Crock Pot Chili

First up is Crock Pot Chili.

This recipe is a staple of mine, because it is super quick, and has practically no prep time.

You can substitute the canned for dried that has been soaked and rinsed.  As a usually broke students, I tend to stock up on canned beans when they go on sale for 99cents or less.

If getting canned try to get no salt added.

Ingredients:

1 Can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 Can whole corn kernels, drained and rinsed
1 large(769ml) can diced tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced/chopped finely
1-2 bell peppers, washed and cut (any colour, I like red and orange)
1 cup mushrooms washed and cut. 
chili seasoning

Sometimes I omit the peppers if peppers are really expensive, and it still tastes good.

Empty cans into crock pot,  add onion, garlic, peppers and mushrooms.  Stir.

Add chili seasoning... I vary on how much I put in and don't really keep track, but I find it also depends on the brand.  I would start with 2-3 tablespoons, you can always add more later.  Stir again.

Turn crock pot on low, and cover.  Let cook overnight (6-8 hours, I've let it go up to 10 before).

It should yield 6 servings.   The general nutritional breakdown is:

                     Calories,  Carbs,  Fat,   Protein:

Only 1 Gram of fat per serving, and 8 grams of protein!

You can also serve it over rice, quinoa or baked potatoes. 

Stay Healthy,

Elyse 

Swanky Swank

Long time no talk.  

I kind of got busy and lost my motivation for blogging.  This past year has been... interesting.

I'm inspired again, and taking a slightly different approach to blogging (I'm sure there will be plenty of rants in the future)


I recently discovered the SWANK diet.   I was developed for patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

There is no medical evidence to show that this diet has any benefits, but there are a lot of people around who say that it has helped them feel better... and sometimes feeling better is better than medical evidence (as long as all nutritional requirements are being met).

The basis of the diet (taken from Wikipedia) is: 

1. Saturated fat should not exceed 15 grams per day
2. Unsaturated fat (oils) should be kept to 20-50 grams per day
3. No red meat for the first year; after that, a maximum of 3 oz. (85 grams) of red meat per week
4. Dairy products must contain 1% or less butterfat
5. No processed foods containing saturated fat
6. A good source of omega-3 (oily fish, cod liver oil, cod liver oil tablets, etc.) along with a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement are recommended daily
7. Wheat, gluten or dairy product quantities are not restricted. But foods which cause allergies or reactions to an MS sufferer should be avoided^[3]

My comments

1.  Very good rule,  Saturated fats should be minimized in general.

2. This is below the recommended intake of fat, however #6 will bump that up, so it should be okay.

3, I don't eat meat anyway, so that is easy.

4.  But... cheese... :(   0% fat yogourt I can do, 0% fat cheese should be interesting. 

5. I rarely eat processed foods anyway so this should be okay.

6.  Eating flax seeds and chia seeds are going to have to satisfy this.  Oil supplements and I do not get along. 

7.  I need to greatly restrict my wheat and gluten intake.  I feel better when I don't eat them, and I get migraines when I eat it often.  I've been gluten free before, it requires more effort and full time student + working full time makes life a little hectic.

I'm going to post recipes (I know, every blog posts recipes these days).  Of Vegetarian, Swank, Gluten Free, Processed Sugar Free recipes.   (Chocolate free too, I'm allergic)

Stay tuned!

If you want to learn more about the Swank Diet,  this is the link: Swank MS Diet

Stay Healthy!

Elyse