Eating Habits

I tried another new recipe the other day. It was really easy to make, and turned out well, so I thought I'd share in case anyone else is interested.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 can (28 ounces / 796 ml) diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth (I just used water)
1 can (14 ounces / 398 ml) beans in tomato sauce
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups dried pasta

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large heavy saucepan. Add onion and garlic, cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Add beef, breaking up with a spoon. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes, and drain if desired.

2. Stir in chili powder, tomatoes, broth, canned beans and frozen vegetables; bring to boil.

3. Stir in pasta, reduce heat, cover and simmer until pasta is tender, about 15 minutes.

I skipped the onion and garlic completely since I don't like either one, and I used fake ground beef since I'm vegetarian. I added some cheese after dishing it up, which I thought was a nice touch. You can freeze and reheat it without changing the taste at all, which is good because it makes quite a large batch.

I'm giving up most sweets for now.
My doctor told me that it would be better for me to give up refined sugars and stick to fruits when I have cravings for something sweet. Stoked up the kitchen with a load of fruits, so now I just hope I won't start dreaming about some cakes. :silly:

black_magnolia wrote:

I'm giving up most sweets for now.
My doctor told me that it would be better for me to give up refined sugars and stick to fruits when I have cravings for something sweet. Stoked up the kitchen with a load of fruits, so now I just hope I won't start dreaming about some cakes. :silly:

Good luck! It might take a couple of weeks, but you should be able to re-train your tastebuds to crave the sweetness of fruit rather than processed sugar. I know that when I've been in a clean-eating phase for a while, junk food starts to taste kinda nasty when I do have something as a cheat.

Morgana wrote:

black_magnolia wrote:

I'm giving up most sweets for now.
My doctor told me that it would be better for me to give up refined sugars and stick to fruits when I have cravings for something sweet. Stoked up the kitchen with a load of fruits, so now I just hope I won't start dreaming about some cakes. :silly:

Good luck! It might take a couple of weeks, but you should be able to re-train your tastebuds to crave the sweetness of fruit rather than processed sugar. I know that when I've been in a clean-eating phase for a while, junk food starts to taste kinda nasty when I do have something as a cheat.

Oh. I've done that before, but the problem occurred when we ran out of fruit. >.<

I've tried it with vegetables too. If you get used to having something like fresh lettuce with every meal, suddenly meals seem horrible without some fresh veg. Particularly if you get used to having things like lettuce, cucumber or cherry tomatoes. They're so full of liquid that if you suddenly eat something without veg, it'll taste super-salty and not that nice. :blink:

Envy wrote:

Oh. I've done that before, but the problem occurred when we ran out of fruit. >.<

I've tried it with vegetables too. If you get used to having something like fresh lettuce with every meal, suddenly meals seem horrible without some fresh veg. Particularly if you get used to having things like lettuce, cucumber or cherry tomatoes. They're so full of liquid that if you suddenly eat something without veg, it'll taste super-salty and not that nice. :blink:

Yeah, I fear that too. I've also bought a ton of veggies, just trying to get myself to eat more health consciously becasue I really want to lose those extra pounds this year and stay there; therefore I really hope this gets a habit and I find it easier to stick to such a diet.

I've also started to cut out salt in most meals; like not salting meat, potatoes, pasta etc. while cooking. My doc said that these days a lot of groceries are already enough salty (meat especially) so that when we add salt to everything it is really too much salt per day becasue we don't need so much.

I've read in various fitness mags that it takes 21 days to form a habit. So if you can keep to your healthy-eating plan for 3 weeks, it should become easier after that time. And you're right about the salt... it's shocking how much is added, to just about every type of packaged food.

Curious... do you have nutrition labels on most things in Croatia? Just about everything has a label now in Canada, so it's pretty easy to track what you're eating, once you figure out how to read them.