know your numbers (and do your research!) {Works for Me Wednesday}

It is all too easy to get hung up on the number on the scale.  Trust me, I know.  I’ve been bouncing around the same number for the past 15 days even though I’m eating right and exercising.  And that’s frustrating.  But it’s not all about the number on the scale.

I hadn’t even really thought to talk about this until I had an interesting experience at the gym yesterday (more about that in a sec) that made me feel the need to share.  I don’t claim to be a doctor or have it all right, but I try to make sure my information is accurate.

So, some other numbers to know:

1. Your body mass index (BMI).  You can calculate it using this formula: (weight in pounds/height in inches squared ) x 703 (which I made my students do mwah ha ha…come on, it was math class!) or you can easily calculate it yourself here.  This is not the most accurate tool in the world because the only thing the formula takes into account are your height and weight – so a very active, health conscious 150 pound person will have the same BMI as someone that’s 150 pounds but doesn’t work out and eats junk (assuming they are the same height), however one is probably a lot healthier than the other.  However, it’s still gives a fairly good idea of where you fall – before I started getting serious about my health I fell into the obese category, soon after I started following the South Beach diet and exercising my BMI feel into the “normal weight” category, just recently I’ve gained a few (that I’m trying super hard to lose!) so right now I’m in the overweight category.

2. Your waist circumference.  A high waist circumference indicates too much abdominal fat and puts you at a risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and and high cholesterol.  For men, a high waist circumference is anything larger than 40 inches and for women it’s larger than 35 inches (information found here).  Use a flexible tape measure (I got mine from the sewing section at Walmart) to measure with.  The exact method/place of how/where to measure is something I haven’t quite figured out…do you measure at the smallest part?  The largest part?  I’m not sure. This source says to start at the top of the hipbone and bring it all around level with your navel.  This video says not to worry about where your hipbones are and to measure where your belly button is.  The top of my hipbones are level with my belly button so I think either method would work for me but that may not be the case for everyone.  Any health/fitness experts able to enlighten us?

3. Your body fat percentage.  To find this number you may have to visit a doctor or a gym, although there are also bathroom scales that measure body fat % (I’d be interested to know how accurate those are – I’ve been using the same cheapo scale that I bought the very first week I started South Beach years ago and it still works great, seems to be accurate as the numbers match when I weigh at the doctor – but someday I might like to have a fancier scale that measures body fat % too).  Anyway, I think body fat percentage is a much more accurate assessment of your health/fitness than the scale or even BMI.

Here’s why you need to do your research and why I mentioned my interesting experience at the gym.  Yesterday I showed up at the gym for my fitness class.  Our instructor told us that the gym was offering free health screenings (blood pressure, BMI, and body fat percentage).  I always have great BP and I can figure out my BMI on my own, but I was interested in my body fat percentage so I went to do that after my workout.  First thing I found out was that my reading was probably not going to be very accurate because I had just worked out (apparently that makes a difference) and that the measurement tool could measure 6% above or below my actual percentage, so a pretty large margin.  But I went ahead and did it anyway.  The little calculator thing said my % was 27.8%.  Again, that could be anywhere from 21.8% to 33.8% (or maybe even more/less since I had just worked out…who knows) because of the margin of error.  I asked the guy who did my reading what an ideal body fat percentage would be for someone my age and my height – he said less than 20%, ideally 15%.

That didn’t feel right to me, I couldn’t bring an exact number to mind but 15% seemed way lower than what I remembered from past information I had gotten.  When I got home I did a little searching and kept finding this chart and other charts that were similar:

[source]

There are some that are more specific based on age but I liked the simplistic information that this one presented.  Basically, average body fat percentage for a woman (women have more body fat then men) is 25-31%.  If my reading from yesterday was in fact correct, then I’m at an average percentage.  Someone who is fit should have a percentage of 21-24%.  However, the 15% body fat that the “trainer” told me was my ideal is at the very low end of the category of body fat that would be considered an athlete.  Like a hardcore athlete.  Now how realistic is that?  Fortunately I did my own bit of research and now plan to shoot for that 21-24% range but no way do I even want to try to get down to 15%!  There’s no telling how much exercise I would have to do and how much chocolate I would have to give up!

(side note: fitness/health people – if I’m totally off base here please let me know!  Am I correct in thinking that 15% body fat is a bit unrealistic and not quite necessary?)

Anyway, I say all that to say this:

1. Don’t put so much emphasis on the scale.  I woke up this morning and my rings were tight – that’s a sign I’m retaining water and the scale reflected that.  So I try to remind myself of that and not get all bent out of shape about it.  Remember that there are other indicators that you are healthy and/or improving your health so try not to let the number on the scale stress you out – it’s just a number (I’m totally preaching to myself here, too)

2. Do your homework!  Find knowledgable professionals to evaluate you and help determine what is a good weight/BMI/body fat percentage for you.  Don’t just assume that what the magazines or the random person at the gym tells you are what’s right for you.

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday

2012 goals and bucket list update – January

I can’t believe we’re already a month into 2012!  It’s going by so fast.  To keep myself accountable (and you informed) I’m going to do a monthly update on my goals and bucket list, as well as maybe a highlight of the month.

So here we go…

2012 goals:

• read through the entire Bible – So far, so good.  We have been reading two or three chapters (whatever the Bible reading plan says) out loud to each other every day and we’ve finished Matthew, Mark, and are almost done with Luke.  There were 3 days that we forgot or were so tired we just went on to sleep, but the next day we got right back on track and got caught back up.  I’m really proud of how consistent we’ve been.  I also really like reading aloud to each other – I think that forces me to read slower which results in me taking in more of what I’m reading.  
• get my healthy lifestyle back, specifically to lose the 20-25 pounds I’ve gained since getting married. – I have lost 7ish (it bounces around but stays in the -6 to -8 range) pounds so far.  The first two weeks were good; I lost about 7 pounds.  Since then, even though I’ve been eating very healthy, following South Beach, and working out consistently I haven’t really lost any more.  However, in the big picture 7 pounds in one month is pretty good (I’m just impatient and sometimes a bit unrealistic and wanted to lose it all in one month…ya know what I mean?).  Anyway, so I’m definitely on track with my goal of getting my healthy lifestyle back and I’m slowly but surely losing those pounds.  Hopefully February will show some movement on the scale.

2012 bucket list:

• make an apple pie from scratch
• take cake decorating classes – I signed up for the beginners cake decorating class at Hobby Lobby, which I’ll attend four nights in March.  I’m so excited about it!
• learn how to make Mom’s homemade Christmas cookies
• make 72 hour emergency kits for our home and cars
• make my own laundry detergent
• bake a loaf of homemade bread
• make a quilt – I have purchased and/or borrowed the materials I need for the January blocks of the month and hope to get working on that this weekend.  
• grow something
• can pickles
• take some sort of vacation
• get at least one scrapbook done for my in-law’s
• ???start an Etsy shop???

Other notable things:

• I started my last class for my masters!  I can’t believe exactly a year ago I was starting the first class of my masters program and here I am with only one class (120 practicum hours + a portfolio) and a PRAXIS test left before I’m done.  So excited about graduating in May!  I didn’t walk at my undergraduate ceremony but I’m for sure walking for my masters!
• I also started back to work part-time as a graduate assistant for the library media education department (the professors who teach my online classes) at Western.  So far I basically make copies, file, organize things, help them with their research, and other odds and ends.  I’m really enjoying myself (and it’s super nice to be able to go to the bathroom whenever I want, eat lunch without having to grade papers at the same time, and wear cute shoes because I’m not on my feet all day…ya feel me teachers?)
• I started attending a Bible study here in Bowling Green.  It’s called Bible Study Fellowship (BSF); it’s an international Bible study so people all over the world are meeting and studying the same topics that we are every week.  It meets every Wednesday morning – we meet in a small group to discuss what we studied independently over the course of the week (we have a day-by-day plan with questions about our readings), then we all meet together to hear a lesson about that week’s material.  We are studying the acts of the apostles so we are reading and studying in Acts but also other books (for example, when we got to the part in Acts where Paul establishes the church in Thessalonica we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians).  The study runs the length of the school year, so I’m kind of jumping in the middle, but I’m still learning so much and really enjoying the study.
• Our house in Lexington still hasn’t sold .  Maybe February will be the magic month.
• We’ve gotten hooked on The Office.  Yes, that’s right, prior to this year we had never watched it (basically we live under a rock) but we started watching it on Hulu, got hooked, bought some of the seasons on dvd and borrowed some from a friend, and now we’ve been enjoying watching it at night.  It’s hilarious.
• Michael has been setting up his ham radio and talking to people from all over the place.  He’s also taken over the guest room/office/storage room/craft room with the ham radio stuff which is putting a bit of a cramp in my crafting…(just kidding babe, I’m glad you’re having fun).  But seriously, I’m so ready to be out of this townhouse!  I’m tired of being woken up at 6:00 on Saturday mornings by our loud neighbor yelling on her phone (our walls are so thin that we can here the little beep her iPhone makes when she plugs it in to charge)!
• My hair is getting really long and I just don’t know what to do with it.  Keep it long?  Cut it short?  Decisions, decisions.  Maybe I’ll go all Biggest Loser and grow it out really long until I get to my goal weight and then get a cut, sassy makeover cut. Or maybe not.
• It has been unseasonably warm this January – in the 60s many days.  I think I’ve worn a winter coat maybe 3 times all month (that’s a big deal for me ’cause I’m always cold) and we’ve only had one snow (and one snow day – not that it really matters to me as much since I’m not teaching right now but it’s still something that I’m ingrained to care about…)

Anyway, on to February!

(this post brought to you by these weirdos…)

homemade spaghetti sauce

I gotta tell you I love me some Ragu, but you just can’t beat homemade spaghetti sauce.  I didn’t use to like this growing up because of the “chunks” (the onion and green pepper) but now I love it!  You can thank my mom for the recipe – this is the one she always uses and it is yummylicious.

what’cha need:

ground something (we used ground turkey), tomato sauce, bell pepper (we usually just use green ones but the red, orange, and yellow peppers were on sale this week so we got adventurous and tried a yellow one), onion, basil, thyme, oregano, garlic, black pepper, salt

(not pictured) spaghetti squash or spaghetti noodles

put the onions, pepper, and meat in a large-ish pot

cook ‘em up

add the tomato sauce and the spices

mix and simmer

Recipe

Ingredients

• 12 oz whole wheat spaghetti noodles (or one small spaghetti squash)
• 1.5 lb ground beef, chicken, or turkey (or deer…or buffalo…whatever floats your boat)
• 1/2 cup onion, onion
• 1 bell pepper, chopped (Mom’s recipe only calls for 1/4 cup but I like to use more)
• 2 8oz cans of tomato sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

Cook ground beef (chicken, turkey,…), onion, and pepper until meat is brown (or white if you use turkey/chicken) and onion is tender. Drain/remove fat if needed.  Stir in all the remaining ingredients (except noodles): tomato sauce, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, basil, and garlic powder.  Cover and simmer for 35-40 minutes, stirring often.  Cook spaghetti as directed on package (or if you’re using spaghetti squash, see instructions here).  Serve with sauce over hot spaghetti.  Top with parmesan, if desired.

The sauce itself is South Beach Phase 1.  If served with spaghetti squash it is still SB Phase 1, but if served with whole wheat spaghetti noodles this is SB Phase 2.

cricut + vinyl + clipboard

If you have a Cricut and haven’t used it yet to cut vinyl, you have got to try it out.  I had my Cricut for almost 2 years before I finally bought some vinyl and decided to figure out how to use it…and it was much easier than I expected!  (hint: set everything on 3 – the blade, speed, and pressure)

I’ve shown you some of the other stuff I’ve used it for here and here.  Yesterday I used it to jazz up an old clipboard I had – it literally took less than 5 minutes!

detecting arson and diabetes

**UPDATE**  Click here to watch the video and read the story from the interview.

Weird title, huh?  You probably didn’t think those two things go together…but guess what, those are two amazing things that dogs can be trained to do.  And that is exactly what my dad does/is doing.

Daddy has four dogs.  Two of them are arson dogs, which means they are trained to sniff out accelerants and can be used at fire scenes to determine if an accelerant was used (indicating arson) and pinpoint the exact location of the accelerant.  The other two dogs are currently being trained to detect diabetes, specifically in children.  Currently dogs are being used as companion dogs for children with diabetes – they alert the child if their blood sugar is high or low, alert the parent(s) of the child, being them the correct snack, and can even know to press a button to call 911 if the child is unresponsive (PLEASE watch the video at the end of this post!).  What Daddy is doing is taking that same idea and training his dogs not to be companion dogs, but to be able to do into any setting (mostly schools), interact with children, and then “alert” if a child has high or low blood sugar.  The parent of the child could then be notified that they might want to have their child tested – much like the eye exams that many of us took in elementary school.

On Monday, News Channel 2 (WKRN Nashville) interviewed Daddy and a friend of his, Chuck, about the dogs and what they are doing (the interview is scheduled to air February 6 so if you are in the middle TN area you should try to watch!  hopefully they will also put it on their website and if so I’ll put a link up later).  The interview was in Franklin, KY so I got to go meet up with them and help out.  Here are some pictures (and more information about the dogs)

We first went to the Franklin fire hall where Todd (the reporter from Channel 2) interviewed Daddy and then interviewed Chuck (Chuck works in insurance and uses Daddy and the dogs to help him determine if fires are a result of arson or not)

After the interview, we got out the real stars of the show (the dogs ) and Todd taped them

getting the dogs out (Daddy in the light blue sweater, Chuck in navy, and Todd with the camera and headphones)

the dogs are trained to stay in the truck until they are signaled to get out

in the front from left to right: Mac (British lab – diabetes), Boone (British lab – arson), Zane (British lab – diabetes)

in the back: Cooper (Doberman – arson)

There was a field behind the fire hall where Daddy showed how Boone works.  Boone works “off leash”, which means when they go to a fire scene Daddy lets him off his leash and Boone does his own thing searching until he finds something (this is unusual, most dogs work on leash and the trainer has to walk around with them while they search – that’s how Cooper works).  Daddy put out a sample of some accelerant in the field while Boone was still in the truck.  Then he left Boone loose to find the scent – which he did.

He also used Mac to show how Mac and Zane are being trained to alert on someone if they have high or low blood sugar.  They are trained to tap a person’s knee if they alert on their scent.  The person might not know what that meant but the trainer would know.

Then we went to a house that had recently burned to show a little more about how the arson dogs (Cooper and Boone) work

Cooper sniffing for accelerants

Dogs, like children, have different things that motivate them.  Boone likes to work for his yellow ball so when he finds something his reward is to get to play with his ball.  Cooper likes cheese so her reward for finding something is a piece of cheese.

going after his ball

Todd had these cool harness things that he put on Boone and Cooper – they film from the dog’s perspective so you get to see what they see when they are searching.

Cooper with the harness on

Todd filming a teaser/preview to use before the story

So February 6 (I think that’s right) you should tune in to Channel 2 (WKRN) if you get it and watch the interview.  I’m really excited about it!

One more thing, you HAVE to watch this video.  It’s about a little girl named Faith and her diabetes companion dog, Wuby.  It really drives home the amazing way that these dogs can save the lives of children.

Feel free to leave comments and ask questions – if I don’t know the answer I’ll get Daddy to answer.

dashing dish – my newest blog crush

I have to tell you about my newest blog crush – Dashing Dish.  I found this blog through Pinterest and over the course of several days read through all the old posts.  Does that make me a creeper?  Maybe so, but I don’t care, I love this blog so much that I just have to share it with you!

Dashing Dish is written by a super sweet girl named Katie.  She share healthy recipes, fitness tips, devotional thoughts, and of course tidbits about her life.  I was really inspired by her story about the unhealthy relationships she had experienced with food in the past and how she found health and balance – things that I’ve struggled with some too.  I also really like how she journals as she does her Bible reading and I think it’s a great way to keep your thoughts organized and focused.

Reading through her recipes makes my mouth water!  She makes all sorts of things, but I’m especially drawn to her desserts (I am such a sweets girl!), which are much healthier than many desserts you come across.  She includes both the calorie stats and the Weight Watchers Points Plus for each recipe.

I think this frozen Reese’s peanut  butter pie might be my birthday dessert this year:

[recipe and source]

I’m going to try these turtle cheesecake bars for Valentine’s:

[recipe and source]

These peanut butter swirl brownies must also be made sometime ’cause you know I love me some chocolate and peanut butter:

[recipe and source]

Michael loves chocolate chip muffins so I’m excited to try out this healthier triple chocolate chunk version:

[recipe and source]

And these peanut butter pancakes will be making an appearance on my breakfast table sometime soon:

[recipe and source]

She also makes protein shakes in all sorts of flavors.  I was a little skeptical about them but the pictures looked so good, she loves them, and other readers loved them too so I had to try them out.  She also uses a lot of peanut flour in place of peanut butter.  Y’all know I have a serious love/hate relationship with peanut butter – I love it bunches but have a hard time keeping it around because I just eat spoonfuls out of the jar.  This peanut flour gives the peanut butter flavor without as many calories, plus I’m not going to eat flour straight out of the package so not quite as tempting.  I bought the ingredients I needed for the protein shakes, ordered the peanut flour, and anxiously awaited it’s arrival so I could try it out.

Wednesday I went ahead and made a shake that didn’t need the peanut flour – a mocha flavored shake.  It was good.  Then yesterday the peanut flour came and so today I made a peanut butter butterscotch shake – AMAZING!!!  Seriously!  It was just like eating ice cream or a milkshake but so much healthier!  You HAVE to go check out her shakes – here she gives the base recipe for the shakes plus tons of flavor options (you might think the ingredients are a little strange but trust me, the end result is incredible).  I’m not kidding – the peanut butter butterscotch is to die for!  She also made a video to explain how to make a Dashing Dish protein shake.

[recipe and source]

So the protein shake recipe is a winner.  I’m excited to try some of the other flavors she suggests.  I also used my peanut flour this afternoon to make Reese’s cookie batter oatmeal (very similar to my peanut butter chocolate oatmeal recipe).  It was delicious as well – the peanut flour is also a winner in my book!

[recipe and source]

Now you probably want to lick your computer screen and you think I’m a total crazy stalker, so I’m going to end this post (and go grab some supper because all this talk of food has made me hungry!).  But first I have to tell you one more time…check out Dashing Dish (and make a shake – yum!)!

(all images in this post were taken from Dashing Dish)

what I wore Wednesday

Thursday – crafting with Amy

top/NY&Co via Gabriel Bros; cardi/Dress Barn via Gabriel Bros; jeans/Gap; shoes/Fergie via DSW

Sunday morning – church

dress/???; black tank/???; tights/???; boots/Madden Girl via Marshalls; necklace/My Belle Boutique

Sunday night – church again

top/NY&Co; skirt/NY&Co; boots/Madden Girl via Marshalls; scarf/Mom’s; bracelet/Kohl’s

Monday – helping Daddy with the dogs for a news interview (more about that soon!)

long sleeve top/Limited; striped button down/Gabriel Bros; jeans/Gap; shoes/Qupid via Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros); earrings/NY&Co

Monday – first day of work as a GA at WKU (I was in a rush to get out the door, that’s why it’s just super quick, bad snapshot)

sweater/JC Pennys; skirt/Goodwill; tights/Vera Wang via Kohl’s; boots/Target; scarf/Burke Outlet

Linking up to What I Wore Wednesday at The Pleated Poppy

prepping food ahead of time {Works for Me Wednesday}

Weight loss update (three weeks down):

This past week was not super spectacular.  It was the first week of Phase 2 and I added in some strawberries as a snack each day – I was really happy to have some fruit!  However I didn’t see a significant loss this week – in fact, my weight went up towards the weekend and then back down.  I’m sure that is a combination of my body plateauing after two good weight loss weeks, hormones, the fact that I really don’t have all that much weight to lose so I’m not going to see huge numbers very often, and the fact that I wasn’t eating super unhealthy before so I don’t have tons of water weight to lose

.  It was really discouraging though because I ate and exercised just like I was supposed to – no cheats – and yet the scale did not reflect that.  It would have been easy to give up but I know that even if the weight isn’t coming off, I’m still eating better and living a healthier lifestyle – no need to go running back to the junk food.  Anyway, my weight loss for this week was 0.4 pounds for a total of 7.4 pounds lost since I started on January 2.

Now for my Works for Me Wednesday tip:

For me, the key to success on a diet is being prepared.  If I don’t have a game plan in mind then I’m less likely to make healthy choices.  Things like checking a restaurant’s menu and nutrition facts online before we go out so I can make a good choice before I’m really hungry and the tempting bread basket has been set in front of me.  Or packing lots of healthy snacks when I’m traveling, out shopping, at work, or basically anytime I won’t be home or have access to good choices.  Taking workout clothes and an exercise video or exercise equipment with me when I travel.  Making sure to bring some healthy dishes to potluck meals or family dinners so I know there will be at least a few things that are good options.  These are just a few things you can do to keep your healthy lifestyle on track.

Another thing that I do to be prepared (actually, I don’t do this as much as I should and I really need to take my own advice) is to do any snack/food prep that I can as soon as I get home from the grocery.  If I wait until I’m hungry before peeling and chopping a cucumber or cooking up a batch of chick peas then it’s very likely that I won’t want to take the time and will grab something less healthy instead.  However, if I have snacks already made and in the fridge/pantry then I can quickly grab them when I get hungry.

For example, I’ve been having big salads pretty much every day for lunch since I started back on South Beach consistently.  It was taking me a while each day to fix each thing that I put on my salads so I finally spent a few minutes prepping a bunch at once so I could just grab stuff out of each container and throw it on my salad.  Some of those things include:

washing and tearing up lettuce (I usually buy baby spinach already pre-bagged but I like to buy the big leaves of Romaine or other crunchy lettuce because it’s cheaper that way plus sometimes I like to have the big leaves to wrap tuna or lunch meat inside)

rinsing chick peas (I love just plain chick peas on my salad)

boiling and removing the shells from eggs

washing and chopping tomatoes, radishes, snap peas, carrots, etc.

Then since I have all the salad fixings all ready in the fridge I can quickly build a nutrient packed salad!

Just in case you wondered what I like on my salad…I change it up all the time and put all kinds of random things on there, but what I’ve been having recently is: a mix of baby spinach and Romaine lettuce, chick peas, cucumber, radishes, snap peas, tomato, a boiled egg, and some O’Charley’s honey mustard dressing.  Divine.  I don’t really care for cheese on my salad because I don’t feel like I can really taste it so I have a cheese stick on the side instead.  Other things that I like (but haven’t necessarily had recently) are poppyseed dressing, ranch dressing, grilled chicken, shredded chicken, some chopped up lunch meat, tuna, almond slivers, and pecan pieces.

Also, this trick is wonderful for things like fruit (wash grapes, wash strawberries, cut melons) and nuts (divide into portioned-sized baggies).

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

back to school and back to work

Today was the first day of classes for spring semester and tomorrow I start my first day of work.

I only have one class this semester and after I finish this class (and pass the PRAXIS) I will be completely done with my masters!  Woo Hoo!  The class this semester is my practicum class so most of the “work” for the class will consist of field experience.  I will have a portfolio due at the end of the semester and a few small assignments throughout but mostly I will just be working in a school library to fulfill my hours.

I’ll also be working part time as a graduate assistant for the library media education department (my professors) this semester.  Tomorrow is my first day and I’m really excited.  I have no idea what types of things I’ll be doing, probably lots of administrative stuff, but I’m looking forward to getting started.

I think it will be a little crazy at first getting used to having to be certain places at certain times – even though I had a super full course load last semester most of it could be done from home whenever I wanted and in my pjs.  Now I’ll have to be at work on certain days and at the school on other days so it’s back to the real world.  I’m sure I’ll fall back into a routine soon enough.

This isn’t a very interesting post, just a little update on what’s happening in my life.  I hope you all have a fantastic week.

 

super easy chili

I feel the need to call this recipe something other than just “chili”.  Growing up chili meant the red stuff with beans and ground beef, but now with white chili and chicken taco chili you have to distinguish…sometimes I call it red chili but I think that’s a weird name. No matter what you call it, here’s my (really, my mom’s) recipe for your basic, traditional chili.

you’ll need: ground something (we usually use ground beef, but our Kroger doesn’t have a great selection of ground beef and the ground turkey was the same price per pound so we used it this time – I couldn’t tell a difference), onion, tomato juice, chili powder, beans (not pictured: salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper)

chop the onion

and combine it with the ground beef/turkey/chicken

brown the meat and onion (I think it’s funny to say “brown the meat” when you’re cooking turkey because it actually turns white…but you know what I mean)

I like to cook the meat in the same pot that I’m going to use for the soup so that I don’t have to get two things dirty, but you can certainly brown your meat in a large skillet then put it in a pot.  If you cook it in the pot, just make sure to drain off any fat before you add the other ingredients.

add the tomato sauce

as well as the beans, chili powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper

then serve it up with some cheese and sour cream (fat free/low fat if you’re doing South Beach)

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs ground beef/turkey/chicken
• 1/3 cup onion, chopped
• 2 cans Bush’s chili beans (Mom always used pinto beans in chili sauce; I like lots of beans so I actually use 3 cans of beans: pinto beans in chili sauce, red beans in chili sauce, and kidney beans)
• 1 large container of tomato juice (about a half gallon?) or 4 11.5 oz cans
• 2 TBSP chili powder (approximately, I just shake a lot in the pot until I think it’s enough)
• salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

Instructions

Brown ground beef (or turkey, or chicken) with onion and drain, if needed.  Add juice, beans, and seasoning (I just dump the chili beans in there sauce and all, but the kidney beans I rinse before I put them in).  Simmer at least 30 minutes.

This is a South Beach phase 1 recipe.