We had the Spicy Curry Beef Stew last night.  While it was good (I had it on top of jasmine rice), I didn’t find it spicy at all plus it wasn’t thick like a curry.  I even doubled the curry powder and added extra jalapenos and added 3 dried chili pods.  Still not spicy despite the author of the recipe writing “This hearty, spicy beef stew is only for those that can handle the heat.”  I often snack on Thai chilis dipped in salt, so I guess my definition of spicy might be a bit different.  It still made for a pretty good, simple beef stew despite my complaining.

Tonight, I’ll be buying the ingredients to make “Easy Slow Cooker French Dip” for dinner tomorrow night. It’s very simple, will cook all day while I’m work, and me likey French dip sandwiches a lot!  The over 1,200 reviews have a few suggestions for minor modifications that I may make, but here is the basic recipe:

Easy Slow Cooker French Dip
From Allrecipes

Photo by DawnF of Allrecipes

4 pounds rump roast
1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French onion soup
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
6 French rolls
2 tablespoons butter

1. Trim excess fat from the rump roast, and place in a slow cooker. Add the beef broth, onion soup and beer. Cook on Low setting for 7 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Split French rolls, and spread with butter. Bake 10 minutes, or until heated through.
4. Slice the meat on the diagonal, and place on the rolls. Serve the sauce for dipping.

Allrecipes has a lot of great recipes, especially ones for the slow cooker.  The website has a lot of great features including being able to change the serving size for a recipe and having it adjust accordingly, different print options (including 3 X 5 recipe cards!), recipe photos, and tons and tons of useful reviews and suggestions by people who actually made the recipe you’re looking at.  I especially like that most recipes have nutritional facts with calories, fat, and carb information.

Now that I’m trying to get in better shape, I am paying attention to nutrition a bit more.  I make sure to take my daily multivitamin, of course, but it’s no substitute for eating right.  I usually let loose a little with dinner, but I try not to keep my meals around 500 calories (if I eat breakfast).  With 3 meals a day, plus snacks, that puts me in the normal range of about 2,000 calories a day.  I definitely do not want to be eating more calories than I expend.

Unfortunately, I only have breakfast about once a week despite it being promoted as the most important meal of the deal.  I try to grab a snack though like a piece of fruit or some sort of cereal bar, but most of the time I don’t have a real meal until lunch.  Now that I’m eating vegetarian before 6 PM, I eat basically about 600 - 700 calories before going home.  So far today, I’ve had 665 calories (a bowl of cereal + soymilk, a banana, lunch of fish/rice/broccoli, and a cup of light yogurt).  I’ll probably have another piece of fruit before I leave today.  Dinner tonight will be leftover “curry” beef stew and rice, which is about 800 - 900 calories, probably a glass of wine, and maybe a popsicle. If I still feel hungry (I often am ravenous after a workout), I’ll end up having a bowl of cereal with fat free milk before going to bed.  I definitely cannot go to bed hungry, and I know people say you shouldn’t eat after a certain time or before going to bed, but I know what works for me so I’m not about to change it.  That will put me at around 2,000 calories for the day.

My average BMR (basal metabolic rate, or calories my body naturally burns) is about 1,250.  I would burn this amount of calories even if I were to stay in bed all day because it’s the energy my body needs to just stay alive (breathing, cell functions, blood circulation, etc.)  However, I don’t stay in bed all day and everything from brushing my teeth to walking to work burns calories in excess of this.  If I eat 2,000 calories a day, I need to burn an additional 750 in order for those calories to be expended and not stored as fat.  Well, based on the activity calculator on this site, my daily activity of “office work - general” along with 100+ minutes of walking (to and from subway, gym, lunch walk, walking dogs) are sufficient to make sure I burn at least those 750 additional calories.  I didn’t even take into account other calorie-burning activities such as the gym, cooking, grocery shopping, taking a shower, etc.

I was definitely eating more calories than I was burning before.  I would eat a large, unhealthy lunch here at work and then go home and have my usual large dinner.  Though I’m still eating pretty sizable dinners, bringing my own lunch to work has totally changed things.  There seems to be a good balance now between the calories I take in and the calories I burn.  In fact, I am finally starting to see definition again in my upper abs - yay!  I am not losing weight; I am building more muslces and I am trimming down on my overall body fat.  This is exactly what I wanted and I’m getting closer to where I want to be.  I just need to make sure I make this a lifelong lifestyle change instead of just a temporary novelty.

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