revisitng old favorites...

So some things I have noticed about my new eating habits...At first it seems I wasn't really eating more healthy I was just eating prepackaged food because they were easy to track caloric intake on. "If it eat this frozen meal I know I will have eaten 250 calories." Now that I been doing this a while I been revisiting some of my favorite recipes and revising them to be more caloric friendly. Here is an example we tried recently.

5 pounds ground beef
1 small/medium sweet onion
1 small/medium white onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 24oz can of crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes
3 jalapeno peppers
3 cerano peppers

1 pint of beef stock
1 large can of kidney beans
1 small can of black beans
1 small can of tomato paste

1 table spoon fresh ginger

2 teaspoons olive oil

Spice list for chili seasoning:

• chili powder
• cumin
• cayenne
• coriander
• paprika
• oregano
• turmeric
• salt                   
• pepper

In a large skillet heat 1 teaspoon olive oil over high heat, add both onions diced small. Cook until slightly caramelized then add peppers and garlic also diced fine. Cook on medium heat until peppers soften, add ginger. Move cooked mixture to crock-pot on medium heat. Place skillet back on stove medium heat and brown the beef. Once the meat is fully cooked add crushed tomatoes, and drained beans. Cook on medium heat until fully warned, add chili spices to taste, and teaspoon of olive oil. Add cooked meat and beans to crock-pot. Add the pint of beef stock and allow to heat on medium until ready to serve. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

1/2 cup chili powder

1    tbl cumin

1    tsp oregano

1    tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp tumeric

1    tsp chipolte chilli pepper

1    tbs dark chili or mexican chili powerdere

1/4 cup evoo

My Old Chili was very yummy but caloric wise it was a beast. So we made a few small changes. In stead of the 5 pounds of beef we used 3 pounds of ground Turkey Breast. Just that small change made the chili come out to about 222 calories per cup, not that bad. And we decided next time to leave out the quarter cup of evoo from the spice mix which will cut another 500-1000 calories off the entire batch. Small changes, but results and the best part was it still tasted great!