Internet Chili & John's salad

Internet Chili is what we call Lisa Fain's Seven Chile Chili, which is by far the best chili recipe I've ever made. It's great, but definitely not diet food. Of course it's great—it's a bowl full of spicy meat. No beans, no tomatoes, just beef and peppers. The recipe says it serves 8 (about 500 calories per serving), but I usually can't even finish half of a half serving. Here's a terrible picture of this fantastic chili (served with avocado, lime, cilantro, sour cream, and my favorite tortilla chips):


There's also some salad there. I love salad. Unfortunately, salad is a sneaky jerk of a food that seems like it would always be a low-calorie choice, but often isn't. John came up with this recipe for a light vinaigrette that can dress enough greens and vegetables for 2 huge salads. Easy on the salt; the fish sauce (which I know sounds like an odd choice, but adds rich, non-fishy flavor) is pretty salty.

John's Salad Dressing

1.5 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar (or another vinegar you like)
3/4 T mild fish sauce
2 T lemon juice
1 t Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
Black pepper & salt to taste

Put all that in a jar and shake it up. I like to cut up all my non-lettuce salad vegetables and pour the dressing over them in the salad bowl to let them soak in it for a while before I toss it all with lettuces.

Serves 2
About 110 calories per serving

I'm back. I think. We'll see.

I haven't posted in what, a year and a half? Great.

Since my last post in April 2010, I dropped 5 more pounds to 143, the lowest since I started trying to lose weight. And then a miracle happened! I found out that I am a champion weight gainer! With almost no effort, I was able to gain more than half of what it took me a year to lose—in just a few months! My clothes don't fit and I don't feel healthy.

I'm not into resolutions, but this seems like as good a time as any to get back to the annoying and tiresome business of working toward my goal weight (135, though 140 would suit me just fine). I forgot to weigh myself today, but will try to get back into a daily habit starting tomorrow.

The other daily habits I need to start are counting calories and exercising. I don't like either of those things (especially days like today where I'm so groggy and crabby that I just want to go home and crawl into a bottle of wine). And right now my kitchen is overflowing with high-calorie leftovers and meat. So much meat, in fact, that a bunch of it is currently in a cooler on the floor because I ran out of room to cram it in the fridge and freezer.


(That's actually a photo of my old freezer, in a similar state to what is going on right now. Just mentally jam a huge standing beef rib roast in there too and you've got the picture.)