New food addictions

I love food! I do. I don't know if I have always felt this way about food, but I know that within the last 6 months my love for food has increased. This could result from my food restrictions- for weight loss over the last two years. Whatever it is, I LOVE food. Luckily most of the foods I love are good for you. So, here are a few of my new food addictions (yes, once I find something I like, I can't get enough of it- which could have been the reason for my 5 year weight gain to begin with).

Still love grapes- did I mention that I eat like 12 lbs a week? Yes, it's true. I love green grapes late in the summer when they are ripe. The rest of the year, I eat red grapes. I also love mandarin oranges- those cut little oranges that are in season right now.
My new favorite fruit is dried cranberries (I've only eaten the sweetened ones, but I'd love to try some natural ones too). These are SOOO good. I started eating them in salads over Christmas break, and now I eat them as a snack. Yummy!

My new favorite restaurant is a cute french/Cajun place called Mimi's Cafe. They have this WONDERFUL Balsamic Chicken and Pistachio Salad. It has strawberries, baby greens, pistachios, chicken, and dried cranberries with a fat-free balsamic dressing. Yummy! Oh, and it comes with a huge muffin (blueberry). Last Saturday night Aaron and I ate there for diner. I got the salad. Plus I ate tons of bread and my muffin. I thought about the salad all week. So, Friday night we ordered the salad for take out. They charged us too much, so I called and told them about the mistake. We were comped a salad and muffins. We decided to go back there tonight to get my free salad. I will say that I was impressed that the manager remembered our conversation and even brought out a 4pack of muffins for us to take home! I ate all of my large salad and blueberry muffin. Aaron had the jambalaya this time.

Now the muffins are sitting on my counter calling me. They are so good, but so not good for me. Bread is my weakness. Bread and sweets! I told Aaron he needs to eat those quickly and hide them from me. I can not look at them all week. I am not strong enough to resist those muffins. Did I mention that there is a blueberry, carrot/raisin, spice, and banana chocolate chip! Oh, I'm getting hungry just thinking about them. I know what you're thinking, so eat one, it's not going to kill you. You're right. But I cannot just eat one, I would eat the whole 1500 calorie container.

What are some of your favorite foods that you can't live without?