Marinara Sauce

Here's a quick and easy, single serving marinara sauce, that is also hCG Diet friendly.  For those not on the hCG protocol, it's still a great single serving marinara sauce, that could easily be modified to your tastes -- start by browning a little ground beef or sausage, toss in some extra veggies, or however you like your sauce.

Recipe:
1 tomato, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
Water or chicken broth
Basil (I also used some Italian Herb Mix)
Sea salt, pepper

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add tomatoes and garlic.  Cook for 1-2 minutes and add about 1/4 cup water or chicken broth.  Add basil and other seasonings to taste.  Simmer 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add more liquid if necessary.  Serve.

Quick and easy!  And very tasty.  I had mine over sliced baked chicken breast for a diet friendly chicken marinara.

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Chicken Chili

One of the things I miss, being on the hCG diet, is big cooking projects.  Things that take at least a few hours to get really good, and fill the house with amazing cooking smells.  Cooking small quantities of things doesn't take much time at all, and there's not always time to develop the big, bold flavors that you find in things like chili or pot roast or stew.  But that's one of the things I've been working on, and here's my latest: a diet friendly chicken chili with plenty of heat and rich flavor.

Recipe:
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons chili or taco seasoning (I used chicken taco from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon regular chili powder (I like chili 9000 from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3 oz. chicken, chopped

Heat a skillet or shallow pan over medium heat.  Chop tomato and add to pan.  Stir in jalapeno and garlic, cook for about 3 minutes.  Stir in chicken broth, vinegar, and seasoning and cook for 5 minutes.

Add chicken.  Simmer, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.  Serve.

I used leftover pulled chicken in this batch, which added some nice barbecue smokiness to the chili.

This came out really well - it has a rich flavor, a fair amount of heat, and it really felt like a hearty chili.

Strawberry Sorbet

Here's an hCG diet friendly dessert that I recently tried using one of my daily fruit servings.

Recipe:
6 fresh strawberries
6-8 drops vanilla stevia

Puree strawberries in a blender.  Stir in vanilla stevia.  Place in a small lidded container and freeze for about 2 hours, stirring about every 30 minutes.  Serve.

Very refreshing!  And it tastes very indulgent, but it just fresh fruit and stevia.

This would also be good with a little lemon juice and a sprinkle of ginger.

Grilled Baby Bok Choy

I'm fairly new to bok choy.  I've had it before, certainly, but I haven't cooked it myself very often.  The other day I picked up a few baby bok choy because a) I wanted to try something new-ish, b) there's just one of me, so the baby bok choy seemed more manageable than a full-size bok choy, and c) they're super cute.

Looking around online, it was hard to find a way of cooking them that would be diet friendly, so I improvised.

Recipe:
1 baby bok choy
1-2 teaspoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos (a versatile and delicious natural alternative to soy sauce)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt

Cut the baby bok choy in half lengthwise.  Fill a bowl with cold water and place both halves in the water, soak for about 5 minutes.  Remove from water and pat dry.
Meanwhile, pre-heat an electric countertop grill or sandwich press.
Squeeze lemon juice over both sides of the bok choy halves.  Sprinkle liquid aminos over the cut side (so it goes in between the leaves).
Place on the grill, cut side down.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt and serve.

These still had good crunchiness, but were nicely warmed through. I paired this with a piece of steamed haddock, and the wilted leaves were very tasty with the fish.

The bok choy itself has a nice flavor, so it was really good with just the lemon juice and liquid aminos.

Beef and Onion Soup

I'm a big soup fan.  I could eat soup everyday, even in the summer.  It's been cold and grey, which always puts me in the mood for nice, warming comfort food.  Like soup.

Recipe:

1 cup beef broth (Pacific makes an organic beef broth that has no fat)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 oz. onions, sliced thin
3 oz. beef, cut into small cubes (use a good cut, like sirloin)
Sea salt, pepper, thyme

Place a saucepan over medium heat, when the pan is hot, add sliced onion and 2 tablespoons of water.  Cook 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add garlic and beef broth.  Bring to a boil, add seasoning, then simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add beef.  Simmer 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mmm...nice and comfort food-y.

I've started another round of the hCG Diet, so coming up with good wintery comfort food takes a little creativity, but this really did the trick.  It has a good meaty flavor and really felt like a hearty soup.

Crab Cakes

This is another hCG Diet version of a dish.  This is tasty, easy, and only took a few minutes to throw together.

Recipe:
3 oz. Crab Meat
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1-2 teaspoons Lemon Zest
2-3 teaspoons Parsley and other seasoning (an Italian mix or other herb blend is good)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.  Combine crab, garlic, lemon zest, and seasoning.  Carefully form two patties and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake 15-18 minutes, until lightly golden on top.  Sprinkle with parsley and lemon juice and serve.

Forming the patties was a little tricky, since there's nothing to really hold them together.  But once they were formed they held up really well.

These were very good, and really felt like a treat!

Coleslaw

So here's another hCG Diet friendly version of a classic side dish.  This is a great refreshing salad and pairs very well with hot and spicy things.

Recipe:
6-8 oz. Cabbage
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Salt, pepper, and seasoning

Slice or shred the cabbage.  Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste.  Toss to coat.  Add any desired seasonings (I like to add a little of Penzey's Mural of Flavor or Fox Point seasoning).  I also like to add a little stevia.

Yum!  This makes a nice change from lettuce salad, and it pairs very well with spicier things since it's cooler and a little bit sweet.

Pulled Chicken Soup

So I made last night's pulled chicken into soup tonight.  It's almost a chicken chili, but with more of a smoky barbecue flavor.

Recipe:
1 cup Chicken Broth
1 Tomato, peeled and seeded
1 teaspoon Barbecue Seasoning (same as used on the chicken)
2-3 teaspoons Cilantro or Parsley
3 oz. Pulled Chicken

Heat the chicken broth over medium heat.  Chop the peeled tomato and add it to the chicken broth.  Add seasoning.  Cook 5-7 minutes.  Puree with immersion blender.

Add chicken and simmer for 8-10 minutes.  Serve.

Like I said, it's kind of a chicken barbecue chili.  Very flavorful and spicy, perfect on a cold and rainy day like today.

Pulled Chicken

Here's another dish that I recently modified to be hCG diet friendly.

Recipe:
2 Chicken Breasts
2 tablespoons Barbecue seasoning (I use Penzey's BBQ 3000)
1 tablespoon Chili or Taco seasoning (I use Penzey's Chili 9000)
1 cup Water
3/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
Sea Salt

Season chicken breasts liberally, and grill or pan fry until done (I use a little electric grill).
Transfer chicken to a cutting board.  Using two forks, shred the chicken into small pieces.
In a shallow pan, bring water and apple cider vinegar to a boil.  Add shredded chicken.  Add more barbecue seasoning if desired.  Salt to taste, if necessary.  Simmer for 8-10 minutes and serve.

Delicious!  I eat mine in a lettuce wrap, but it would also be good in a sandwich or taco.  It's very flavorful and juicy, you'd never guess that it has no sugar and no added fat!

Waldorf Salad

This recipe is pretty much out of the booklet I got when I started the hCG diet.  It's quick, easy, and pretty tasty.

Recipe:

2 ounces Chicken (cooked)
1 stalk Celery
1/2 Apple
Sea salt, lemon juice, and seasoning.

Chop the chicken into small pieces.  Dice the celery.  Chop the apple.  Combine the chicken, celery, and apple together, sprinkle with sea salt and lemon juice, season as desired.  Mix until well combined and serve.

Tasty!  And a good way to use up chicken leftovers.  I have a container that I put all of my little extra bits of chicken in when I'm measuring out my mealtime portion, so I had chicken from 2 or 3 different occasions in there.  But, chopped up fine and mixed with other things, it wasn't really noticeable.

And again, for mixing, I just put everything into a lidded bowl and shook it, so this took less than 5 minutes to throw together.

Fish Chowder

I recently made the mistake of buying some frozen cod fillets.  Now, I love fish.  I love all kinds of fish and I love fish prepared all kinds of ways.  I even like cod, which isn't the most flavorful or interesting of fish.  But these were just...subpar to say the least.

Instead of being flaky, tender, and flavorful these came out tough, dry, and bland.  There were 3 of these things and they always came out bad, no matter what I did to them.  So with the final one I made soup, and it's actually not bad and I'd like to try it again with higher quality fish.

Recipe:

1 Tomato (or 1 can of diced tomatoes, do not drain)
1 cup Chicken Broth (omit if using canned tomatoes)
1 fillet of Cod (or other white fish)
Sea salt and seasoning

In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth (or canned tomatoes) to a boil.  (If using a fresh tomato) Peel and seed tomato, chop roughly, and add to hot chicken broth.

Using a blender (immersion or otherwise) puree the tomato and chicken broth.  Return to heat and season to taste.

Place the fish in the broth and simmer for a few minutes.  Remove fish from soup and flake it apart.  Return fish to broth, simmer 5 minutes and serve.

Considering the poor quality of the fish I had to use, this was actually pretty good.  The cod gave a good flavor to the broth, and the fish itself didn't really detract from the soup, although there were a couple of larger pieces and those were tough and dry (in soup even!).

Again, this was good in general, and I'll try it again when I get some better fish.  And I'm sticking to fresh.

Celery & Shrimp Salad

Here's something I made for myself for lunch recently.  It's super easy, especially if you have precooked shrimp around.

Recipe:

3.5 oz. (approximately 9) Shrimp (I used precooked)
2 oz. (1 large stalk) Celery
1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Sea salt
Herbs/seasonings (I used Mural of Flavor)

Dice celery.  Add apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, sea salt and desired seasonings.  Toss to coat.
Chop shrimp, add to celery and toss to coat.

I have a set of lidded prep bowls so I just threw everything in one of those and shook it, so this whole thing took about 5 minutes.  For those not on the hCG diet, this would make a nice refreshing side salad.

I really enjoyed this, it has a nice mix of textures with the shrimp and raw celery, and as far as the flavor you can pretty much do whatever you want with this.  I decided I wanted something citrusy and sweet, which is why I went for the lemon juice and an herb blend.

So, a tasty lunch in less than 5 minutes and under 100 calories.  Woo!

Grilled Tomatoes

There are going to be some changes around here.  For the past 2 weeks, I've been detoxing, and now I'm starting the very low calorie phase of the hCG diet.  It's a change that I'm feeling really good about, and as far as food goes, I'm sticking to the diet and being very strict with myself.  I packed up all my olive oils and balsamic vinegars and put them in a box in the basement, cleaned out the fridge, and stashed away anything not on the diet that I might use inadvertently.

So what does this mean for the blog?  Well, I'm not turning this into a diet blog, and I really don't intend to write about the diet very often.  The agenda is still the same: to share food and recipes.  It'll just have a different focus for awhile.

And here I am on day 2 of the low calorie diet, and I find myself thinking more about seasoning (not that I didn't before), and texture (again, I've always been big on texture), and I'm thinking more creatively about vegetables.  So tonight I decided to have a tomato as my dinner vegetable and I was just going to slice it up and sprinkle it with salt, but then I remembered the grilled tomatoes that are usually part of an Irish breakfast and decided to try something like that.

Recipe:

1 fresh Tomato
Sea Salt
Fresh Basil, chopped
Pepper

Heat a frying pan over high heat.
Slice tomato in half.  Rub sliced side with sea salt and chopped basil.  When the pan is very hot, place both halves, sliced side down, in the frying pan.  Reduce heat to medium.  Cook for 5-8 minutes.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

These were so good!  The acidity of the tomatoes paired very well with the fish, which is halibut pan seared with Tuscan Sunset seasoning.  They're still quite firm, but they're warm all the way through and have a nice herb-y/saltiness and the fresh pepper at the end adds a little kick.