cat food and cat litter

Hey, anyone want to offer opinions on specific brands of cat food and cat litter? My vet recommended Science Diet for food, my sister recommended another couple brands but I don't remember what they were (and I'm sure she'll leave a comment to tell me). I also had a couple people recommend the silica crystals litter over the normal stuff - I've been using Arm & Hammer flushable litter, but I really don't like the dust clouds it generates when you clean the litter or add more. I looked at a couple different brands at the grocery store this evening and decided to ask for suggestions instead of making up my mind. :-)

Nimiel's been pretty active the past few nights, making it really hard for me to get any kind of sleep. This has been made worse by the fact that I've been working really late each night, and ended up not having proper dinners the past two nights. So of course right now while I'm typing, she's sitting in my lap, chilling out, though not quite napping. When I go to bed though, I'm sure she'll start with the running around, and batting at the window blinds, and burrowing under the covers so she can bite my feet... (Actually sometimes she just goes to the end of the bed and comes back to the front, other times she goes to the end and starts a-nibblin'.)