Day 194 - Eating Healthy

For the past month, I have been trying to cut down on bad carbohydrates, especially sugar.  I don't ordinarily eat much meat so it's been different to eat quite a bit of protein.  It's been especially challenging to cut back on fresh fruit because of the sugar content.

I decided to do some cooking because this was the view out my front window most of the day. . . starting to think about building an ark.

Whipping up a pot of chili isn't rocket science. This recipe is from the South Beach Diet and it's pretty healthy.  I made it with very lean ground beef but you could easily create a vegetarian version by substituting a third (and perhaps a fourth) type of bean.

First you brown the ground beef with half the chili powder (I put it all in) and the cayenne pepper.

Remove the meat and add chopped onion, green pepper (I substituted an orange one as I rarely buy green ones), minced garlic and oregano.

Cook over medium heat until the onion sweats a bit and softens.

Add black beans and pinto beans that have been drained and rinsed along with tomato sauce and diced  tomatoes.  I decided to use the rotel tomatoes with green chilies for more flavor.

Now add the meat back in and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

I decided to throw everything in my antique crockpot at this point and let it simmer for 4-5 hours.

After having a bowl for supper, I can say that it was pretty darn tasty.