Utterly Butterly

When I backpacked around Europe in 2004, I went to grocery stores in every country in part to buy food (duh) and in part to observe the brand names and flavor combinations in each place. There are some fascinating differences in the latter (some of which I was willing to try) and some hilarity in the former. In London, I saw some margarine named Utterly Butterly, and I thought it wasn't possible for a brand to sound more British than that. In the U.S., we have the far less dignified "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" You might as well just add the "y'all!!" to the end and be done with it.  Let's not even start a discussion of Fabio as its 90s-era pitchman. The less said the better on that one (or...the less said the butter?)

Anywho. I was hungry yesterday, and I had this sudden flashback to something we used to get for our breakfast break in middle school: cheesy bread. Now, I will resist the urge to rant about the terrible, unhealthy nature of most of what they fed us, including this favorite. It's just white toast (not whole wheat, of course), slathered in butter and covered with a healthy portion of cheese and baked. Usually the bread was so laden with grease that it turned from toast to soggy toast. Man, it was delicious.

So yesterday, I thought about cheesy bread, and I decided to try it in a healthier way. I took an Arnold's Sandwich Thin, put about a teaspoon of Brummel & Brown butter alternative (of which more in a minute), and about 1/3 cup reduced-fat mozzarella cheese. I stuck that in my toaster oven for about five minutes, and it turned out great. As good as I remember but healthier. I figure it was a total of about 2.5 points, which is very reasonable. I was thinking as I ate it that it would be good with garlic (see? I'm obsessed).

You could do some fresh minced garlic or garlic powder. I was at the grocery store later and bought some garlic powder for ease of use and uniform application on this item because minced garlic is harder to spread out. I was trying to decide between garlic salt and garlic powder. I chose powder because it doesn't have salt as the top ingredient as does the salt version. It's just dried, powdered garlic, which is all I want/need anyway.

You might be wondering what is up with this toast thing when I started this entry on butter, and even titled it thus. Well, the answer is that I used Brummel & Brown on my cheesy toast. This brand is made from yogurt and tastes better than margarine. I know butter is better and B&B is processed. I know I know. But I hardly ever use butter on things, so I figure it's probably okay. And it's only about 1 pt. per tablespoon, and that's really good for butter. It has some crap oils in it, but no hydrogenated ones (unless it's hiding under a fancy name in the list, which is, I suppose, entirely possible). So, if you're not too stuck on avoiding processed foods entirely, you might check it out.

Lastly, I just tried baking some of my leftover spaghetti squash with sauce and some reduced-fat mozzarella. Put it in the toaster oven for about 20-minutes. Yum. Like baked spaghetti but good for you.