Soft Dinner

My friend Pablo just got braces, so he can't eat a lot of foods. Since he's coming over for dinner, I had to think of something "soft" to feed him. Here's what we're having:

Simple Chili
2lbs ground beef, extra lean
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, diced
1 c good quality wine (I used white zin from my wedding)
1/2 c Heinz 57 sauce
1/3 c chili powder
2 T cumin
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t salt

Brown the ground beef and onions, then rinse off the fat. Add all remaining ingredients and stir. Cover and simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. This would also work well in a slow cooker.

Top with plain yogurt and grated low fat cheddar cheese. Yummy!

Sweet Corn Muffins
1/2 c applesauce (unsweetened)
1/4 c splenda brown sugar blend
1/2 c egg substitute
1 15oz corn, drained
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c cornmeal
2t baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 can diced green chilis (optional)

Preheat oven to 300F. Mix all ingredients until well-combined. Grease or line with papers 12 muffin tins. Fill tins 2/3 full of batter and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.


Today's workout
AM: Turbo Jam Fat Blaster (30min, avg hr 121, peak hr 161, 267Cal)
PM: Yoga X (Standing asanas only)
Fat blaster was fun, but I have definitely realized that Chalene is a bad cuer. She usually shouts out the next move as she does it. I guess that's one reason predicable, repetative workouts are ok from her :) I like fat blaster, but it's too short for a real workout. Pairing it with a Cardio Party would make a nice, hour-long workout for a true cardio day. On its own, it's ok for an add on, but I'd rather have a 45min session. I've decided that I'm only going to keep the Turbo Jam maximum results workouts, and sell all the others. They're fun, but they will not become one of my workout staples, unless I suddenly stop working out and lose all by strength and cardio capacity. Maybe a good set to use during pregnancy.

I realize that it's summer and that it is getting really really hot these days, but while I did Yoga today, I felt sweat dripping down my torso. ???I didn't feel like I was working that hard??? I was finally able to do the right angle pose and the twisting triangle pose without falling over and feeling like my chest was going to split in half. Woo-hoo. I did pushups between each up dog/down dog transition. I think this yoga workout is growing on me. I can tell that it's a really great sequence and very thorough now that I can compare it to Baron Baptiste's Journey into Power 2 that I've been using sometimes. I like Tony's workout much better, but I wish it were just a little shorter.