Alexia Garlic Baguette

I work in an office two days a week. On those days when my husband and I get home after six, our freshly-prepared home-cooked meals are few and far between if we want to stick to our daughter's bedtime schedule (even if we could pull something together from scratch, I'm not sure we'd have any extra bandwidth or desire to want to think about chopping and measuring). So, we rely on either take-out (it's never too early to introduce chinese food to the kids!) or a quick dinner made with the help of our "friends".

Many times we choose the ever-popular spaghetti with sauce and garlic bread (and spinach salad thrown in for good measure). Well, I have to tell you about this garlic bread that I found in the freezer section of Whole Foods. It's called Garlic Baguette from Alexia. It's part of their Artisan Breads product line. It has no trans fats, unlike most other brands you may find in a conventional supermarket. It's made with real butter and does it taste good! We just pop our loaf in the toaster oven, which starts preheating as soon as we get in the door (takes less time and uses less energy than our full-sized oven). Bake it for just eight minutes and, voila, you've got some delicious garlic bread. It comes out so nice and crispy on the outside with a soft center of butter, garlic and herbs. There are four servings per pack and each serving only has 4.5g of total fat and 3g of saturated fat!

I've noticed that this bread flies from the shelves at our local Whole Foods, but I think I've also seen it at Genuardi's (owned by Safeway). Although we usually eat it with spaghetti, my husband had a rather indulgent, but so delightful, idea of using this bread to make meatball hoagies! How good would that be! The best part of this bread is the price. It's retail price is $1.69 per loaf, but it's often on sale for $1.50. You can also visit the Alexia website to get a $0.50 coupon! What a great deal and, trust me, once you try it you'll be buying in bulk.

For those of you who would prefer to make your own homemade garlic bread, I invite you to check out 101 Cookbooks, for Heidi's dad's recipe, or Everyday Food, for a version that uses boiled garlic cloves to take away the garlic bite.