Tape measure progress, raw veggie snax, beef stew

Not going to Weight Watchers because it costs money (and time!), and we don't have a scale. So I got out the tape measure, which tells me I'm at my lowest measurements since I started the latest round of mindful eating. That would be January 2011; I'm not counting the six week vacation I took after my sister's death. This is good news.

The mild winter weather also means better exercising conditions. I loathe going to the gym and I don't care much for exercise for exercise's sake. But going for a bike ride is pure joy. So is walking to and from somewhere I have to go anyway. So...

Saturday we took the bus to Market East so I could buy a bus pass for February (possibly a mistake, given the mild weather we continue to have). We walked home, with a coffee stop -- about a mile and a half. Knees weren't happy, but they didn't mind a walk of similar length, with a stop, last night. And in fact something clicked and I was able to stride for a change, whee.

The other day I rediscovered something I seem to have to rediscover every so often because it was never my natural idiom -- raw vegetables make a lovely snack. Moreover, I discovered, belatedly, that one way to incorporate miserly raw vegetable prep into my daily life is to snap a few extra beans or snow peas, or slice a few extra carrots, celery sticks, etc., while preparing vegetables for use in cooking. Mr. southphl has settled into a pattern of eating a few Cheez-Its as a snack with our pre-dinner tea. Better I should eat carrot sticks.

Also also, I made a tasty stew out of about a pound of boneless beef round bought on sale. I fried it up in a little olive oil and butter, added a grapefruit-sized onion, coarsely chopped, and let them saute, then added

• a slurry of tomato paste, flour and water
  
• the last of some concentrated chicken broth from our last chicken
  
• about a pound of carrots, chunked
  
• three stalks of celery, sliced
  
• most of a green pepper, sliced (I saved some for snax)
  
• a pint container of black beans that I'd cooked a couple weeks ago and frozen
  
• two small potatoes, chunked
  
• chipotle powder, oregano, cumin, thyme, marjoram, Tabasco, possibly a couple other things that I've forgotten, plus sea salt (much cheaper at the Asian market) and pepper
  

All went into a removable crock pot liner and into a 300-degree oven for about an hour and a half, then into the crock pot set on low while we went out.

Served us as a hearty dinner last night and will also serve us as lunch.