MerrinDonahue.com

Before I gave up every single thing that’s bad for me (also known as B.K.H.A. or Before Kev’s Heart Attack) I LOVED Taco Bell Nachos Supreme. Loved them with a fiery passion. I never ate a lot of fast food, but I craved these on a pretty regular basis (read: once a month). Most people know that fast food and I don’t get along—AT ALL— so I really suffered when I ate them. Still, they called to me and I came at them like a drunk monkey.

Now, I’ve been extremely well-behaved since Kev’s little episode. I’ve become a down-right Nazi when it comes to our diet; there is absolutely no junk food anywhere in our house. I haven’t eaten red meat in frickin’ WEEKS (and yes, Camille, that’s absolutely 100% true). I still have cravings, though, and I like to think I do a pretty decent job of figuring out ways we can still have what we love, just made better for us.

So tonight Kevin wanted Buffalo Chicken Pizza, which I had given a makeover two days after he got out of the hospital. Now, I’m not a buffalo chicken fan, but I was jonesing for some Taco Bell Nachos. Fifteen minutes in the kitchen and a lot of dirty spoons later (I use a new spoon every time I taste for seasonings….it’s a sickness), I had them. Delicious nachos. Sublime nachos. A perfect clone of Taco Bell Nachos Supreme. I seriously could not tell the difference (except, of course, that my chips weren’t stale or soggy, and everything was still hot when I ate them). Kevin had a taste, and I had to fight him off like a mama bear defending her cubs. I almost poked his eye out with my fork.

You would never ever know that my version is virtually fat-free (ground turkey breast vs. ground beef) You damn sure wouldn’t guess that my version had under 300 (delicious) calories and a mere 9% of your daily recommended allowance of cholesterol and a WHOPPING 40% of your RDA of fiber. The best part, though, is that I get to feel like I’m indulging.