Happy Friday! Does anyone else feel like this week has flown by? Each day has been a complete whirlwind.

1.) I’m sending out my April newsletter next week. If you want to be on the list, send me your email address at keepingitrealfood(at)gmail(dot)com!

2.) Weird dream weather! I normally can’t read numbers in my dreams, but last night, I could see the price of everything—including the $43.16 engagement ring that had cooled lava instead of a diamond in the setting. Who leaves the receipt in the box, honestly?

Save room for cake.

3.) 12 “Unhealthy” Foods Nutritionists Eat—What I talk about when I talk about making room for life’s little indulgences. Read on for some tips on how to incorporate bacon, whole-milk yogurt, and doughnuts, among other threats.

4.) Warmer weather is (supposedly) on its way. Eventually. Someday. This free download from Nutrition Action with CSPI has some great salad recipes!

5.) Mark Bittman has a thought-provoking piece in the New York Times this week, “Butter is Back.” For me, the main takeaway was not that we should be feasting on croissants and cheese and  ice cream, but that we should eat real food and back away from franken-foods like margarine and low-fat cookies. This paragraph in particular stuck out to me:

“The most efficient summary might be to say “eat real food” and “avoid anything that didn’t exist 100 years ago.” You might consider a dried apricot (one ingredient) versus a Fruit Roll-Up (13 ingredients, numbers 2, 3 and 4 of which are sugar or forms of added sugar). Or you might reflect that real yogurt has two or three ingredients (milk plus bacteria, with some jam or honey if you like) and that the number in Breyers YoCrunch Cookies n’ Cream Yogurt is unknowable (there are a few instances of “and/or”) but certainly at least 18.”

I also like his stance of “eat less meat but eat better meat.”

I actually have a post coming up for you this weekend that will talk about fat and other important real-food nutrients we need. Stay tuned!

What are you up to this weekend? Do you like butter? Which “unhealthy” foods do you make room for?