Another Delicious Day -- With More Chili Fries.

It's a sickness. I get these crazy cravings and find something I like, then make it over and over.

This weekend was no exception, and I had to make some Super Bowl Kick-Off Chili Cheese fries...


Oh yeah. I cooked that chili all day. I started with one onion, one fat carrot, half a red pepper, a stalk of celery, and some garlic all chopped up, then cooked slowly with some cooking spray and a bit of water. When soft, take out and then add the super lean ground beef. Use some paper towel to soak up any fat from the meat... Then add the veggies back in, along with chili powder. Stir up then mix in a litre of V8. Cook for hours and hours on the stove until it's super thick and the veggies are super soft. (I didn't add beans because G can't eat them, but they would be lovely here...). I gave G a bowl of chili for lunch tomorrow and I divided the other serving up into two containers of low-fat refried beans to have burritos for lunch! Can't wait!

The fries are oven baked, one potato each, cut into strips, sprayed with cooking spray and tossed with more chili powder, salt and pepper then baked at 450 for 15 minutes, turned over and then cooked another 10 or so. Fantastic! Top your crispy fries with delicious chili and some fat free sour cream... YIPPIE!

But that's not ALLLLL we ate today...

We started the day with a new recipe that G made... Oatmeal Pancakes...


Yummy! These were really really good and very filling, which is something I don't generally find pancakes to be. In fact, I rarely eat pancakes for breakfast because while I find them to be delicious, I also find that I am hungry right after! Not so with these... three pancakes were five points, I think.

For lunch, knowing that chili fries were coming, we had a low point lunch of broccoli soup that G made last night alongside a grilled cheese sandwich...


I cooked the sandwich in a non-stick skillet with a little cooking spray. The sandwich consisted of two slices of Weight Watcher's bread (1 pt) with some tomato slices (0 pt) and one slice each of low-fat cheese slices (1pt). The soup was about 1pt for a bowl based on the Recipe Builder, so we got away with that delicious and filling lunch for about three points.

Oh yeah. It's all doable if you just do it.

For the rest of the game, we've got some pirate booty to snack on (which is higher point than I expected, but I was just SO excited to see it in the store here... I used to love it when I lived in the States, but have never seen it for sale in Canada!) and lots of water and MAYBE some PC hot chocolate in a bit...

And COME ON Saints... sheesh!

Chili Sunday.

My Mom was visiting for about 10 days, and we jammed pack those 10 days! So last Sunday, we decided to kick bac and watch football all day. What do you eat when you wanna relax and watch football?

CHILI!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah! A big ol' bowl of chili.

Football watching is really one my favorite fall activities. I find that I can watch football, thumb through magazines, fold laundry, make dinner, look outside at the falling leaves, and just relax. You aren't required to sit and watch non-stop, there's a replay if you miss it and someone in the next room yells YOU GOTTA SEE THIS! But I also love making fun game food. I find that I do chili quite often because it ticks all of the boxes, it's thick, it's eaten in a bowl, you can eat it with cheese, it's meaty and it cooks all day and just smells amazing.

I make my chili pretty simply... I start with ground beef and onion, brown it up. Put it in salt and pepper, chili powder to taste, powdered mustard, ancho, and stir it up to heat up the spices. Then come in the big guns. A can of whole tomatoes, tomato juice (v8 is great!), and the beans (two cans in this one). Let it cook and keep trying it for seasoning (and because you can't wait!).

So, we watched football. We ate chili with rice. We read magazines (I am trying to get my Mom interested in food magazines). And we just had a nice Sunday.

I only really see my Mom a couple of times a year, and it's really strange when we first get together because it's a bit like you're seeing a familiar stranger, even though we talk almost every day on the telephone. But then it all starts to work itself out and you end up just laughing and chatting and making chili.