Joe’s Chili – It’s about chili time!!

My friend Tina asked me for my chili recipe today, so here it is.  It’s simple, tasty, and does a good job covering my needed 70/30 protein to vegetable ratio.  I usually make a big pot of it freeze it in meal-sized portions.

Joe’s Chili

Ingredients:

2 lbs various lean meat (I like to use a pound of ground turkey or pork and a pound of pork stew meat)

1-2 onions (optional)

3 cans petite-diced tomatoes

3 cans various beans (red kidney, pinto, black)

seasoning to taste (chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, mustard, etc.)

2 tbls apple cider vinegar

Splenda Brown Sugar to taste

Instructions:

Brown the meat (and onions if desired) in large pot.  Add tomatoes and beans, stir and bring to a boil.  Add seasoning and brown sugar and reduce to a simmer.  I usually let it simmer for several hours (sometimes overnight) stirring occasionally, but it should be ready after simmering for an hour or two.

Note:  I cook by taste so please feel free to make adjustments according to personal taste as necessary.  I like to top with cheese, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt.

Let me know if you have other suggestions for improvement.

Green Smoothies

Wendi and the kids got me a Ninja Professional Blender for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Our old one was pretty whimpy.  This one is quite manly!!

I’ve been trying to find new ways to include vegetables in my diet and I’ve heard from several people that spinach in the magic ingredient.  Indeed – I am enjoying adding spinach to my smoothies now.   So far we’ve tried it with honeydew melon, fresh peaches, cantaloupe, strawberries, carrots, and just plain with vanilla protein powder.  I always add Silk Light Soy Milk, which gives it a nice creamy flavor.  If I do add fruit, I try to add fruit that is lower in calories.  

So far I’ve been pleased with what we’ve come up with.  The boys now get excited when I start the blender because they know their smoothies are on the way (I give them theirs before I add the protein powder). 

Sammy enthusiastically kicks his feet and grunts in anticipation while Aron’s smile grows into a toothy grin which brightens his face. 

Sammy can drink two baby feeders full; Aron usually will do one feeder full and then likes to drink more from a cup. 

I probably wouldn’t eat much spinach otherwise, but I like the satisfaction of getting healthy raw foods into my diet.  It’s tasty enough and it certainly can only help me.

Natalie so far has refused to have anything to do with a green smoothie – she wants a pink one.

Mom, I’ll be out riding my bike!!!

I used to love riding my bike when I was a kid.  I’d go everywhere I could on it – it was like my best friend. 

I saw this bike recently in downtown Salt Lake City.  It is identical to the bike I had when I was about 10 years old.

Frequently I would leave the house telling my mom that I’d be out riding my bike, and then I would ride, and ride, and ride some more.

This was taken on one of our scout trips riding home from Lytle Creek in CA.  I was maybe 14?

That was before the days of helmets and mountain bikes, biking shorts and Camelbaks.

I spent some time on a bike in Finland as a 19 & 20 year-old missionary and learned that bikes are fun in the snow too.

My wonderful wife, Wendi gave me a new bike for my 40^th birthday recently.  It’s impressive for the price – a hybrid-type bike – I’ll primarily use as a road bike.  I’ve decided that I’d like to be ready to bike Yellowstone next year – even if I don’t have the time to actually do it, I’d like to be prepared to do it nonetheless.  I’ve been out on it every day (except Sundays) since I got it, typically doing 4-5 miles.  I hope next week to at least double that distance and ride in the mornings instead of the evenings.

I kind of feel like a kid again – I’m looking forward to getting back to the point that I was when I was bout 10 years old, to be able to ride, and ride, and ride some more.  I’m sure I sound like a kid again as I leave the house and say, “Honey, I’ll be out riding my bike!!!”

So far, so VERY good!

I just turned 40…and I’m much happier about it than I thought I’d be.  

It’s been for several years now that I could remember my parents at my age – I think I can even remember Mom and Dad turning 30 – they were sooo old I thought. 

Natalie probably won’t, and the boys certainly won’t remember their parents turning 40.

But I hope they all do remember how good life is, though it’s quite busy for us and it has its difficulties and challenges, we are a happy family.

I think my weight loss has given us greater hope for the future.  I reached 274 lbs on my birthday – that’s what my weight was when I graduated from high school!

I still have 75 lbs to go to reach my goal of 199 lbs.  At that point I will weigh less than half of my heaviest weight.

Wendi planned dinner at Golden Corral for my birthday after taking me to see a movie.  Boy, life has changed.  Those were things we used to do almost at the drop of a hat.  I loved our time together.  She organized a surprise gathering at the restaurant of some of my favorite people.  The choice of a buffet was brilliant as it accommodated all our dietary desires – I ate ribs, mushrooms and grilled onions.  I could not have been more grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family – it brought a tear to my eye.

Among the wonderful birthday gifts I received this year were a hybrid bike and a blender from Wendi.  She could not have chosen better presents for me right now – I loved ALL my gifts this year.  I have a goal to be able to bike Yellowstone next summer, so I’m now officially in training.  The blender is so I can get my veggies in – I’ve started making green smoothies with spinach – much tastier than I ever thought they’d be – and the boys LOVE them too.  I guess the blender is just as much for their birthdays as it is for mine.

The days surrounding my birthday this year were wonderful and were full of opportunities to be thankful for where I’ve come from, and excited for where I’m headed.  40 is great so far – so much better than 20!!!

California Summer 2011

We just returned from a 10-day trip to California in our “new” trailer (a 24 foot 1983 Kit Companion)

and split time between Ontario with my parents and camping at Emma Wood State Beach

and Carpinteria State Beach with my sister and her family.

We had a great time and are glad we decided to go, though it wasn’t easy – next time we’ll simplify things a bit.  It was great for the kids to learn to travel and spend time getting closer to family.

Natalie loved the water and the sand.

Aron ate the sand.

Sammy didn’t want to have anything to do with the sand.  None of us came away terribly sunburned and we all slept reasonably well in the trailer.

While in Ontario my thoughtful mom worked hard to accommodate my dietary needs.  My meals should be 70% protein and 30% vegetable totaling between 1000 to 1500 calories a day – very different from the diet my family has been used to seeing me consume; no doughnuts, no ice cream, no cake, no chocolate, no cereal, no bread, no potatoes, and no rice.  I say yes to lean meat, jerky, seafood, green smoothies, sweet potatoes, and my homemade chili.  I’m always on the hunt to find other acceptable food ideas.

It was nice to put my food lifestyle to the test with a vacation.  I think we passed.

Gains and losses -- and all good!

Much has happened since my first and only post of Thursday March 19, 2009.  I’ve experienced great gain and mighty loss and I feel the need to share…

My two greatest gains worthy of mention are our two boys, Aron and Samuel, who were born the day after my birthday August 13, 2010.  They are close to a year old at this point and have added a wonderful energy to our home.

Natalie is currently 3 and thrives on making her brothers laugh and having them anxiously chase her around the house – they quickly crawl while she runs, and they all laugh.

I also gained a new job last November and I LOVE IT!  I am a foreign language producer for the Media Services Department for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which means that I am part of a team that is tasked with attaching foreign languages to existing Church media products.

Mormon Messages

I am currently a foreign language producer for the popular Mormon Messages (Spanish excluded) and hope to have several clips become available within the next couple of months.

The mighty loss previously mentioned is in reference to my weight.

From September 21, 2010 to March 21, 2011

Since my last post more than 2 years ago I have lost 159 pounds, 132 of those pounds since last September.  With the boys’ birth and concerns for my future health I made the difficult decision to have the gastric lap-band surgery, and my only regret is that I put myself in a position that necessitated significant weight loss.  I love food.  Yes, I still do, but I enjoy it now differently, in different combinations, and in lesser quantities.  I intend to share quite a bit of my weight loss experiences from this point forward in this blog, including struggles, triumphs, recipe discoveries, and skinny epiphanies.  I am enjoying this journey and am thankful I made the decision to have surgery.