Chicken Pot Pie

Comfort food cravings are a thing of the past with this delicious dish. Creamy chicken soup makes a warm and tasty base while a few healthy vegetables and flavorful chicken round out this classic. This will definitely be a repeat on my table.

Ingredients:
6 oz. chicken breast
1/4 cauliflower head, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 package of frozen chopped broccoli
1/2 cup cream of chicken soup (I used the cream of chicken protein packet)
1 slice of light bread
Seasonings to taste (I used garlic powder and red pepper flake)
Butter cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F.

Lightly coat a non-stick pan with butter cooking spray. Place over medium-high heat. Season both sides of the chicken with preferred seasonings. Sear in pan for 3 minutes. Flip chicken and place in oven. Roast chicken for 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, steam vegetables until tender. Measure out 4 oz. of cooked vegetables for the pie. Take one slice of bread and remove crusts, if desired. Using a rolling pin, flatten the bread.

Once chicken has finished roasting, remove from pan and cut into bite-size pieces. Place pan used for roasting over medium-high heat. Add soup, and mix with water until desired consistency is reached. Be sure to get all the bits off the bottom of the pan. Add vegetables and chicken to soup. Mix until well combined.

Pour chicken-vegetable mixture into oven-safe bowl. Top with flattened bread and spray bread with butter spray. Place in oven until bread is toasty and brown.

Serves 1
Dinner for Meta Slim Plus Level 2

Creamy Stir-Fry

This dish was born from a need to use leftovers and a desire to have something creamy. I haven't really had a lot of creamy dishes as dairy is rather limited on my plan. But this is very reminiscent of a hamburger helper type of dish, but without all the sodium and preservatives. Very yummy indeed.

Ingredients:
8 oz. of ground meat (I used a combination of ground buffalo and ground chicken breast)
10 oz. of green vegetables (I used green peppers and broccoli)
4 oz. of cream of chicken soup (I used the MRC soup supplement)
2 tsp. of garlic powder
2 tsp. of red pepper flake
Cooking spray


Directions:
Lightly coat a pan with cooking spray. Heat over medium-high heat. Add ground meat to pan, and season with 1 tsp. of garlic powder and 1 tsp. of red pepper flake. Brown until cooked through. Remove meat from pan.

Lightly coat pan with more spray. Return to medium-high heat. Add green vegetables to pan, and season with remaining teaspoon of garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Saute vegetables until lightly browned. Add a splash of water to the pan and steam vegetables until tender and all water has evaporated. Remove vegetables from pan.

Add cream of chicken soup to pan. Thin with water until desired consistency is reached. Stir until hot. Add meat and vegetables back to pan and combine with soup.

Serve with melba toast.

Serves 2
Dinner for Meta Slim Plus - Level 2

Fruit Sashimi

I created this dish for a brunch I had. I wanted something pretty and sweet. And I like making dishes that look like something else. What's better than making something that looks like sashimi, one of my favorite dishes.

Ingredients:
3 apple (I used honey crisp)
1 container of cantaloupe chunks
1 container of watermelon chunks
lemon juice
2 tbsp. honey (optional - do not use if following MRC)


Directions:
Peel the apples. Using a box grater, shred the apples on all sides, avoiding the core. Put apple shreds in a bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep apple shred from turning brown. Add honey if using, and stir to combine.

Slice thin, wide strips of cantaloupe and watermelon, avoiding any seeds. Pile a small mound of apple shreds on a plastic spoon and top with melon slice.

1 Serving = 3 spoons
Lunch for Meta Slim Plus - Level 2

Seasoned Tilapia with Cauliflower-Bean Mash

Seasoned Tilapia

Ingredients:
12 oz. tilapia filets
Seasoning to taste (I used garlic powder and red pepper flake)
Cooking spray
Tabasco sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 F.

Season both sides of the tilapia with preferred seasonings. Lightly coat a pan with cooking spray. Heat over medium-high heat. Cook one side of the tilapia for 2 minutes until browned. Flip the tilapia and put the pan in the oven for 20 minutes.

Serves 2
Lunch or Dinner for Meta Slim Plus - Level 2


Cauliflower-Bean Mash

Ingredients:
1/2 head of cauliflower
1/2 cup of dry navy beans
Seasoning to taste (I used garlic powder, red pepper flake, black pepper, and a dash of sea salt)
Butter spray

Directions:
Rinse beans thoroughly. Place in a crock pot and cover with 2 cups of water. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Chop cauliflower into chunks. Place in a pot and cover with water. Bring water to a boil and boil for 10 minutes or until fork tender. Drain water and mash cauliflower with a potato masher. Add beans with cooking liquid to cauliflower. Mash mixture together until smooth. Add seasonings and butter spray. Stir until well blended.

Serves 2
Dinner for Meta Slim Plus - Level 2

Small Victories

So, this isn't a recipe, but I just wanted to give a short report on how things are going on the MRC plan.

Things are going great. I actually feel like the amount of food I have to consume is a little too much, but the program is working. I'm sticking with what they tell me. Today, I'm celebrating one of the small victories. I reached the first milestone: 10 lbs. I've dropped 11 lbs. since I began on January 7, and I'm feeling great.

A few of the things I'm trying to do outside of the plan to maintain a healthy lifestyle are:

1. drinking dandelion tea as it promotes healthy liver function
2. of course, keeping this blog to help me have a place to come back for some foods I really enjoyed
3. getting my home in order - I don't want to be lazy about my home anymore
4. taking the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood in the morning - they so enjoy it, and it's good for them to get some new smells
5. biking and strength training - while the plan calls for walking as the recommended exercise, a foot injury isn't allowing me to do that, so non-impact biking and some strength training will be the key to my toning needs

I'm really excited about my progress thus far. This time, it feels a lot different then all the many other times I've tried to do it on my own. This time, I have a support team. I'm not just winging calorie counting, Atkins, or any of the other "do it yourself" diets. I'm doing it myself, but I've got backup helping me get through it and walking with me down the path to help me not go astray. It will be a long journey, but the small victories are going to get me to the end.

Hopefully, I'll have another recipe soon. I'm doing tilapia with a cauliflower-bean mash tonight, so I'm hoping that will make an appearance tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it will be delicious.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Warm and satisfying, this soup really takes care of a cheese craving while not completely wrecking my meal plan. I didn't even miss the milk and flour usually found in traditional cheese soups.

Ingredients:
8 oz. broccoli, chopped
3 oz. shard cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup of chicken broth (I used the chicken bouillon supplement pack for this recipe)
Seasoning to taste (I used garlic powder, red pepper flake and black pepper)

Directions:
Place broccoli in a shallow pan. Cover with water and bring to a simmer. Simmer broccoli until tender.

Meanwhile, place a pot, lightly coated with butter cooking spray, over medium low heat. Place shredded cheese in pot. Stir frequently as it begins to melt. When mostly melted, slowly stir chicken broth into cheese. Stir soup until smooth. Add broccoli and seasonings and heat through.

If eating for lunch, add your favorite fruit to the side. If eating for dinner, add a slice of toast or melba toast to the side.

Serves 1
Lunch or Dinner for Meta-Slim Plus - Level 2

Eggplant Pizza with Roasted Pepper Sauce

I'm so pleased with how well this little dish turned out. I was having a mad pizza craving, and this really hit the spot. The eggplant is such a meaty vegetable that I didn't even miss not having meat on my pizza. And the ooey-gooey cheese is really fulfilling.

Ingredients:
1 green pepper
2 oz. eggplant, diced
3 oz. hard cheese, grated (I used a mix of swiss and sharp cheddar)
1 low calorie tortilla
Seasonings to taste (I used garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper flake, Italian seasoning, a touch of sea salt)
Tabasco sauce
Cooking spray

Directions:
Coat a sheet pan with cooking spray. Lightly spray pepper with cooking spray. Put under the broiler and broil until skin is blackened, turning to blacken all sides. Remove from oven and place in a sealed container for 20 minutes. Peel the blackened skin from the pepper. Remove seed core. Place pepper in food processor. Add Tabasco sauce to taste and preferred seasoning to taste. Pulse grind until smooth.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Chop eggplant and place pieces in a bowl. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Add seasonings and mix well.

Add cooking spray to a non-stick pan and heat over medium heat. Heat tortilla on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Place tortilla on a sheet pan. Spread a layer of pepper paste over the tortilla. Top with eggplant chunks. Add more pepper paste on top of eggplant. Top with grated cheese (3 oz. may be too much for the size of this pizza, so if there is some left over, eat it as a snack).

Place pan in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until cheese is nicely melted.

Enjoy!

Serves 1
Dinner for Meta-Slim Plus - Level 2