Chilli-bean Nachos

Here we have my first food post for the year.

As I mentioned previously, I had fallen off the wagon BIG time and had managed to put on a few of those pesky kgs I managed to lose last year.

In case you weren't keeping track, through calorie counting, I lost 8kgs last year.  Not as much as I needed to lose, but still a decent dint.  

Unfortunately, I managed to put 4kgs of those back on...

I had meant to get back into the healthy eating, but got distracted and my poor will-power got the better of me.  

Well, I got the wake-up call I needed when I got the results back from a blood test I had done a few weeks back (for another issue).

To both my and my doctors surprise, my cholesterol levels were through the roof.  7.9 to be exact.  Yep, 7.9!  To get some perspective for those who have no idea about cholesterol levels (that was me until very recently), healthy levels are below 5, with 6.5 considered HIGH.  So my 7.9 was HUGE.  My doctor was quite speechless and almost thought the test must be wrong...  So we decided it would be best if I ate a low-fat diet over the next four weeks and get re-tested.  She said people with these levels are typically put on meds for the rest of their lives.  I'm only 27, so we want that to be a last resort.  

Scary stuff.  Especially considering heart disease runs rife in my family.  My paternal grandmother had a triple bypass at 35 and my maternal grandmother has angina.  Plus there is other cholesterol and heart issues in the family as well.

So I found this recipe on www.taste.com.au , while searching for low-fat vegetarian meals.

Chilli-bean Nachos also contain around 370 calories and only 5.5g of fat per serve.

An interesting addition to this nachos was the zucchini, something I did not expect to be in a typical nachos dish.

It was pretty yummy, though I stuffed it up royally.  I couldn't find Mexican chilli powder, so I added normal chilli powder.  Ummm... for future reference, normal chilli powder is NOT the same as Mexican chilli powder.  This was soooooooooo HOT!  Plus I tried to fix the heat by adding too much sugar...  It was odd. It tasted a bit sweet, but also had the heat from the chilli.  I will not make the same mistake again!

Oh, just thought I should add that I have been following this low-fat diet for 10 days now and have managed to lose 2.5kgs.  Hopefully I can get my cholesterol levels down to an acceptable level and I can hit my weight loss goal from last year.  Only 11kg to go!

Until next time...

xx