A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Folks Who Use My Recipes: No Work Crockpot/ Slow Cooker Chili

My sister, Suzanne, posted this photo to Facebook tonight after posting this morning that she'd come home from a great night's work and decided it was chilly enough for...well...chili!

Yummy.  My recipe, the result of an experiement several years ago, makes a chili with a texture where the meat and beans become very harmonious.  It sounds like an odd thing but by putting the extra lean ground beef difectly into the pot instead of browning it and addit last, the resulting texture is one that even people like me who aren't huge meat texture fans can love.

Excuse me, I have to make a trip across town to see if there are leftovers.

Eat Clean Diet: Minestrone

 
At the beginning of the year, I talked about this year being the year (that sounds familiar to EVERY year, doesn't it?) that I really do concentrate on eating healthier and cutting junk food out of my diet.  With half the year almost gone, I realize that to a great extent I have been successful. I am eating many more fresh vegetables and much much less junk food. Am I perfect? Nah, but I'm learning to enjoy better foods more often instead of just as the guilt tucks in.  I also talked about four books at the first of the year that have been helping me on that journey  http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/01/happy-new-year-ring-in-the-new-year-with-renewed-commitment-to-health.html#tp

One of those books is The Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. There's also a companion cookbook and a web site:  www.eatcleandiet.com.  Most of Tosca's principles line up perfectly with The Mediterranean Diet in that she focuses on real, as fresh as possible, wholesome foods, getting rid of the junk food, good fats, deleting sugar, and concentrating on complex carbs.  Another principe of Eat Clean that I'm experimenting with is she suggests eating every 2-3 hours and to combine protein/complex carbs, both to keep blood sugar stabilized.  I had an epiphany on that one. Because I work long night shifts I find myself often craving soda to the point of getting a headache and sick to my stomach while at work. I suddenly realized that while I was thinking I was craving the caffeine, I'm now wondering if it's not a blood sugar drop instead. I'm experimenting this week by following Eat-Clean to the letter.

A great way to get lots of vegetables in without any chemicals or trans-fats is soup, specifically veggie soups.  This Minestrone recipe is very good and a pleasure to eat. I don't even feel like I"m deprived.  I'm eager to sit down to a bowl of it.  I will make one caveat.  The recipe as written is a HUGE batch.  I cut it in half and still have a huge crockpot full but it's perfect for a family of more than just two people, or for dinner plus nice lunch leftovers, or for me, like this weekend when I'm working a three day stretch.  It gives me quick grab and run meals at home and at work that keep me out of the hospital crapeteria and not even glancing at the vending machines.

Sufferin' Succotash!

The fabulous Sher over at What Did You Eat? inspired me to reach both inside my southern roots and outside my southern roots for this one in that when I saw her recipe for Herbed Brown Rice, Corn, and Edamame, it looked so clean and wonderfully fresh tasting, it reminded me of succotash and I realized that I could never remember eating succotash in my whole life. Maybe I have but I don't remember it. I've had all the ingredients separately but I don't remember growing up with mom combining them or having ever done so myself before. Then, after witnessing Sher's week long vegan experiment, which didn't look easy, but it did look noble and her food was beautiful, I decided that along with my new emphasis on cooking healthy around here that I'll be serving up more meatless meals from now on, starting with something similar to that recipe of Sher's.  Actually, I could have made Sher's recipe but I would have had to go to the grocery and that would have required energy, something I didn't have at the time so instead I made up my own little concoction from what I did have on hand.  Next time, I will try yours, Sher, because I'm sold on the concept and so was Gene. He loved it!

Okay, I have to step back and confess yet again.  Partly, my motivation for more meatless meals is a genuine desire for stepping up our eating health now that I'm out of school and have the time to cook again. But partly, and this is the confession, Gene's paying a price for my weird taste vagaries. I go through periods where food repulses me slightly, specifically meat. It's really more of a texture thing than a philosophical vegetarian argument kind of thing.  Some days I just don't like the way beef and poultry chew.  I don't really understand why, I just know I don't like 'em in my mouth because of the texture. Go figure.  Taste is fine so I have no problem with chicken or beef stock or animal protein in general as long as I can't feel it.  Then usually, after a few weeks of that, I wake up one morning and think "Sure could tuck into a nice thick, juicy, pink steak."  (I know. Pity Gene for having to live with the crazy woman.) Again, don't understand it but I've decided not to fight it anymore. Who cares why?  I've decided I'm simply going to start listening to my body more and giving it what it think it needs in the moment, except when it holds me hostage for Krispy Kremes (there is no redeeming health value in Krispy Kremes, sorry to be the one to break it to you, folks) or  maraschino cherries (I'll have to do a post about those someday. The amount of dye in each of them is a mini cancer bomb but I love them anyway.)

Dilled White Bean Soup for Two

I was looking for something filling for lunch today that wouldn't cost me a bunch of calories or fat.  I found the solution in white bean soup, or great northern bean soup to those of you who name your beans by names instead of colors.  I didn't know what a great northern bean was until I was twenty-five.  In my home, we grew up with calling them by their colors. Maybe that's a southern thing.  I've never understood why I see black beans on a restaurant menu instead of Cubans, but then always Great Northerns, Pintos, and Kidneys.  To me, those are white beans, brown beans, and red beans.

Not that it's important, it's just one of the many things I think about to avoid thinking about the important issues like...oh let's not go there. It's almost a holiday.  My brain is on vacation for fifteen more hours until I go into adult critical care training in the hospital tomorrow morning at 6:30am.

   Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by My Life As a Reluctant Housewife this week.  I love to zing this recipe up with a little, or in my bowl, a lot more dill.  Yum!