Green Chile Stew

In the past, I used this Green Chile base that I get at HEB, adding chicken and white navy beans.  We would add chips & cheese.  It was one of our favorite winter meals! Yes, I am using some packaged ingredients here, but it is an example of how a favorite recipe can be modified.

 I revised it by filling it with lower carb veggies.  It is so full of veggies that chips aren't needed!  The first pic shows ingredients: Cookwell’s Green Chile base (From HEB.  If this or something similar isn't available, you might try using chicken broth, diced green chiles, and some cilantro.  I think that combo might work, though I haven’t tried it.), 1 can chicken broth, about 1 ½ # boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces, 1 onion, chopped, 1 # sliced zucchini, 1 #sliced  yellow squash, 1 # baby carrots, minced garlic, extra virgin olive oil. 

I have this wonderful 12” deep skillet that I love!  I used 1 Tablespoon Olive oil in the bottom & got it hot, added 1 clove minced garlic, 1 medium onion, chopped, and the 1 ½ # chopped chicken breast; season lightly with black pepper. Cook on a medium-high heat, stirring till chicken is thoroughly done.  Place contents into deeper pot, leaving juices in skillet.  Then add 1 Tablespoon olive oil to juices.  Get it hot and add sliced zucchini & sliced squash; season lightly with black pepper.  Cook on medium-high heat till veggies get a little brown.  Add about ½ of the canned broth; lower heat to medium, place lid & allow to cook just till veggies are done.  While that is cooking, cook carrots with about ½ cup water, covered in microwave.  When all veggies are done, add to deeper pot with chicken mixture.  Add rest of chicken broth and Green Chile base.  Rinse Green Chile base jar about half full of water, & add to pot.  At this point, everything is fully cooked, so just cook long enough to blend flavors. 

Notice I have not added any salt to the fresh veggies or chicken! Cooking them in the hot olive oil with garlic just brings out the flavor, and no salt is needed!

 

Just look at those glorious veggies!  This is a hearty meal!

It is OK to sometimes break the rules!

It is OK to sometimes break the rules.  IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES!

 

 

 

I have always been a rule follower.  I am the one driving the posted speed while others zooms past.  I was such a stickler for rules at work that I literally wrote books for new managers in my last job.  So it was a long time coming for me to start tossing out rules regarding weight loss.  I finally realized that it is futile to attempt something for a few weeks, knowing that at some point I would revert back to old habits.  So I decided to figure out what would work in our household for me and my hubby to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

That decision itself goes against the assumption that you must be following a certain program or spending money on products to be successful in weight loss.  IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES!

That first taste of breaking the rule made it easier.  We’ve all heard that you should weigh in once a week, not daily.  We find that it keeps us more personally accountable to weigh every day.  IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES!

Some of the concepts that we are following suggest eliminating caffeine. We have eliminated many things, but don’t mess with our morning coffee!  IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES!

At this point, I almost feel as if I am confessing.  So I guess the next confession is that we rarely actually eat breakfast.  We leisurely enjoy our coffee and a nice glass of orange or apple juice. Now to this juice, we add 1 or 2 Tablespoons of organic apple cider vinegar with the mother.  (Yes, that is what it is called!) I read about the use of vinegar for health, but was persuaded to try it when our son told us he was using it, and saw benefits.  Some of the purported benefits are boosting metabolism and curbing the appetite. I honestly think it is helping us.  Anyway, after drinking our coffee and juice, we just aren’t hungry.  (Besides, we don’t usually get up till after 8 AM, so it is soon lunch time!) IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES!

We have been really big on eliminating sugar. We do, however, usually treat ourselves once a day. On these cold wintry days, we indulge in a mid-afternoon treat of hot cappuccino.  We look forward to it, and I think it has helped with the craving for sweets. It has 120 calories, but if it keeps away the cravings, that's ok!  IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES!

 

 

 

My whole point is that there is no one size fits all on how to achieve weight loss to contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Try to find what will work for you!   IT IS OK TO SOMETIMES BREAK THE RULES! WHATEVER WORKS!

Instead of 'Frito Pie' - "Whatever Works!"

All Texans crave hot chili whenever the temperature starts dipping down into the 30’s!  We traditionally enjoy it served over rice, crackers, or Fritos.  So how can we enjoy this wonderful concoction and remain grain free?

Faced with this dilemma, we used our “Whatever Works” mode of thinking, and opted to try it on a bed of lettuce.  We were amazed!

Sorry that I did not get pics of the chili when I made it. I used my normal recipe, but modified it to be more carb friendly. In the past, I used about a 1 ½ # of ground beef and cooked a pound of dry pintos, added to the chili.  To reduce carbs, I omitted the beans.  I added a can of fire roasted tomatoes.  I am really trying to not use canned veggies, but fire roasted tomatoes are good!  I did add a little extra meat.  (Next time I might try ground turkey, but I am trying to use what is in the freezer.)

The first pic shows the bed of romaine lettuce, topped with chopped red bell pepper.  This adds some crunch, & they are so flavorful

 

 

We spooned hot chili over that, adding about 1 ounce sharp cheddar cheese, and garnished with jalapenos. I also cubed an avocado and added that to the side.  Avocados are full of nutrients, and we love them! I’m sure there are some out there who may not be able to handle the idea chili on lettuce, but we loved this!  Remember – “Whatever Works!”     

 

 

Citrus Kale Salad

Lunch today was one of our favorite salads.  This is our version of a recipe I found on the net a few months ago.  I have certainly broadened my horizons!  There was a time when I would not have even tried goat cheese!

The first pic shows ingredients:  9 oz. pk Taylor Farms Sweet Kale Salad Mix (From Kroger), 15 oz. can Mandarin oranges (drained), 4 oz. Goat Cheese, crumbled (feta would work), about ¼ cup sunflower seeds. 

 

 

Note: Cheese will crumble easier if placed in freezer about 10 minutes.  Place salad mix in large bowl.  (If this isn’t available, a kale-spinach mix will work, but we really like all the ‘stuff’ in this package.)  Add the few cranberries & pumpkin seeds that come with the kit.  Place the drained oranges on top.  Add the crumbled cheese and sunflower seeds.  Stir in the poppy-seed dressing that comes with salad mix. This makes enough for 2 meal sized salads.  Approximate calorie count in each is 430. 

 

 

This has so many different flavors/textures that it is one of our favorite meals! This is just one of our new dishes that help us stay the course, and it is working!

Whatever Works! Cleaning up our Eating Habits

Earl and I have never been ones to go to the doctor unless we felt it really necessary.  His main health issue has been high blood pressure.  He has kept it under control with medication and never thought much about diet.  It seemed to be a pretty easy fix to just take these pills every day.

Although I have a strong family history of Diabetes, my only health issue has been arthritis.  At age 58, I was under the care of a Rheumatologist in the Houston area.  I was on Prednisone, Methotrexate, and Enbrel, just to keep functioning.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with those drugs, they are all some pretty powerful stuff.  In the fall of 2008, I broke out in Shingles.  They became so severe, and my immunity was so low because of the drugs, that I was hospitalized and put in isolation.  I came home after about a week, with an IV, and under home health care.  One of my nurses casually suggested some reading material, which led me to study about other options for my RA treatment.  Meanwhile, the Rheumatologist instructed me to resume the medication after I had completed the IV treatment.  After a couple of weeks, I found myself back in his office with a fungal skin infection.  I was told that if it didn’t clear up after finishing up a prescription, I would need to go back into the hospital.  I went straight home and read on the net that people had died from this infection while on some of these drugs. I decided to change doctors!

I sought out a doctor who was experienced in using a more natural approach.  I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, and began diligently following a Gluten Free diet.  I’ve been pretty content with this regimen for several years now.  I am confident that gluten had definitely been a contributing factor to inflammation that caused the arthritic pain. In looking back, when I was at my worst, I was living on gluten rich foods.    But this summer when my doctor suggested bumping it up to the Paleo diet, I was not very accepting.  I had already given up so much to be gluten free!  She was very adamant that she felt it would be beneficial, but I was not readily accepting to jump on that band wagon. 

All of this has had an influence on decisions of how we began a new lifestyle in our daily eating.  Earl decided he really wanted to avoid salt and build up his good cholesterol & reduce his bad cholesterol.  I decided to avoid all grain, including my old staples of rice and corn that had been a part of my gluten free diet.  We both wanted to eliminate sugar.  This sounds very restrictive, but we decided to enjoy what we could eat rather than what we were missing by changing our diet.

When asked what we have done to lose weight, I like to say that we are just eating “cleaner”.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are our best friends!  I am cooking a lot of fresh or frozen veggies.  I have gone from using “a stick of butter and a cup of sugar” in my veggies to cooking them in a little olive oil seasoned with garlic.  They don’t even need salt!

Earl has cut his blood pressure meds in half!  I have eliminated 3 pills a day that I was taking for arthritis.  “Whatever Works!” – We’re taking less medication! These pics were taken on our 5 month anniversary of eating cleaner.  My weight loss is 43 pounds, and Earl's is 75.  It's working!

Whatever Works!

I have been inspired to start this blog because so many friends are curious just what exactly my hubby and I have done to accomplish a pretty dramatic weight loss in a relatively short time.  I am not endorsing any certain diet or program.  I’ve tried many of those, and have never had much success, at least not for long. Each of us has our individual strengths and weaknesses, and one must take those into consideration when planning a weight loss.  You are doomed to failure before you begin if you attempt a regimen which is not a good fit for you personally.

I’ve been married to my husband, Earl since 1967, and we do most everything together.  We are so much alike that I truly believe God meant for us to be together.  One of our common bonds is the love for food.  We like just about everything, but I guess we have always had the tendency to over indulge, because we both have always battled weight issues.   We both recently retired, and found ourselves to be the heaviest we have ever been.  I had accepted that was just the way it was, and feared that we would both face health issues because of it as we aged.

I distinctly remember the day that we began this weight loss journey.  It was on our 47^th anniversary!  We had already had our anniversary dinner the weekend before, because I was working part-time and didn’t want to go out after work.  When I came home, I was surprised that Earl had not eaten anything at all during the day!  He had a bag of chips by his chair, and there were sandwich fixings in the fridge.  We even had 2 flavors of ice cream in the fridge!  But a call from his doctor’s office about his lab work   seemed to kill his appetite.  His sugar was elevated, his bad cholesterol was high, and his good was low.  He was so distraught about the possibility of adding more medication if he could not get it under control.

Now I don’t claim to be a nutritionist, but I do feel relatively knowledgeable from my years of working in management and admin in school food service.  So I assured Earl that we could tackle this together and figure out a way to eat healthier and lose weight.  It really was not difficult.  We like almost everything, so it is easy to keep coming up with new ideas without going back to our old way of eating.

I was raised in rural east Texas, and it was engrained in me to “add a stick of butter and a cup of sugar” to everything.  So I did.  It tasted good, but not so good for me.  I’ve just had to change my way of thinking.

So, in the past 5 months, I have lost 43 pounds, and Earl has dropped an amazing 75 pounds!  We are feeling great, and are very positive about continuing this journey.  We are sharing our story in hopes that we may help someone else who is struggling to  find ”whatever works”!