I’m still fasting 16 hours each day. Last week I was not perfect with the 16 hours and I did not count calories every day. It was a struggle. I have not lost weight or gained weight. This week I have been counting calories. I’m hoping to make it through the week tracking even if I eat a lot and the number is high. I really need to get a handle on what my numbers are and what I should aim for if I want to lose weight. I know how many calories each day used to work for weight loss, but since I’ve been exercising (and not consistently tracking) I don’t know.
I started some research on fasting and metabolism, but so far I haven’t found anything worth posting. I’ve only been through Google scholar and the scholarly papers are tedious and difficult to interpret. I’ve really only found information on rat studies and metabolic measures that I am not familiar with. So, not very helpful, but I thought it was worth looking into. Today I plan to move onto the world wide web to see if there’s any information there that’s helpful that I can share. In the meantime, I’ve made a few interesting dishes I can tell you about.
I love to make a big pot of chili. It’s healthy and there’s always plenty left over for an easy lunch or dinner or to freeze. I’ve been reading Scott Jurek’s book, Eat & Run, and came across his recipe for Minnesota Winter Chili. I’m only half-way through the book, but so far it’s a good read. I love to read about runners. Their stories always motivate and inspire me. Scott made this recipe sound so delicious I just had to try it. I’ve never made a chili without meat, but this recipe is vegetarian. It’s a basic chili recipe with lots of vegetables and instead of meat, add 1/2 cup dry bulgur wheat and 2+1/2 cups water. The bulgur gives the appearance of ground meat, so you might be able to fool a meat lover. The texture is not the same, but still a nice added mouth feel to the chili. I know winter’s almost over here (yay!) but it’s still pretty chilly and I found this dish very satisfying.
Scott Jurek’s Minnesota Winter Chili
I have yet to make the bean brownies that I’ve seen popping up all over social media. So I tried another recipe from Scott’s book, Chocolate Adzuki Bars. I’d never heard of adzuki, but it’s a type of bean. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it was a total failure, inedible. Not to give up, I tried again, adjusting the ingredients and tasting until it seemed more “right”. It tastes okay. It’s edible. But it is nothing like a brownie. I plan to try a different recipe next time! This picture is of the second batch.
Looks yummy but it’s not.
Lastly, I can’t forget the St. Patrick Day’s corned beef and cabbage. This year I went to the internet for inspiration. I found this interesting article comparing classic boiled beef with baked. I was happy to try the baked version (they said it was the diners’ preferred version). I did cook it longer than they recommended, 3 hours for a 3 lb brisket. This turned out to be one of the best corned beefs I ever had (and I’ve had some really good ones, some famous ones). Darling said it was “better than”. Isn’t he sweet?
Ups and Downs 