As we entered in to the fall season last year, I decided we needed chili. I had never cooked chili. Surprise!! So I did the easiest thing possible........buy the McCormick's chili seasoning pack. It had the simplest recipe on it, and looked fool proof! I must be an above average fool because I fouled it up Kitchen Wrecker style! Everything looked and smelled wonderful, but the beans were hard as bricks. I kept cooking and stirring, thinking eventually they would soften and we could eat. Yeah, so the chili scorched and the beans stayed hard. Lewis had the nerve to look at the bag of beans and point out that in SMALL PRINT ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG were instructions to soak the beans for like a whole day before use?!?! Anyway, next time I just bought beans in a can and everything turned out great!
I also tried a new chicken crock pot, and ended up throwing the whole pot away. It was just awful and I can't even remember the ingredients??? So fast forward to today. The marathon is over with four half marathons behind me as well. Will I ever do another full? Absolutley! Just not anytime soon:) I need to forget this one first! Along with running, diet has started playing a huge factor in my daily routine. I have been researching and digging through Pinterest and reading blogs to get more info on all this "clean eating." There is a ton of info and different opinions on what is true clean eating. My thoughts is anything with less than 5 ingredients. I really want to incorporate this, and went grocery shopping with my "clean" list for the first time today. I do not think I will ever truly be clean due to the fact that I REALLY LIKE DIET DR. PEPPERS, and sodas are a no-no! Of course, I loaded up on fresh fruits and veggies, frozen fruits, nonfat greek yogurt, organic milk and cheese, whole wheat pastas and flour, etc. You don't realize how processed everything is until you start looking for foods that aren't. We are starting in to this slow because it will be a life change, and we have terrible eating habits:( First thing this morning, instead of sweetening my coffee with Splenda, I used honey. It was ok, definately do-able. I also found a recipe for chocolate-chip muffins. Here's how it went:
2 c. wheat flour
1/2 c. honey
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 c. chocolate chips
1. Mix butter, eggs and honey together.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, and chocolate chips.
3. Add liquid to dry ingredients.
4. Spoon into muffin tin and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
5. Add some organic milk and ta-da!!
They were actually pretty good. I think next time that the flour needs to be cut back. You could tell that they were different, which I expected. It's something that I think you have to get used to. I read where you could also make these with almond flour??? Newton Wal-Mart did not have that. Brody did not like them, but it actually felt good to eat something not processed. My usual muffins come from the Martha White packs(which are soooo good). There is a clean recipe for chocolate chip muffins that uses applesauce and yogurt. If anyone has that one, I would love to try it so send it my way. Also, any clean eating tips or recipes send my way. I've got one for pancakes that I plan on trying in the morning. We will see how it goes!
