It's been a while since I posted a recipe, so here's one for y'all.

For several years, I've been going to Fabrocini's Italian Restaurant in Agoura Hills and enjoying their spinach salad. I've been meaning to try and do a spin on it at home. This recipe is very much in the mode of 'I just eyeballed the ingredients and threw it together", so all measurements are approximate, and will be stated as such. This makes a great light dinner, or a great starter salad for company.

Rinse a bunch of baby spinach, I dunno, maybe 6-8 oz. dry it, and place in large salad bowl.

Slice 6 or 7 mushrooms, chiffonade a half dozen or so fresh basil leaves, mince a couple cloves of garlic, and chop up 4 slices of turkey bacon (the Trader Joe's Uncured Turkey Bacon has excellent flavor and is what I used) or pancetta if you're not going for lower fat. Also have available a handful (maybe 1/4 cup) of pine nuts, freshly cracked black pepper, sea salt, and some good balsamic vinegar.

Heat 2 tablespoons of good olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick pan. Add the bacon. When it starts to crisp add the garlic. When the garlic gets aromatic, add the pine nuts and stir. When the pine nuts start to show a little brown, add the mushrooms, a pinch of salt, basil, and however much fresh cracked pepper seems appropriate and stir it around. When the mushrooms just start to darken and shrink, add a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and stir for a minute or so to let it reduce a bit and get a little syrupy. Then pour it over the spinach and toss. The heat from the dressing should wilt the spinach just a little. If you've got a nice soft goat cheese, crumble a little over the salad and serve with crisp bread or crackers. Serves 2.

Prep time 5-10 minutes, depending on how fast you are with a knife. Cooking time 8-10 minutes.

This came out just like I wanted, so it goes in the permanent recipe file. Mangia, my friends.

There are so many good reasons why I should shouldn't have anything to do with this. And yet I find myself strangely drawn to it.

I want somebody I know to make this, so I can have a taste, but not have to have the entire thing around the house taunting me with it's smokey, bacon-y goodness.

The last time we were at the market, they had a sale on organic lamb shoulder roast. I'd been figuring on just doing a roast for Christmas dinner, but then I came across a recipe for a Moroccan Lamb Tagine on Allrecipes.com. I made a couple of minor changes to reduce the fat and sugar levels and halved the recommended serving size, then made it for dinner. Wow! (if I do say so myself)

( Moroccan Lamb Tagine )

My main substitutions were stevia powder for the honey in the original recipe, reducing the amount of oil used, and reducing the amount of meat. I highly recommend trying this recipe, but it does take a little work.

I found this recipe and we made these this morning.

( Low Carb Almond Spice Cookies )

Quick, tasty, and not something that spikes my blood sugar. What more could you ask from a holiday treat?

So the challenge was to make a Thanksgiving feast that's extra special, but still fits into my diet. Which means relatively low carb, not terribly calorie dense, and not so loaded with unctuousness as to make the arteries stutter.

( Here's my solution )

Topped that off with green salad with a yogurt cucumber dressing, and the whole meal was still under 500 calories. Not too shabby.

When we were in the market yesterday, I noticed something I hadn't seen before in the fresh pasta section – Brie and Ricotta with Roasted Garlic Borsetti. Sitting nearby was a little package of pre-chopped prosciutto. Something vaguely resembling inspiration struck, and for dinner tonight( ... )

Yum! I would pay money for this in a restaurant.