"Honey" Mustard Grilled Chicken and Marinade

Happy July!  I hope all of you had a safe, fun and successful Phase 2 weekend.  Grills are fired up around here and I could not be happier.  Here in the Midwest we cherish our grilling months and sometimes even trudge out in the ice and snow to get a grilled steak on a warm day of 30 degrees F.  I don't want to even think about that right now!  It is 85 and sunny today, my meat is thawing and I will be making this again even in my Phase 4 status.  Get creative and add some P2 allowed veggies over top the flame for wonderful flavored sides. 

"Honey" Mustard Grilled Chicken

1/4 C sugar free- dijon mustard

1/4-1/2 tsp stevia
2 TB chicken broth or water
1 TB apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
1/4 tsp paprika
4  boneless, skinless chicken breast

Whisk together the first 6 ingredients in a small bowl.  Pour over chicken and marinade in the refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight.  When ready to cook, remove chicken and grill over medium heat for 20 minutes, until cooked through.

Phase 3/4:  Add 1/4 cup mayo, plain yogurt or oil to the marinade to add in healthy fats. 

No grill?  Try this!

Need a little excitement?  Do this!

Don't let Phase 2 get in the way of summer fun. Remember to follow Dr. Simeon's full orders and sunbathe!!!  Check Pounds and Inches, it is in there I swear.  I have that part of the protocol down no problem.....no twisting of the arm, I am out in the vitamin D richness.

Have a pound dropping rest of the week!

~Natasha





Lemongrass Lettuce Wraps

This is good with ANY meat! A must try, all ingredients are in the produce section of most grocers.  If you cannot find some, try different types of markets- asian and farmers markets should carry these herbs too. 

I heart lemongrass so much, what a wonderful way to welcome Spring!  This perennial herb has a lot of great uses along with health benefits.  Studies and good ole' traditional practices have proven that it helps to detoxify the bodies liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder and the digestive tract. Cutting down on uric acid, cholesterol, excess fats and toxins in our body while improving digestion, blood circulation and gastronal intestinal health.  Also said to improve our skin by reducing acne and helping to tone muscle and skin tissue. 

Who wouldn't want those benefits?  Especially while losing weight we need all the help we can get with the whole skin tightening right?  Learning this I am going to be adding more lemongrass to my meal rotations!

PS- I am working on the spring planting project I mentioned last post with the lettuce boxes.  I will post as soon as I can!  Start saving your clear plastic lettuce boxes you buy at the store, don't throw them away!



P2- please ignore the red onion in this, I am past P2 and added sliced red onion as suggested below.

Photo Credit

Lemongrass Lettuce Wraps
(Serves 1)

3.5 oz chicken breast, boneless and skinless- diced small (any meat!)
1/4 C water
1 TB lemon grass, sliced (white part only)

1/4 tsp fresh ginger, minced  (you can use powdered too)

1/4 tsp celtic sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper

1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 TB fresh Thai basil leaves, sliced (regular basil works too)

1 TB fresh mint leaves, sliced

1 TB cilantro

few drops or pinch of stevia

1 TB water

red, butter, romaine lettuce leaves all work well.


This is what lemongrass will look like at the stores and markets if you have not used/ bought it before.

 Season the chicken with ginger, salt and pepper.  Cook chicken over medium heat in 1/4 cup water and lemongrass for 10 minutes or until no longer pink through the center. Transfer to a plate to cool.  Shred into small pieces, toss with basil, mint and cilantro.  Add the lemon juice and stevia to the chicken mixture and mix until evenly coated.

Open a a few lettuce leaves and stack; spread chicken mixture onto the lettuce leaf.  Fold and enjoy!

Phase 3/4: Cook your chicken in 2 tablespoons coconut oil instead of water. Add sliced red onion and bell peppers when cooking the chicken ,julienne some cucumbers to place on top before rolling up too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southwestern Lettuce Wraps

Something spicy to warm you up during this week of cold and winter mayhem!  Where are you right now?  Somewhere warm and sunny?  Somewhere that is supposed to be warm and sunny but is cold and blistering?  Holed up in your house with 2 feet of snow against your front door?  Mother nature sure is grumpy this week, there was no shadow today so spring I will see you soon!  Happy Groundhog's Day.
I have a photo but cannot find it...I will post it when I find the right SD card! 

Southwestern Lettuce Wraps

1 pound chicken breast, boneless and skinless and cut in small pieces
2 tsp garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (less or none for mild heat)

1/2 tsp celtic sea salt

1/8 tsp chipolte powder

1/4 C water or protocol chicken broth

1/4 C fresh cilantro, chopped

squeez of fresh lemon

12 or more romaine or bibb lettuce leaves

Heat a large saute pan to medium high heat.  Add 2 teaspoons water or broth to the hot pan and add the chicken.  Cook the chicken for about 3 - 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic, onion powder, red pepper flakes, cumin and chipolte powder and cook for an additional 3 - 4 minutes.  Stir in the water or broth and cook for a minute or until heated through.  Stir in cilantro and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Measure out your 3 ounce serving and serve in lettuce leaves.

Note:  This would be excellent with any meat.  Thin sliced sirloin, shrimp, fish tacos...  If your too busy, pop the stuff in the slow cooker and it will be done when you get home!  Or use the ingredients as a marinade and grill for great flavor.  Top your wraps with some thin sliced granny smith for a nice sour crunch.

Phase 3/4:  Replace the cooking water/ broth with oil or butter.  Replace the 1/4 C water/ broth with tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes.  Replace the onion powder with thin sliced onion and add bell peppers.  Top with cheese, cultured sour cream and homemade salsa.

Grilled Chicken over Cooked Spinach

This is dedicated to everyone who can still grill.  My grill is covered in snow up the the lid right now!  If you want, double the spinach recipe because I know I can easily eat 1/2 a bag of spinach for 1 meal during Phase 2.  I miss my grill, only 5 months to go....to all who cannot grill, saute or bake your chicken in all the juices for great flavor.  George Foreman is always an option too.   If you like the marinade use it as a salad dressing too!

Grilled Chicken Over Cooked Spinach

Serves 4

Chicken with Dressing/ Marinade:

1 TB water

1 TB apple cider vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (can leave out if you do not want any spice)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

4- 100 gram serving, boneless skinless chicken breast
Cooked Spinach:

1 green onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 TB water

1 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach, torn

In a bowl, combine the first eight ingredients; mix well. Place chicken into the marinade.  Let sit 30 minute to overnight.  Grill, uncovered, over medium heat for 7 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.  In a large skillet, saute green onion and garlic in water for 1 minute. Stir in spinach; saute for 2 minutes or until wilted. Transfer to a serving platter; top with chicken.

Italian Spinach Soup

 Hoping everyone had a wonderful and event filled weekend!  Did you get past all the buckets of candy in your kids room or co-workers desk?  Just turn your nose up and know that you are making a wonderful decision to chose the best life and health, you are completely worthy of it! 

Is it cold where you are?  I am freezing up here!  Soup is the perfect thing; hot, filling, savory.

Italian Spinach Soup
3 1/2 ounces boneless- skinless chicken breast OR any protocol meat of choice
2 cloves garlic
1 TB fresh basil, sliced thin *(1 tsp dried basil)
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 C water
1 C chicken broth- sugar and starch free, less than 10 cals/ serving
very large handful of baby spinach leaves, sliced thin
celtic sea salt and pepper to taste
few drops of stevia (optional)

I a medium sauce pan, cook chicken in 2 TB water over medium-high heat.  When cooked through, remove to cool and shred or dice.  Return chicken to pan, add garlic, basil, parsley and onion powder.  Cook 2-3 minutes until very fragrant.  Stir in water and broth, turn heat up to high and let boil for 2-3 minutes.  Turn stove off, stir in spinach, cover.  Cook 5-8 minutes until spinach is tender.  Season with additional salt and pepper, top with crumbles melba/ grissini.

Note: Sub the spinach for shredded cabbage, but the spinach goes well for Italian flare.  Would be excelent with shrimp!

Phase 3:  Add tomato, onion, saute meat in olive oil and top with Parmesan cheese. (I had this yesterday and was very good.)

Phase 4:  Add organic white kidney beans, Great Northern beans or Cannellini.

Faux-tisserie Chicken

Everyone loves a great rotisserie chicken.  Flavorful and moist right?  This recipe turns out wonderful in the oven.  Full of fancy flavors despite such easy prep and cooking. Easy to the max!  Shreds very nice for leftover salads and stays really moist with great flavor thanks to my best ever Seasoned Salt recipe.  I hope you all had a chance to make it!  If not, you can use any seasoning salt but make sure it is sugar and starch free.  I have been using this seasoning salt for awhile even before HCG, it is a copy recipe and is wonderful!

Faux-tisserie Chicken
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/4 C water
few TB of Seasoned Salt
black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Sprinkle bottom of glass baking dish with seasoning salt, lay chicken on top.  Sprinkle with more seasoning salt and black pepper.  Pour water around chicken (not on top) on bottom of the pan.  Bake uncovered for 1 hour.  Remove chicken from oven and measure out 3 ounces for your meals. 
Note:  Add asparagus last 15 minutes in between the chicken breast to get nice roasted flavor too.  Shred and serve over lettuce. 
Phase 3:  Add butter on top of each chicken and use any cut/ skin.
Bonus!  My kids love this chicken and that is why I always make 2 pounds at a time....but any amount will work.


Hoping this Friday finds you with a great weekend ahead!

Grilled Ginger Chicken Kabobs

This is such a fun recipe, fun to make, eat and share.  Your whole family will enjoy these Grilled Ginger Chicken Kabobs.  Thank you to Jackie B. for another great contribution!  She even gave us a few step-by-step photos to help you; great job!  My serving suggestions would be to add grape tomatoes, asparagus or onion to the kabobs as your veggie when your grilling. Brush kabobs again while grilling to give the veggies some great flavor too.  Or serve atop the Asian 'Slaw from here.  Enjoy your healthy meals today!

Grilled Ginger Chicken Kabobs

1 tsp fresh ground ginger
1/2 tsp stevia

2 TB Bragg's Amino Acids
1/4 C water
2-3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
Juice of 1 medium to large lemon, or 2 small ones

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
Cherry Tomatoes or Onions as you'd like (optional)

Combine first 6 ingredients in a glass baking dish.  Add chicken and turn to coat. 

Cover and marinate for at least 2 hours in refrigerator.  Prepare grill. Remove chicken from marinade and alternate chicken and vegetables on skewers.  Grill over medium heat, turning frequently until done (about 10-15 min). 

Optional: Take leftover marinade and boil for 10 minutes.  Use this as a sauce and baste the skewers with it.

Note: Use this fantastic marinade as a salad dressing.

PS- Don't have a grill?  Broil in yor oven or stir fry in marinade on stove. 

Phase 3:  Add 1/4 C peanut or coconut oil to this marinade.

White Chicken 'Chili'

It is cold here already.  Fall is blowing in with rain and gloom the last few days.  I had already made my Fire Roasted Chili but still wanted something warm.  Out comes the new White Chicken 'Chili'!  My tips for this one- use the leftover chicken you have already made up, if you think even far enough ahead of time, throw an onion on the grill the night before you make this for some amazing flavor.  Feel free to use your favorite veggie instead of onion too.  Cabbage, tomato or spinach would be good.  After you cook the onion so long in the broth, the texture of them changes and they don't have an onion consistency at all.  They soften and are almost like noodles....this is coming from a major texture food person...so give it a try.

White Chicken 'Chili'
3.5 ounces chicken
1/2 onion, sliced thin
1 1/2 Cups protocol Chicken Broth (I used Wild Harvest today)
1 Cup water
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 TB milk allowance (optional)
dash of paprika
Cilantro
Lemon

Place sliced onion, garlic, oregano, chili and cumin in a pan and saute on Med-Hi for 5 minutes or until onions soften and garlic is fragrant.  Add chicken, broth, water, salt, pepper and paprika.  Bring all to a boil then turn down to lo and simmer, covered for 1 hour.  Ladle soup into your bowl and top with cilantro and a squirt of lemon, more salt and pepper to your taste. Enjoy this filling meal.

Cabbage and Chicken

Hello all the Manic Monday HCG-ers!

We have a special guest post today.  Thank you to Kathy, who sent this recipe and photo to share with all of you.  She has been enjoying this meal while on the HCG Diet Protocol.  We hope you enjoy it too!  Have a great week everyone.

Cabbage and Chicken
3.5 ounce raw chicken breast (no skin or bone)
3.5 ounce cabbage (cut up into chunks)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash garlic and herbs
1 tablespoon Dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon Sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground black pepper

In a small sauce pan, add your water and lemon juice. Add your chicken breast and cook until it turns white on both sides. Add your seasoning to taste and simmer on low heat until chicken is cooked all the way through. Add water to the chicken as needed to create a nice sauce. While your chicken is cooking, boil your cabbage (covered) in salted water until tender.


To serve, place your cabbage on a plate. Cut up you chicken into small bite size pieces and place it on top of your cabbage. Pour the remaining juices and spices from your pan on top and enjoy.

I usually try and make multiple meals when cooking for phase 2 and freeze what I'm not going to use that day. So you can either make one portion as indicated above or more if you want to save yourself a couple of days of cooking.

If you want to make multiple portions:
Take your package of skinless, boneless chicken breast and cut it up into 3.5 ounce portions. I can usually get six servings. You'll have to increase your seasoning to match. Then weigh you cabbage to match your chicken servings. So if I have six portions of chicken, I weigh 21 ounces (6 X 3.5 ounces) of cabbage to match. After your cabbage is tender, drain and divide it into six equal portions. Each portion can be weighed to make sure they are equal. I usually label and freeze each meal in plastic snack containers.

Rosemary Ranch Chicken

Hey all,
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend and got to take some time off.  Now it's back to work and school today!  Wishing all the teacher's and kids a wonderful day back :)

I wanted to get something posted for everyone to enjoy the rest of what we have of grilling weather.  Here in MN we only have minimal weeks left!  Use up the rest of the herbs in your planters or garden and enjoy the rest of the warm weather we may have coming.

Rosemary Ranch Chicken

1 TB water
1 TB Apple Cider Vinegar
2 TB lemon juice- freshly squeezed
1 TB fresh chopped rosemary *1 tsp dried
1 TB fresh chopped chives *1tsp dried
1 tsp fresh chopped parsley *1/4 tsp dried
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
1 packet powdered or 1/4 tsp. liquid stevia
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast

Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir to coat.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to overnight.

Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Grill until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear.  Note: You can also broil in oven or pan fry in water or broth.  PS:  This would be great on a white fish and grilled.

Welcome fellow HCG-ers and some Greek Chicken!

Hello and welcome to Phases To Forever! 

Check out About Phases To Forever if you are unsure why you are here.

I am so happy you decided to come check it out and I hope you enjoy all the recipes and contect here.  This is a recipe website dedicated to the one's who have taken a big step to better there life and follow the HCG Diet Protocol.  I will be posting recipes that I haved tried and liked, maybe even a few I do not like!  I will also include some I see that will be on-protocol but have not tried just for the simple fact that I do not like to eat seafood....and many of you do! I also want to encourage comments with variations that you have tried and liked.  All of out taste buds are differant and I would loveto hear what you have done to change it to your liking. 

Have a recipe or recipe idea?  You may add your recipe in comments or if you would like me to post your recipe with credit going directly to you- email me and I will be happy to post on your behalf.

Let's all support each other during this time of "loss"!  Loss of  Pounds and Inches that is!
Now onto why you and I are both here.....FOOD!
This is my ultimate, favorite, saving grace recipe throughout this Phase 2 of life.  So it had to be the very first recipe I post.  Since it is the one I eat almost every day and by far the one I eat the most....for sure.

Greek Chicken
2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 cloves minced garlic
1 TB each fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano*
1 lemon- juiced
1 packet stevia

Marinate chicken for a few hours or overnight. Grill until juices run clear.  Enjoy!
*If all you have is dried herbs than reduce amount to 1 tsp. each, but fresh is awesome!
Note:  I have been grilling these up and eating them wrapped in baby romaine dipped with sea salt and black pepper.  I also like this with thin sliced Cucumber Salad....recipe to come...

Phase 3:  Add 1/4 C coconut or olive oil to the marinade.