A Fond Farewell

"You never know how much you'll miss them until they are gone"

I have recently lost something very special in my life. Last night, at approximately 10 pm, my crock pot was destroyed. It was broken in two pieces, by the very person that loved it most - me. I was desperately trying to make a quick meal after getting home late, and I smashed two frozen pork ribs on the bottom of the pot. In an attempt to split the two pork ribs in half I instead split the crock pot in half. I stood for a few minutes in disbelief. What will I do with out a fresh batch of BBQ ribs for breakfast? Or a nice warm bowl of chili before I go to work?

I realized, that I never gave this device enough credit. With out a crock pot I would be unable to eat the way that I do. I don't have time to make amazing meals every day. But the crock pot does.

I don't understand why I was so intimidated by the crock pot before. It's painfully simple. One knob that you can turn on medium or high. Add your ingredients and wait the specified time. It's so simple. But better than that. It makes mouthwatering meals. The meat get insanely tender.

Here is a chili recipe that is ridiculously easy and delicious

1 lb ground meat
8oz can tomato sauce
8oz ounce jar of salsa

Add veggies if you want, but if you get a good salsa it will have veggies and spices. I used this a ton. At night time I would toss everything in the pot, turn it on, and in the morning I would have a delicious meal with no work on my part.

I suppose, I would just like everyone to know, who hasn't use a crock pot before, that they shouldn't be intimidated by it. It's fast, easy, and delicious. I have already purchased another one. But I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite cooking device of all time (sorry Magic Bullet).

Day 24 - I made 'em extra schloppy for ya!

I have been cooking up a storm recently. My latest creation was sloppy joes on a bed of purple cabbage and slices of avocado. The sloppy joes were fantastic, and it makes me feel better that I am starting to cook a lot more foods. When I was eating mostly grains, I always felt like I was just preparing something. It was always rice this, or sandwich that, in order to get the number of carbs I needed. But now I am actually cooking things. Other meals/foods I recently tried:

Artichoke - and so ends my successful run at cooking new vegetables - those are hard to eat/cook!

Brussels sprouts - I actually liked these! What does that mean?? Was this my first time eating them?

Asparagus - this was easy to cook, in the steamer

Sirloin steak - courtesy of Alton Brown this was delicious

Balsamic reduction - WHY did I not know how easy and tasty this was. I just tossed some mushrooms/onions/garlic with some balsamic vinegar and it was soooo good

Also, I am very much looking forward to the Farmers Market. I need to get there earlier this time though. 12 o clock isn't going to cut it if I want my choice of meats and eggs!

Day 2 - 3 meals, 4 meals, five meals, more?

When I went to the nutritionist at school three years ago, she recommended I double my carb intake for the kind of cardio and lifting I was doing. With that guideline my diet roughly equaled; 80/90g carbs, 20g protein, and 15g fat per meal (I confirmed this with other online research). But this was me eating five times a day.

Most of my friends thought I was crazy, and a lot probably still do. But I managed to make it work. I would eat burritos (sometimes homemade), kasha pizza, cereal (almost every morning), lots of brown rice, homemade muffins, peanut butter and jelly, and sometimes two sandwiches a meal just to get enough bread. I hardly ate any meat, because of cost, and I hardly ate vegetables because of taste. So most of my protein was acquired through beans, grains, ect. Robb calls these “third-world proteins” which I find pretty humorous but also slightly alarming. I ALWAYS had to have food with me, I was constantly eating. I always had a cliffbar with me when I went out, because I would always get hungry. I was so used to having carbs pumped into me at the speed of light that they were always within arm’s reach.

To be honest, it was a real pain in the ass, but I kept up with it because I thought I was doing my body good. I would tell my friends that “I’m paying for my hospital bills early” when they asked about how I could afford “healthy” food. Then today I find a blog that goes against eating five times a day. It’s a pretty scientific sounding blog, but in essence he refutes the commonly held belief, legend, myth that it is healthier to eat more frequently. This would certainly make things a lot easier for me. In fact, Robb recommends eating just three meals a day. Thank god! There’s no way I could cook five meals a day and have time to live.