After last week’s instalment with the Canada Food Guide, Subway Canada invited me to try their new “healthy” menu additions, spinach and avocado. To me, it seems like a no brainer.  In fact, I didn’t realise they weren’t already on the menu until they brought it up. It takes 2 years of development to bring a new product to the stores.  The avocado I get.  How do we keep it from browning?  Is it chunks?  Or slices?? Or mashed???  It took me more than 24 months to figure that out for my own kids, let alone myself.  (Cut the way your mood suits, then squeeze lemon juice on top, keep the pit in and wrap super tightly in plastic wrap.) But Spinach?  It took them 730.5 days to figure out that spinach should be an option?  Come on guys, it’s like the lettuce we force on our salads.  Just throw it in and pray you don’t taste it. Here’s the real problem for me: on the way down to meet Chris Martone, the executive chef for Subway Restaurants, I was listening to the comedy station on the radio, and an American comedian named Pete Holmes came on and started riffing on…you guessed it, Subway. So the entire time Chris was extolling the health benefits of the new Subway topping options and teaching me how they craft a perfect sandwich, all I could hear was Pete’s voice in my head critiquing it all. "They let you watch like you're a king: choose from the bounty!" It’s like when your BFF’s just gone off on how much she hates that all the stores are only selling short shorts that make us look like hookers and then your daughter’s BFF and her mom arrive wearing not just matching short shorts, but a crop tube tops to boot, and you’re biting your lip praying you and/or your kid will keep their mouth shut. Same thing for me at Subway. Chris says you have 4 things to consider when building a sandwich: texture, colour, moisture and experimentation. But all I hear is Pete saying “Everything at subway tastes the same.” I disagree, but then I always order the same thing.   Only now, I’ll have it with avocado and spinach.  Why?  Because every little bit helps, and with the antioxidants and cardiovascular benefits of spinach combined with the nutrient dense powerhouse of avocado, even a little goes a long way. “It all tastes the way the restaurant smells.”  Oh Pete, you’re so wrong on that: avocado makes everything smell heavenly. Ok, ok, so clearly, I’m a child of the 80’s and am heavily influenced by the Freeman Oatmeal & Avocado face mask we used to slather on, but still… Ultimately, it’s about parents making choices for their children and themselves.  We’re all trying to be as healthy as we can. But, you know sometimes treats are nice too.  I mean, who are we trying to kid?  Which is why Rosewood Estate Winery gave me both some of their honey, full of digestive aids and immunity boosters, and their honey wine, Harvest Gold Mead. They also gave me some of their delicious Semillon, which has neither spinach nor avocado, and which I would certainly not give my kids. Or put in a sandwich. Unless I’d had the whole bottle Mead first and decided to put Chris’ 4 building blocks of a perfect sandwich to the test. Texture?  Check. Colour?  Check.  Ish. Moisture?  Oh ya. Experimentation?  For suresies. Now, back to the food guide, and don't forget to add your spinach and avocado…