Hidden Vegetable Chili / Soup

We are doing a very VERY low calorie diet, the HCG liquid diet, and can only eat certain foods. We have two servings of fruit, two of protein and 4 of vegetables. Mind you.. only certain foods in those groups. With a honey who does not eat any vegetables.. wait he will eat iceburg lettuce... no other lettuce or vegetable at all though.. so this has been a bit tricky.

This is what I came up with and so far I have done two versions of it.. the only thing that is different is the spices. Today I am doing the chili one since it is his favorite, the other one is Italian spices in it.. that is my favorite.

Hidden Vegetable Chili Soup

recipe is for one serving.. just multiply by whatever number of servings to make more. I make a big pot of it and then just warm up a bowl at a time.

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup of beef broth

1 cup of diced onion

1 cup of diced celery

1 cup of diced cauliflower

1 cup of diced tomato

1 cup of red and green peppers diced up

3.5 oz of ground hamburger ( either in a patty on the side or in the soup )

Boil until tender then mash up... I like it to have some texture but for us it can not look like vegetables at all... the texture would be all up to you.

Add some chili seasoning.. again.. as much or as little as you would like.

1 big bowl of the soup equals 4 servings of vegetables and one protein!

Sometimes we eat this like a soup and have a burger patty on the side.. sometimes we cook up the hamburger and put it in the bowl and pour the soup over and mix it all up. We do sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on top even though it is not on the approved list of foods.

In a couple of weeks when we are eating a bit more I will also be adding carrots to this mix.

For more recipes from me, my family and my friends.. check out my kitchen blog

Coffee, Tea and Recipes

New Giveaway

New giveaway is up and running today.. Winner will be announced in one week (15th of September) Remember you can always find the most current giveaway by clicking the giveaway link on the right hand side of the blog :)

You can win this Sea Glass Key Chain

If you would like a key chain but not this one... I do have a couple more in my shop and I can also make one just for you.. if you would like something custom. Also have Necklaces and bookmarks and earrings and picture frames and shadow boxes and more (coupon code 3off will save you $3 on all items marked with a yellow "coupon" banner.

Good Luck Everyone and have fun

~Michelle

Dinner

We love fish and chips...and we used to eat it often.. 4 big pieces of fish dipped in all sorts of batter and fried up nice and tasty with a big piles of fries on the side. Well... totally not on the menu these days.. but we still love fish... so I took one of our cracker servings and made it into a powder and added a bunch of spices.. rolled the fish in it and baked it. So now instead of a pound of fish we get 3.5 oz. and instead of fries we have a big green salad and some cucumbers. I have to say it is in no way the same.. but it is really good. It makes the house smell so good and it looks so pretty.. and afterwards we have energy to do things.. used to eat the big pile of fried food and then have to sit around for an hour with a tummy ache. ( yes that is how we got fat ) Learning to eat until it is enough instead of eating as much as we can is a huge step in this... better choices in what we eat and how much we eat. It is awesome to be losing weight but the best part is how much better we are feeling.

North Cascades

Four day weekend and Dave had to work on Friday and Saturday and a few hours on Sunday.. as soon as he was done Sunday we packed a picnic dinner and headed out. We decided to head up highway 20 and check out some camp sites. We love the drive and it was such a beautiful day. Found a few great camping places and a few not so great... saw a lot of mountains. Went on a couple small hikes to some awesome lookouts and just had a wonderful relaxing day.

Followed the Skagit river up highway 20 in the North Cascades

The lookout from the Newhalem visitor center .. also checked out the camp ground here and Love it!

Spill way is empty... first time I have seen it with no water.. lots of huge rocks.

Diablo lake at the look out.

Watched the sun set behind the mountains over Diablo lake.

Camping on the North Cascade Highway

Some of the camping areas we checked out where not so nice.. there are some in Marblemount but not the kind we like.. they were mostly open fields sort of camping.. looked like you were camping in someones back yard. As we went further up we found some we really liked though.

Goodell creek is right before Newhalen and is very woodsy and nice.. there were some bigger motor homes in there... no reservations.. no flush toliets.. spots are a bit hilly.. right on the skagit river... more of a tenting sort of place.. but I like it for roughing it :) $10 a night

Newhalen creek is super nice.. just minute or two from goodell creek and on the way to the vistor center.. they have a couple of loops.. nice clean maintained place with lots of motor homes and they have flush toilets.. no power but really nice big spots. $12 a night ~ I am guessing you can reserve these as a lot had reserved signs on them. Photo of one of the back in spots.. nice and long and clean.

Colonial Creek, has camping on both sides of highway 20.. on the North side it is a bit more rustic with one loop.. pretty hilly sites... not really for bigger motor homes. South side of highway 20 has a nice boat launch and a lot of camping spots.. flush toilets... nice.. everything is just really nice. $12 a night

I believe most of these close down by the end of September... so I would be sure to call ahead to check on any of them. We will hopefully be spending a lot of time up there next spring and summer.. the hikes out of that area are amazing!

Here is a link for Camping in the area

Eating on Our "diet"

This new way of eating is working out really good for us... Lots of veggies and some fruit and some healthy meat... Since Dave does not like veggies I have been making up a soup that gives him 4 cups of veggies in every bowl. Today I made up a huge pan of it so that everyday I can warm him up a big bowl of it to go with dinner and he is happy and healthy :)

After this stage I give it a little puree so he can not see the veggies

I also baked a bunch of chicken and then cut up each serving into bite size pieces and put them in baggies we can have for lunch... and made 5 lbs of hamburger ( the 96/4) into 4 oz patties in the freezer. This week we added 15 servings of cod to the freezer too.. all frozen in single little servings I can just pull out and pop in the oven :) Eating like this is proving to be simple and easy.. to shop for.. to cook for and to eat.

It amazes me to think that in the last 17 days I have used no sugar.. no butter.. no breads.. no pasta... nothing preserved or boxed or fake.. everything has been fresh.. I did use stevia .. two little packets.. one when I made bbq sauce and one on some strawberries.. but that is it. I may not have lost a hundred lbs yet.. but we are both feeling so much better.. more focused and cleaner and in great spirits. A lot of people tell me negative things about this hcg diet... but a lot of them do not get it... for some of us, everyone is different, but like for us here.. being fat is a big mental thing.... this diet is teaching us how good we feel when we eat right.. and showing us some pretty bad habits we had.. we were not eating because we were hungry.. we were eating because it was habit. This diet has taken the hunger away and is letting us learn a lot about ourselves and how we work and allowing us the chance to change our habits and how we think about things. Not every "diet" works for every person...but this one is working for us.. not only are we losing weight.. and inches.. but we are feeling amazing... and learning so much and making huge life changes in how we eat.. what we eat.. and why we eat.