La Brea from La-La Land

Having a blog is like having a diary. You end up sharing a bit about yourself. What have you learned so far about me? I love lavender and I don't eat deep-fried food. I drink tea but not coffee. And I don't own a car.

Now another thing about me: Last year my doctor said I have high cholesterol (which is crazy when I weigh only about 140 pounds and hardly eat butter). Because I exercise regularly, my doctor is letting me give it a try to reduce my cholesterol through diet instead of medication. What does this all have to do with that big lovely bread above? Well, my nutritional program recommends me eating more whole cereals and grains, such as bread, for the fiber. So over the past few months I've been looking for a good-tasting whole grain bread.

My current favorite is this whole grain bread from La Brea Bakery. What's amazing about this bread is that you get it fresh even though the bakery is down in Southern California. That's because La Brea has created this process where they half-bake their breads and then ship them across the country. When they arrive at the destination cities, they're baked to full glory and sold piping hot at your local stores. I get mines from Whole Foods, but it's also available at Trader Joe's, Andronico's, Mollie Stones and Costco. (I also saw on its Web site that they're now available in Hawaii at Foodland, so now I know where to go for bread when I visit my family on vacation.) I'm still testing out various whole grain artisan breads from local bakeries, but so far La Brea's whole grain is leading the pack.