Week 2 and why I'll never buy something other than ziploc again

So, I've been doing the Change One breakfast successfully for a full week! And it's working; I'm down another pound. To be fair, it's true what they say about eating breakfast -- in making a concerted effort to eat well for breakfast, I also paid attention to what I was eating for the rest of the day. It's made a difference since I haven't been able to go running for about a week due to heat, humidity, and thunderstorms. So, today I *should* have started with step 2: lunch. Unfortunately, Olivia has been sick with a little summer cold for the past 3 days. She has handled it better than Frank and I, who called the doctor twice, taken her temperature about a billion times, and used an aspirator more times than I care to count. After all was said and done, we decided Chinese food for dinner last night was an excellent idea, and I ate leftovers today for my brunch. Tomorrow is a new day, though, and I will eat a healthy lunch while maintaining a healthy breakfast.

Lunch is a serving a starch/grain, a serving of protein, a serving of fruit, and as much veggies as I'd like. On the 1600 calorie plan, I can choose to double my protein here. I'm going to try to not do this so that I can get used to the smaller lunch and build up as I progress, if I'd like. Also, with this approach, I maintain breakfast, add lunch, and eat whatever I want the rest of the day. Sooo, I'll stick with not doubling for now.

While I was doing the healthy breakfast thing this past week, I decided to start cooking again. I say it this way because Frank is a fantastic cook and does most of the cooking for our family. But, in order to truly know what I'm eating, I need to start cooking some meals again. That being said [and we had some zucchinis about to go bad], I made a big old pot of turkey chili. Now, when I started out, I was thinking use the zucchinis, but since we were at the grocery store, I picked up some peppers and onions, too. Then, I looked in the cupboards and discovered several cans of beans and diced + crushed tomatoes. PERFECT! Along with the ground turkey meat, this would make an excellent pot of chili! Well, it sure did and then some:

Most of this went into our freezer. After I took this picture, though, I walked away so that the containers could cool a bit. Then, Frank and I heard an awful sound. The sound of plastic bag hitting our kitchen floor. I believe Frank's exact words were, "Did I just hear a bag of chili hitting the floor?" I approached with a solid pit of anxiety in my stomach, fearing the worst. What I found was the reason why I will only buy ziploc products again.


And if anyone wants to make chili, just get your hands on some ground turkey meat, one large yellow onion, 2 medium green peppers, 2 green zucchinis, 1 yellow zucchini, a 16 oz can of tomato sauce/puree/crushed tomatoes, a smaller can of tomato sauce, 3 - 4 cans of beans (your favorites) rinsed and drained, salt, pepper and spices to taste (I like chili pepper, cilantro, white pepper, and ground chipotle pepper as well as ground cumin when I have it). Essentially, just brown the meat while seasoning it with salt, pepper and spices, then drain and dump it into a larger pot with the cans of tomato sauce/etc. Use the same pan from the turkey to brown the veggies, individually or together, whichever is easiest. Make sure to season those while they brown. Then add them to the pot. Add water to thin out the chili to the desired consistency. Then, add the beans as well as any more seasoning that you'd like. You can add more or less vegetables as you see fit. And it freezes well (thank goodness!) so just use containers that work for your family and you've got meals for -- well, forever if you're us.