I've been lurking here for awhile but just had to jump in here. Been doing my own version of Weight Watchers (old exhange plan) since Jan 6th and have lost 19.5 lbs. to date. I'm afraid the road to weight loss will get tougher any day now since I haven't hit a plateau yet. My point to posting on this thread is that I've noticed so many here have all these things they stay away from and I detect some feeling of deprivation there. I eat out several times a week including at the occasional greasey spoon. I eat everything. I can make a salad at home so other than one that comes with a meal I never have one eating out. I do make choices though. If I want fries I'll get a turkey or clubhouse sandwich (no mayo). If I get a cheeseburger it's fruit or veggies instead of fries. Everything is ordered on the side....I'll add my own butter,gravy or dressing so I control and know what's on my plate. I eat chicken or fish (even fried) when I want it and beef or pork when I don't. When I get a sub I order the usual 6" and eat it all including cheese but leave off mayo,oils and fatty dressings. Mustard and barbque sauce are my friends LOL. I see peeps in restaurants afraid to order 2 fried eggs (about 220 calories) but who will "diet" on a 400 calorie bagel. They will throw away an 80 calorie dinner roll and eat a 250 calorie scoop of cottage cheese instead. So I guess my answer is everything and I just want to encourage all who struggle along with me to get and keep these added pounds off to try to think of food as fuel we have a right to enjoy and to question some of the diet lore out there.

Spices wear down. Day old chili can benefit from another jalapeno and a sprinkle of ground cumin/chili powder. Why use a recipe? The original post had everything but the spices. Cumin is your basic chili spice. Chili powder probably has cumin, garlic, salt, and some ground pepper powder. Sometimes I like garlic and sometimes I'm not in the mood. Beans have lots of character to add. I often use kidney beans as they have a distinct flavor that I like. Chili will probably be more familiar if you use red beans. Go wild and mix red, black, and white beans! Canned beans need to be rinsed. Dry beans will need extra salt after they have cooked. A 6.6lb institutional can of kidney beans can have 15,000mg of salt! I prefer dry beans because they are cheaper. Soak them one hour or so in cold water then dump the soak water... it degasses them. I'll be boiling my turkey carcass for chili meat. I mix it half and half with beef. Poor old Mr. Possum out in my garden will get nothing but boiled dry turkey bones... I'm a grinch that way. If boiling a carcass don't add anything until you pick the bones out with a slotted spoon. Usually I pick all the meat out to get all the bones... birds have some small ones that hide. As another posted noted I can get beef roasts cheaper then ground beef and it is leaner. Ground chuck is probably the easy meat to use. Tomatoes are the key to great chili. Spices are very important but without a good tomato no good chili can come from them. My favorite are my garden tomatoes. Yellows make a sweet chili and reds make a sour chili. Red Gold are the canned tomatoes I'll buy but they are a poor substitute for homegrown. It has been hard to get good cumin the last couple years. Some of the best I've had was GFS ground cumin which is a restaurant supply brand. Penzeys is okay but nothing special. They do note they can't get the good Iranian cumin because of political issues. If you have an Indian ethnic grocer available they probably have a decent cumin in stock. I have a whopper mortar and pestle so I crack my own seed... years ago I chopped them on a cutting board with a mini-cleaver. Some like to toast them in a frying pan before adding to the chili. I like cilantro and buy or grow fresh. Use some in you chili. The leftover can be cut up with sissors and left to dry on a newspaper or paper plate. Turn it a couple times with a spatula. When dry put it in a jar in the fridge... better then any store bought dry cilantro! Love my peppers. Can't say enough about fresh hot peppers. Serreno are my favorite store bought. I have two kinds of habenera, a cayenne, and a jalapeno potted and growing in my kitchen. They self pollinate so you will have peppers all year long from a potted pepper plant. They live for years! My stupid cats finally learned the super hot Red Savinas are not cat toys!.. they used to pick my habeneras and bat them around. They have about eaten the leaves off my cayenne... it may die. It is not just chili... it is an adventure! Throw out those recipes and wing it! What is to go wrong? Start simple and someday you will be bold... toss in a couple mushrooms, a fresh cayenne pepper, some chopped cabbage,... oh what else is in the fridge? Leftover chicken to use up? A lone stalk of celery? Bits of a fresh garlic bulb? Chili loves to accept your little bits that otherwise might go to waste. I'll use up my turkey not because it make special and great chili but uses up the bird... and it is good. Yes Grandma... I can hear you yelling not to waste a scrap.. is it my imagination or can I really hear you from the other side? : ) lyra

Rhizo, I'd love to make a shrimp stir-fry sometime. I have some frozen shrimp that I should do something with. Lindsey, I'm making pulled pork with the leftover pork and sauce from tonite's dinner. Crammed into a baked potato is a neat way to serve it. Audrey are your potatoes au gratin? Scalloped with cheese? Pam, lasagna is so good! I make baked ziti instead, it's so much easier with the same flavour :-) Janey, we love, love leftovers. I couldn't imagine making a different meal every day of the week. Plus, I seldom make just enough for the 2 of us. Gadgets, I love that you see your sister so often. I've heard that Wendy's chili is their most popular item. GM even with a late lunch I invariably eat something before dinner. Corn Flakes is a favourite.

This morning for breakfast I fried three red tomatoes and two green peppers the neighbor had given me, added some chopped onions, scrambled six eggs in a bowl and when the veggies were soft and tender, poured the egg mixture over it all and sprinkled with parsley. Threw in a handful of shredded cheddar cheese, salt and pepper. Let it cook until set and turned it once or twice. I have enough to reheat for tomorrow's bkfst or tonight's supper.