I was raised a Catholic and went to Catholic school for 9 years. I still consider myself spiritual but not religious. I wanted to get this out there first because this is not a religious thing for me, if it was...I'd probably fail. I never ever successfully gave up anything for Lent when I was younger. I need to do it for me... not for a religion. I have wanted to get healthier for awhile now, especially when I see 35 looming large just 2 months away. So when everyone started talking about what to give up for Lent... I decided that 40 days was the perfect time frame to try to change some eating habits.
One of my big issues is the ease of which I could get in my car and drive down the street to McD's or W*ndys or
without really thinking about it. The other issue being that I am trying very hard to be very environmentally aware...and one of the worst environmental issues out there....is the amount of red meat that is produced and eaten. Now I'm from Kansas City and love my steak so I dont ever see myself as becoming a vegetarian but I do need to find a way to lessen the amount that I eat...for my health as well as for the environment. So this brings us back to Lent....I decided that I would give up eating red meat and visits to any fast food location for 40 days. My one caveat being that I could eat any red meat that I had already prepared or had bought, as to not waste food. I only have one roll of frozen ground beef, some prepared spaghetti sauce and a few pieces of leftover sandwich meat so it won't last long.
So I am now on my 3rd day and am cooking the 1 lb of frozen lean beef to make some taco soup tonight. One of the ingredients is tomato sauce and I realized that I didnt have any so I tried to cook some.
2 cans of organic chopped tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic pressed into 2tbsp of olive oil
pinches of parsley, salt, white pepper, italian seasonings, splenda, oregano, thyme and a bay leaf.
lots of shakes of dried minced onion (because I didnt have any fresh onion)
Brought to a boil and then let simmer for 1 hour with cover...then 30 minutes without cover.. then I used an immersion blender to mix it in the pot and let it simmer for another 30 minutes.
I added this to my browned ground beef...added 1 more can of organic chopped tomatoes, 2 cans of rinsed pinto beans, 1/2 pkg taco seasonings and 1/2 can water. I'm letting that simmer for 30min. I'll see how it turns out.
So far, I've lost 7 lbs in 2 weeks by just eating a little better...although I'm sure some of it is water weight.
