Sylvia's Scenario

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. Before you start your diets, I have one more recipe from Christmas to share so you can start planning your Christmas dinner for next year...or for your next special occasion. How about Valentine's Day? This is a super easy recipe and everyone loves it, even kids. When I started getting ready to serve dessert on Christmas, one of the children asked "What are we having for dessert?" and I said, "Chocolate mousse which is like a really good chocolate pudding. You'll love it". And they did. I even sent home a big Tupperware of leftover with them. ha ha ha That's one of the reasons I wanted to post this recipe. This recipe did not state the serving size and I ended up making way too much. My servings were only 1/4 cup since I served them in these really cute shot glasses tied with a ribbon to hold a super dainty demitasse spoon (this forces you to eat slowly!)  I ended up with twice as much chocolate mousse

What do you eat after weeks and weeks of planning and preparing Christmas dinner and then you eat your Christmas dinner and are basically still satisfied the whole next day and don't feel like eating much?  Something light and healthful, that's what.  I've been watching the Food Network lately, particularly  The Barefoot Contessa  because I had bought her latest cookbook for a Christmas gift for my sister called Cook Like A Pro .  My sister already cooks like a pro, in my opinion, but she stated at Thanksgiving that she wanted Ina Garten's latest cookbook (Ina Garten is the Barefoot Contessa) so that was an easy gift shopping experience since her new cookbook is everywhere.  Now, I'm sort of hooked on her TV show.  Bruce even likes watching it.  I got my gingerbread making motivation by watching all the Christmas competitions on the Food Network; Christmas Cookie Challenge and Gingerbread Challenge. ha ha  I don't usually like watching those competitions

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. It's amazing how hard we work for this one day of the year and suddenly it's over. Now, here we are, the day after Christmas and I'm still absorbing it all. There were so many things I loved about Christmas this year including my new Christmas cocktail I wanted share. This drink was a very festive addition to a wonderful Christmas evening. My family came over to our house including Lauren; my sister and her husband; my niece and nephew and their families and we had a holly, jolly time. Put it this way, nobody left hungry. But we did more than just eat, of course. We played games  and we opened presents - starting in the morning when Lauren came over and we also had breakfast together before getting ready for the evening.  When everyone was here, we opened more presents. When my extended family gets together for Christmas, we do a white elephant gift exchange. A white elephant gift exchange is when yo

 We wish you a wonderful day today with your loved ones and a very delicious day on top of everything else.  Hopefully, you will have as much fun in the kitchen as I am having this year.  I will post all the winning recipes soon.  Merry Christmas, everyone.  From the Bratneys

We are having soup weather.  Not because it is cold but because it is wet...surprise, surprise.  This is Seattle, after all.  We had really nice weather for a long time, dry and sunny and Bruce even went golfing last week but the rain always returns eventually.  The past couple of days, it has been pouring all day. On Sunday, I went to our local "downtown" in West Seattle called The Junction because the Farmers Market was going on (in the pouring rain but it's held rain or shine year around every Sunday.)  I also wanted to get my presents wrapped at a fund raiser that was going on.  I took eight gifts to get wrapped and they did a gorgeous job.  It was for an organization called  Furry Faces Foundation  that helps low income people stay together with their pets when they can't afford to do so.  I was happy to make a donation and get my presents wrapped at the same time.  There were 3-4 ladies doing the wrapping and the gift wrap was professional, to say the least.

This is my most favorite chili recipe and it contains no tomatoes or beans, can you believe it?  Tomatoes and beans are high lectin foods so I've been avoiding them as part of my anti-inflammatory diet.  If the beans are pressure cooked, then the lectin content is reduced.  Unless you pressure cook your own beans, the only other kind they say are compliant are  Eden Organic Beans   which are sold at a store near my house but I don't mind avoiding them.  And they say you can eat tomatoes if you avoid all the seeds and skin so tomato paste and sauce is O.K. if you know that they process them that way such as the brand   Pomi .  So, there are lots of ways to avoid lectin by not being that restrictive in your diet but I've found that there are so many good recipes out there by avoiding high lectin foods altogether, like this chili recipe.  It's amazing you can love a chili with no tomatoes or beans, but trust me, you will.  I've made this recipe four times this fal