfast with fresh bagels and fresh cream cheese. I was repulsed. Sometime during college I gave it a try and fell head over heels into the pond. How can you beat it? Protein, Omega-3s...

9. Lobster

My first taste of lobster was on my 13th birthday. Mom said I could go anywhere for dinner, and order anything. We went to Anthony's on the Delta (mouth is watering right now), and I ordered the lobster. Mom said she'd eat it if I didn't' like it. The first bite was buttery, creamy, succulent deliciousness. I proceeded to put down the whole thing. If you know me, I'm a very small woman. Me at 13, even smaller. Probably 4' 6" and maybe 80lbs at best. Thus, started my love of Lobster. This is my go-to special meal for any special occasion. Birthday, Anniversary, Valentine's day, any body else's birthday. Thankfully for me, my father-in-law and my daddy love steak. What goes better with steak than Lobster?! Slide that red shelled princess my way and watch me go crazy. Brad once took me to a nice restaurant where my menu consisted of Lobster Bisque, Lobster, and Lobster salad. If they'd had a Lobster cheesecake you bet I'd have indulged. I'm hoping to acquire the nerve to make some Lobster on my own, Julia Childs style. I can't bear the thought of plunging a razor sharp knife into it's little Lobster brain. For now I'll let that happen in the restaurant kitchen.

10. Nana's tortillas

No list of mine, about food, would be complete without my Nana's tortillas. I cut my teeth on them. She makes them fresh, and always has. They are thick, soft, and taste like nothing you could get in any store. Really, they have ruined me for any other kind of tortilla. Occasionally I'll be lucky enough to receive some in the mail, and she always sends me home with a dozen or two when I'm in NM. Just like the chile, we ate every meal with Nana's tortillas. Some houses had french bread or good old sliced bread, we had tortillas...fresh made. The oddest thing about my family is our favorite tortilla treat, tortillas with chunky peanut butter, folded in half and nuked in the microwave for 10 seconds until the PB is sticky. It's heaven! My Nana doesn't even have to ask when I come in the house, if I want some PB with my tortilla. The PB has been kept in the same cupboard at the end of the kitchen, on the 2nd shelf my entire life. Creamy is for Papa, Chunky for the rest of us. How I wish I had one to eat right now. Someday I'll perfect them, but they still won't be Nana's.