Cookin' Like a Fool

Today I woke up hungry. That is usually not a good start to the day. But today when I was going downstairs I could smell the wonderful scent of the black bean soup I had cooking all night in the crock pot.

Breakfast

So I took my supplements and ladled myself a bowl of soup. It was really good. Easy to make.

That was the start of my cook spree today.

Black Bean Soup

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 Tbsp. cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced                      
6 slices turkey bacon
2 cups black beans
4 carrots, sliced
1 sweet potato, cubed
8 cups chicken broth
4 bay leaves
1 lime, juice

Heat the oil in a pan and saute onion & garlic about 3 min. then add bacon for 2 min.

Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook for 8 hours or over night.

Remove the bay leaves and add the juice of 1 lime.

You can put it in a food processor, but I like the bean whole.

My 3 youngest Granddaughters were here, they had spent the night. We spent the morning hanging out together, going for a walk, playing games and then the sun came out.....now they wanted to be outside playing.

My Bliss

Well, because I was hungry I knew I needed to have things on hand today that I could grab and eat, healthy things. Hummus, one of my very favorite snacks. If you buy your hummus, make this recipe and you will never buy it again.

2 cans Garbanzo  Beans, drained & rinsed

1 jar roasted red pepper (dollar store) 2 Tbsp. paprika

1/3 cup Tahini (sesame seed paste)
4 garlic cloves
salt to taste

This yellow gadget is the best waste of money I have spent in a long time.
Juice of one lemon

1/3 cup good olive oil
Put all in food processor and let it rip

 

There you have a healthy snack/dip

When I have days that I can spend time cooking I like to get things made that can last us a few days. Next on my list were some veggies. We love Kale, so I started getting some of that ready.

Remove the kale from the stem and wash it

Dry it and wrap it up to get all the excess water out. I read once that you can wrap the kale up in a flour sack towel and take it outside and swing it around to be like a human salad spinner.  I tried it ONCE .... I had kale all over the yard.  Needless to say to towel opened up  :) So now I just wrap it.

Add 1 Tbsp olive oil to pan and heat, then add torn kale

Finish wilting with 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

This is what is left, delicious goodness

Next came roasted brussel sprouts & a big salad

Henriana & I even got to go out to the garden and pull up some onions and cut some chives. Heaven..............

Bliss  :))))

I am so grateful that I had today. I was able to play, cook, play and cook and go out to the garden. Life is grand!  Hope you have a wonderful day and get a touch of bliss in it.

I also got 7lbs of sloppy Joe's made and 15lbs of hot beef. That's all for work this weekend.  Oh .... good day. 

The Day After The Rabbit Came

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We spent it with Bruce's side of the family and had a great time. We watched the kids search for 200 Easter eggs.

Lots of good food and good times. The ham was outstanding. This is the first time we have had pork in over 3 months.  Great salads and veggies.
A wonderful day.

When we got home I started planning means for the week. I found a chicken chili recipe that called for salsa verde. I thought I would like to make my own  salsa verde, I never /have.  Fun. So I found a recipe and of course I can't follow a recipe without making my owen changes. I know how good veggies are roasted so I decided to roast all the veggies for the salsa. I peeled about 12 tomatillos and sliced them in 1/2, cut up 1 onion and 4 cloves of garlic and seeded 2 peppers. Put it all on a cookie sheet & broiled all for about 8 minutes. I used Serrano peppers instead of jalapenos.

I put all of it into my food processor along with the juice of one lime and a handful of cilantro. Pureed it and added salt & pepper to taste.  Yummy. This would be wonderful on all sorts of food. For now I am going to use it in:

CHICKEN CHILI

INGREDIENTS
4 tsp. olive oil                                         1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 lbs. ground chicken                              1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 teaspoon salt                                        Two 15-19 oz cans cannelloni bean
2 cloves garlic                                         (white kidney beans)or Red
1 tsp. cumin                                             16 oz. salsa verde (I used it all)
1 tsp. oregano                                          1 (14oz.) can chicken broth

In a 6-qt Dutch oven, heat  1 tsp oil on medium-high heat until very hot. Add the chicken to the Dutch oven and cook until the chicken is no longer pink, about 8 min. With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a medium bowl once it is done.

Add remaining 2 tsp. oil to Dutch oven with the garlic and onions and cook on medium heat until browned, 5-6 min. Stir in the cumin, oregano, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and cook 1 minute. Add the bean , salsa verde, broth and browned chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook the chili for 30 min. to blend the flavors.

Serves 8

This fall I am definatly going to be canning Salsa Verde, but until then I will just make it when I need it.  So easy and tasty. Enjoy  :)

TLS is the BOMB

I decided to do this blog so that we can share our success, get some encouragement, share recipes & just have fun while losing weight with the TLS Weighloss Program and taking up less space.      

Bruce & I started our detox the week of March 5. It wasn't bad at all. You do have to go to the grocery story several times that week, but if that 's the worst thing, not bad.  The beginning of the week was a lot of raw veggies (which is recommended) but, by the middle of the week we were wanting something warm. So I made up this Detox Soup Recipe.

I roasted all the veggies on a cookie sheet, sprayed with nonstick spray, at 400 degrees until they were crisp tender
I don't roast spinach, but I have roasted cabbage. The roasting adds a really nice sweet taste to all the veggies. Sprinkle with S&P, garlic powder and some Italian seasonings.

In a stock pot put vegetable broth and the veggies when they are roasted. Take a little bit of the veggie broth (or water) and place it on the cookie sheet and deglaze the cookie sheet. Add this to the stock pot.

Add in tomatoes (if you are using canned, I used the ones from my garden that we canned last fall), spinach, cabbage and season.

The vegetables used are up to you.

Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

That's it. Now you have a hot filler for detox week.

Our Detox week was very successful. I lost 17lbs. and Bruce lost 28lbs.  We felt good after day 3. Days 1, 2 & 3 we were tired and I had a slight headache. Woke up on Day 4 and it was amazing. No headache and all kinds of energy and all the cravings were gone by Day 7.

It has been a great jump start to our weight loss. We have been eating new things. Kale has become one of our new, favorites. I saute it in a pan with 1 Tbs. of EVOO until it wilts and then splash it with balsamic vinegar. Yum!

The next new favorite food is Quinoa (keen-wah). I made up a "Southwest Quinoa".

1 cup Quinao

2 cup chicken broth

1 can black bean, drained & rinsed

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 can Mexican, chopped tomatoes w/peppers

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Place broth & quinoa in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 min. Take off heat and let stand for 5 min.

Fluff with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and serve.

This can be served warm or the next day cold.

Roasts some brussel sprouts, add some roasted sesame seeds, and grill a couple of turkey sausages and you have one delicious low glycemic meal :)

If you are thinking about taking off weight and taking up less space we would love to cheer you on and if you want to just eat healthy you can catch a few recipes here.

Happy Easter