Diet Advocate

Dear Freshology: Please send me this exact lunch every week from now on - at least twice. Maybe three times...

I've had homemade tamales before - and in Mexico. Never swooned. But I just got back from a biz trip that was planes trains & automobiles and forced me to eat regular restaurant food for days. I came back 2 pounds up (briefly), but then had this lunch today: There were two beautifully wrapped tamales, which I heated in the micro for about two minutes on high:

I unwrapped the two perfect parcels of densely packed and steaming corn mush with smoked Gouda melted into it along with green chiles and spices. A side of "salsa" made with jicama, corn, peppers, black beans, cilantro, lime juice and cumin, and a sweet and spicy red cabbage slaw. My tastebuds are still humming...it was THAT GOOD.

This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say I love a brilliant melange of spice and sweet along with an earthy richness (smoked gouda with corn - genius). I don't need meat (I mentioned I tried to stay a vegetarian but failed); if a meal is this tasty, I'm totally beyond satisfied.

All for a measly 336 calories!! Ten grams of protein and 26 grams of carbs, with that marvelous gouda contributing 11 glorious grams of fat - YUM YUM YUM. Sooooo glad to be able to eat Freshology rather than restaurant food....not to mention airplane "food" - ugh. April is going to be a fabulous month....