Chili-A Perfect Diet Food

My chili recipe (Joel’s Chili 3) is a nearly perfect food for those seeking a low calorie, low fat, low sodium diet goal. Some of the people I know who are on special diets are of the opinion that low sodium dieting isn’t too hard, and low fat isn’t either, but putting the two together is nearly impossible. My chili is a great combination and it is high in beneficial fiber as well. It contains celery-good for the blood pressure, three types of beans, no-salt-added tomatoes and tomato sauce, extra low fat ground beef (96/4), and my secret ingredient, apple cider vinegar.

A batch of my chili makes 16 cups and a one cup serving contains: only 116 Calories, 7.61 g protein, 22.52 g carbohydrate of which only 3.87 g is sugars and 8.61 g is fiber, 1.04 g fat of which .38 g is saturated, 16.25 mg cholesterol, and only 111.9 mg sodium. I usually cook up a batch on the weekend and, as it freezes well, I refrigerate enough for a few days and freeze the rest.

Ingredients

Extra lean ground beef (94/6)	1 lb.
2 onion-medium	1
Celery stalks-large	3
Green pepper-medium	1
Tomato sauce-no added salt 4 oz	4
Diced tomatoes-no added salt	14.5 oz.
Chili powder	3 T
Black beans-uncooked	1 C
Pinto beans-uncooked	1C
Red beans-uncooked	1C
Apple cider vinegar	.5 C

Soak the beans overnight or use the quick-soak method by bringing the beans to a boil for two minutes and letting them soak for one hour. Drain, rinse, and add 6 cups of water and two small cans of no-salt-added tomato sauce to the beans. Bring the beans to a boil and simmer 1 ½ hours. While the beans are cooking, brown the ground beef with the celery, onion, and green pepper. After the beans have cooked for an hour and a half, add the browned ground beef and vegetables, the remaining tomato sauce, one can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes, three tablespoons chili powder, half teaspoon onion and garlic powder, and one half cup apple cider vinegar. Simmer 30 minutes to one hour and adjust the liquid to your preference by adding additional water.

I like to serve the chili over either brown rice or Barilla Ultra pasta with a dollop (1 T) of non-fat sour cream, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and sometimes a splash of Tabasco sauce. I prefer to add the Tabasco after cooking although if you prefer a spicier chili, you can add cayenne pepper to taste while the chili is cooking. Genuine Tabasco sauce contains only 30 mg sodium per ¼ t. while some of the imitators contain as much as 200 mg.

I find that the apple cider vinegar wakes up all the other flavors without adding salt. In previous versions, I added .5 t. sea salt which added minimal sodium to each serving, but I hadn’t yet introduced the vinegar. With the vinegar, I find that I don’t need the added salt.

Joel's Chili 3		Calories	Protein	Fat	Sodium
What's in it
Extra lean ground beef (94/6)	1 lb.	520	16	0	200
2 onion-medium	1	92.4	2.02	22.24	6.6
Celery stalks-large	3	26.04	1.29	5.52	148.8
Green pepper-medium	1	23.8	1.02	5.52	3.57
Tomato sauce-no added salt 4 oz	4	80	14	56	504
Diced tomatoes-no added salt	14.5 oz.	87.5	3.5	14	70
Chili powder	3 T	0	0	0	720
Black beans-uncooked	1 C	400	28	88	0
Pinto beans-uncooked	1C	360	28	80	20
Red beans-uncooked	1C	240	28	88	100
Apple cider vinegar	.5 C	25	0	1.11	6
Cooked Volume Cups	16
Serving size Cups	1
Servings per recipe	16
Total		1854.7	121.8	360.39	1779
Total per serving		115.92	7.61	22.52	111.19
Percent carories from fat				10.93%

Fish Tacos

Yesterday’s diet contained one of my favorite easy recipes, fish tacos. I use a variety of fish for this one but I think salmon is my favorite. I grill, broil, or bake the fish, heat the corn tortillas for 30 seconds on each side in a medium-hot ungreased skillet, place about 1 oz of fish in the center of the tortillas and add about 1 t. mozzarella or non-fat cheddar cheese (watch the sodium on this one). Just before serving, I add slaw cabbage and squeeze lemon juice over the tacos. I sometimes eat them with pineapple-peach chipotle salsa or Frieda’s mild salsa, a natural raw vegetable salsa. Yesterday I found that the salsa overpowered the mild orange roughy, so I only used it on one fish taco.

I frequently eat microwave-baked sweet potatoes with my evening meal and prepared one yesterday, but I couldn’t eat all of it. These baked sweet potatoes are delicious with a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg, and are very low in fat and sodium. As I was under all my diet goals yesterday, I indulged with a piece of Dove Rich Dark Chocolate.

Yesterday’s Diet 2/27/2007

		Calories	Protein	Fat	Sodium
Joel dietary- 2/27/2007	QTY
GoLean Crunch	1 C	190	9	3	95
Dannon all natural Plain Yogurt	.25 C	27.5	2.75	0	37.5
Non-fat milk	.33 C	26.67	2.67	0	41.67
Wild Blueberries	.25 C	17.5	0	0.25	0
Chili 3	1 C	114.4	7.61	1.04	110.8
Brown Rice	.5 C	100.5	2.1	1	0
Sour Cream-Non-Fat	1 T	10	1	0	30
Cole Slaw 3-Broccoli	.25 C	16.92	0.52	0.61	22.82
Orange-Medium	1	69	1.27	0.21	1
Orange Roughy-baked	4 oz.	75	19	0	70
Mi Casa White corn tortillas	3	120	3	1	28.5
Birds Eye Steamed mixed Vegs	2/3 C	60	2	0	20
Mozzarella	1 T	20	1.75	1.25	50
Wasa Lite Cracker	2	60	2	0	70
Carr's water cracker	1	30	1	0.5	45
Slaw cabbage	.25 C	4	0.22	0.02	3
Lemon juice-wedge	1	3	0.04	0	0
Sweet potato	.25 C	44	3.01	0.05	14.1
Butter Buds	.5 t.	2.5	0	0	60
Lemon juice-wedge	1	3	0.04	0	0
Salsa Mild Frieda's	1 t.	1.67	0	0	12.5
Orange-Medium	1	69	1.27	0.21	1
Dove Rich Dark Chocolate	1 pc.	42	0.4	2.6	0
Natural Ry-Krisp	2	50	1	0	65
Total		1157	61.65	11.74	777.9
Percent calories from fat				9.14%

Yesterday's Diet-2/26/2007

Joel dietary- 2/26/2007 Calories Protein Fat Sodium GoLean Crunch 1 C 190 9 3 95 Dannon all natural Plain Yogurt .25 C 27.5 2.75 0 37.5 Non-fat milk .33 C 26.67 2.67 0 41.67 Wild Blueberries .25 C 17.5 0 0.25 0 Chili 3 1 C 114.36 7.61 1.04 110.81 Brown Rice .5 C 100.5 2.1 1 0 Sour Cream-Non-Fat 1 T 10 1 0 30 Cole Slaw 3-Broccoli .25 C 16.92 0.52 0.61 22.82 Cole Slaw 3-Broccoli .25 C 16.92 0.52 0.61 22.82 Small banana 1 90 1.1 0.33 1 Healthy Choice Lemon Pep Fish 1 310 13 4.5 440 Small banana 1 90 1.1 0.33 1 Mi Casa White corn tortillas 3 120 3 1 28.5 Mi Casa White corn tortillas 1 40 1 0.33 9.5 Sour Cream-Non-Fat 1 T 10 1 0 30 Sour Cream-Non-Fat 1 T 10 1 0 30 Salsa-Pch P-apple Chip-mild 1 T 7.5 0 0 52.5 Salsa-Pch P-apple Chip-mild 1 T 7.5 0 0 52.5 Yarnell Lowfat Frozen Yogurt 4 oz. 130 3 1 50 Natural Ry-Krisp 2 50 1 0 65 Total 1385.37 50.37 14 1055.62 Percent carories from fat 9.10%

Three Minutes From a Heart Attack

Until January 3^rd 2007, I was fat, happy, and seriously out if shape. My wife, Sandy had been recovering from a serious horse wreck that limited her ability to walk and left her in a great deal of pain. From the middle of August, 2006, she had been receiving physical therapy three days a week from the wonderful people at the Ouachita Rehabilitation and Fitness Center in Mena, Arkansas where we live. After the first of the year, she was transitioned from a patient to a regular member and I said I would join her at the fitness center.

When I naively walked into the fitness center to become a member myself, I went through the normal registration process. In addition to the normal questions, registration included a weigh-in and blood pressure check. I was shocked to see that I was fifteen pounds heavier than when I previously thought I was really fat. When they took my blood pressure, I was surprised to see a flurry of activity and the summoning of additional people for retesting. I think they were considering whether to rush me to the emergency room. My blood pressure was 181/118 and when I lamely explained that I had always had a “white coat” reaction to having my BP taken, they reluctantly took me to a treadmill where I awkwardly navigated for ten minutes at a slow 1.5 miles per hour. I was assigned a program that involved weight machines for upper and lower body on alternate days and given rudimentary instruction in their use.

This experience was a major wake-up call for me. I decided to see whether my experience as a night chef in a restaurant-the job that paid my way through undergraduate school-and my lifelong love of cooking could be pressed into service for weigh loss and blood pressure reduction. Since 9/11, I was a man on a mission in pursuit of comfort food. Chicken and dumplings, fried catfish, and other southern delights that had been such a comfort were my undoing. I mean, have you ever had fried corn on the cob (with or without batter)?

The photo above on the right shows me last semester winning two awards for our first annual Grit Cookoff (as in the most important thing in the college experience is "grit"-determination, sand, stones). I won two awards for my entries, a testiment to my love of food.

I put myself on a diet of less than 1400 calories, less than 1500 mg of sodium, and less than 20 percent of my daily caloric intake from fat. I started creating low-fat, low-salt recipes. I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my intake (and, to let me know how much I had left for the day). I also started going to the fitness center four days a week. I warm up with ten minutes on the treadmill (yesterday at 3.6 miles per hour), followed by two circuits on the weight machines, and finish with 20 minutes on the treadmill at regular speed and a five minute cool-down.

Yesterday I weighed in and have lost 22.5 pounds. My blood pressure was a respectable 128/80, and I feel great. I still have a ways to go.

I created this blog to share my progress and my recipes.