SCD 3 Bean Salad

I've been making this as an easy side dish, but if you cubed instead of minced the ham, or added some cubed chicken in addition to the minced ham, it would be a great entree-lunch. This salad tastes best the next day, when the flavors have had a chance to meld. It's also a budget friendly meal!

I'm bad at food measurements (I'm one of those "eye-ball it" cooks) but if I recall correctly this is the recipe I "invented" -- feel free to play around with the quantities to suit your taste! Enjoy!

2 cans of cut green beans, drained (I prefer the Kirkland brand ones from Costco because they are packed with only a little sea salt, and a great value)

1 can black beans, rinsed well

1 can red kidney beans, rinsed well

4oz boneless smoked ham steak, minced

1.5 tbsp dried chopped onion (i've tried this with fresh minced onion and the flavor it just too overpowering for my taste, even in limited quantities)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dill weed

1/2 tsp Mrs Dash original

1 tsp Lawreys Seasoned Salt (shh, theres sugar in it, but only a little!)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp white wine vinegar (this is the part you should tweak to your own taste, i personally dislike vinegar but appreciate the flavor it gives to salad dressings so I use the bare minimum amount to make it taste good without tasting like vinegar)

Mix all ingredients well, refrigerate to let flavors blend (I prefer overnight, and then I let it sit for 20 min on the counter to warm up the oil before re-mixing and serving). This makes 4 side dish servings, or 2 lunch portions.

SCD Peppermint Hot "Chocolate"

My new obsession is re-inventing "bad" foods to make them Slow-Carb friendly and help get you through cravings til Cheat Day. I think the winter months are tougher because we're so used to warm, comfort foods at the end of a bitter cold day. This morning I wasn't in the mood for plain tea, so I looked around my cabinets and came up with this genius idea. Most people love hot chocolate, and I personally love chocolate-mint combo, but obviously the high sugar levels prohibit this heavenly beverage. For me, I'm quickly getting over my self-proclaimed sugar addition (thanks Slow-Carb!!!) and I found this to be really the best, closest thing to traditional hot chocolate that's totally allowed on the SCD - YAY - plus there's a caffeine boost from the tea! For those of you who don't like mint, my next attempt will be to make a SCD friendly plain hot "chocolate" - it tastes weird with regular Lipton tea but I've got a big arsenal of random Celestial Seasonings tea flavors so I'm bound to find something that works!

Slow-Carb Diet friendly Peppermint Hot "Chocolate" (makes a BIG mug, 16oz I think, just cut quantities in half for a standard mug size)

1 Lipton Mint Black Tea bag (if you don't want the caffeine and can't find decaf, you can use Mint herbal tea, just don't let it steep as long, 1.5mins max or else it will taste weird)

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1-2 tbsp light cream, NOT milk or half & half (** Or see Dairy-free note below)

water, to boil

if you absolutely can't handle unsweetened beverages, you can add a tiny bit of Stevia, personally I stay away from it, but Tim says its allowed in small quantities, so its your call...

1. Boil the water in your tea kettle, or a pot, or however you boil water for tea.

2. Meanwhile, put the cocoa powder in the mug, add 1-2 tbsp water, and stir until powder has dissolved and is smooth.

3. Add the tea bag to the mug, pour in the boiling water. Let tea bag steep 3 minutes.

4. Stir well, add in the cream, and stir again.

5. Curl up on the couch with a good book and enjoy!

Dairy Free Version

You can substitute Coconut Milk Creamer here if going totally dairy-free, you will need to use double the amount, and since Coconut Milk Creamer gets a little weird/chunky with boiling water, it works best if you initially blend the creamer with the cocoa powder (instead of water) and only use very hot water to steep the tea, NOT boiling. If you try both versions, let me know which you think tastes best!

Slow-Carb Beef Chili

INGREDIENTS

1lb organic ground beef

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed well

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well

1 medium zucchini, chopped

1.5 cups frozen chopped spinach

3/4 cup shelled edamame

1 cup shredded carrots

3/4 package trader joe's frozen mixed pepper strips

1 can of organic diced tomatoes (do not drain)

1/2 package of trader joe's taco seasoning mix

Saute beef, onion and celery in olive oil in a large soup pot until beef is no longer pink, chopping it up with a spoon as it cooks.

Add all remaining ingredients, plus refill the tomato can with water and add that too. Heat til boiling, then reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

(nutritional info to come shortly, I was too lazy to compute it right now)

have a big bowl as a great Slow Carb lunch, OR throw some eggs on top to spice up your breakfast routine. i also like to add 1/4 of an avocado, and two spoons of Trader Joe's avocado salsa verde to mine (sidenote: this is an amazing condiment for slow carb. adds some heat, the benefits of avocado, and tons of flavor. pairs nicely with tons of SCD foods too!)

So far so good!

WK1 of 4HB/SCD (slow-carb diet) is going really well! No desire to cheat, haven't been hungry. yay!

I decided today I would start posting tips and SCD recipes I've created (or found) here, and link it to my profile on 4hourpeople.com in hopes that even one person out there checks it out :)

Wow, 4 years?

Just for fun I remembered this blog and logged in, and I can't believe its been FOUR WHOLE YEARS since I wrote in it! What a shame :(

Also, kind of funny that on Feb 6, 2007 I posted how hard it was to find a job....and 4 years later to the day, I'm in the same situation, but things are looking hopeful :)

Also, I don't care if anyone ever reads this or not, I plan to try and write at least once a week about something random, and once about my progress with the Four Hour Body program. I decided to give it a shot for fun. Worst case, I stay the same. Best case, I lose 20 pounds in 30 days, like it says you can. I'd be super thrilled with 12 pounds.

Also, I think I will re-new my new year's resolutions here, so I have them all written down and can see how much progress I'm making in achieving them.

These are a few of my favorite things...

So I'm gonna make a list of my top 20 all-time favorite songs. (This is just a statement of intention. I'll get around to the actual list sometime this week.)

It's So Hard...

...to find a freakin' job. It feels like I've sent my resume to a billion places and gotten 0 replies. (OK, so its only 23 so far, but seriously it feels like a billion.)

So naturally, all this "sending and waiting and no response" funny business has caused me to wrack my brain about what could possibly be so horrible about me (on paper) that NO ONE wants to hire me, and I really don't know what the problem is. I did a lot of good stuff on my 3 co-ops!! So that leads me to think it's not me, it's them. Or perhaps it is just horrible timing in the job market, and therefore graduating early is giving me NO advantage whatsoever, and maybe it would have been better if I paid for an additional semester of school and took fun classes and graduated with everyone else. BLAH!

Who do I have to sleep with to get my first job? I'm sick of being at home, I'll do just about anybody if the job is decent. (kidding...sort of.)

Has anyone else listened to "Fergalicious" and wondered who gave the OK for them to spell out "tasty" as "t, to the a, to the s, t, e, y"....t-a-s-t-E(??)-y. That's not how you spell it, smartypants.