Venison Chili, Homemade Ranch, etc.

It is the perfect time of the year to have chili! Not just any chili...venison chili! My dad was lucky enough to get a deer this year and shared his deer meat with us! In Michigan, and I'm pretty sure half of the country, we experienced super cold days this past week.

It has warmed up some and we are happy to be having a normal winter now. That's probably my first time being happy for a normal winter!

It's a simple recipe and makes quite a few servings. I suggest that if you aren't intending to eat it all right away that you freeze a container of it.

Venison Chili Recipe

Chili Powder
Garlic Salt
Salt
Black Pepper
Onion
1 lb venison (you can use hamburger instead, if you prefer)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
1 can of chili beans
Tomato Juice

Brown the venison or burger with the about 1/2 cup of chopped onion. (I like to add green pepper in here as well, but I ran out of them, so I just went with what I had in the house!) Add salt, pepper, garlic salt & chili powder to meat. I normally do a few shakes of each thing. I take it easy on the salt though. After your meat has cooked, drain, if needed.

In a large pot, or crockpot add the remaining ingredients. Add your venison/onion mixture into the crockpot and stir. Add in more chili powder, pepper & garlic salt to taste. I like mine to have quite a bit of the powder since I don't like to taste plain tomato juice.

After it warms up, you can serve it up with cheese, crackers, cornbread or all three!


Health Update:
Today I went shopping and bought a few items for tomorrow, since that is my first day kicking off this diet!

I am making some hard boiled eggs right now for tomorrow morning's breakfast. I'll update tomorrow to show how my first day on this diet is going!

I did do the plank/squat challenge again today. The plank challenge seemed to be a little easier since it was my second day. The squat challenge is most definitely something that I can feel in my legs already! We'll see how far I can make it!

In an effort to reduce calorie intake, I decided to try a recipe I found from Pinterest on making ranch. I tried it today and it is delicious! I like it more than I like the already bottled stuff. Here is the recipe! It's super easy and well worth the extra bucks.

Homemade Ranch Recipe
1 package of dry Hidden Valley Ranch
1 cup of Dannon Oikos Greek yogurt (plain)
1/2 c of 1% milk

Mix together in a jar and refrigerate for at least an hour for best taste.

I've been skeptical before because I really don't care for Greek yogurt. I still don't, but you can't really tell in this. So, I hope that helps with people that may have a problem with trying this recipe! The whole recipe is about 255 calories, which isn't too bad!

Alright, I'll update more tomorrow with how I did with my food and exercise!