Coconut Blueberry Muffin-Phase 3 Maintenance recipe

I have finely gotten an opportunity to start posting all my Phase 3 Recipes. I remember when I started maintenance how excited I was to start experimenting with coconut flour and almond meal.

I know that many of you have busy mornings with getting the kids ready for school and getting ready for work and you just don't have time to sit down and have breakfast in the morning. I know that for me I use to end up pulling through a fast food place to grab a biscuit or a muffin with my cup of joe. Well this is a simple solution! All it takes is one night a week when the kids are in bed. Having something like this on hand helps prevent falling back into bad habits.

For a standard size muffin about :100 cals, for Mini: 35 cals.

1/3 cup Coconut Flour
3 Eggs
1/4 cup Melted Butter
1/4 cup Sugar Substitute (liquid form, dissolve in water)
1/2 cup Blueberries or Raspberries
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
2-4 TBSP Unsweetened Apple Sauce

Oven set to 375
-Whisk Eggs together in a mixing bowl, slowly stream melted Butter while continuing to whisk Eggs.
-Once Butter is evenly incorporated add Salt and Vanilla Extract, mix well.
-Add liquid Sweetener
-Whisk to fully incorporate.

-In another mixing bowl, mix together Coconut Flour and Baking Powder.

-Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

-Add 1 TBSP at a time of Apple Sauce. You will want the consistency that will hold up the berries but not too thick. This will also help keep the muffins moist, because coconut flour tends to absorb all liquid.

-Gently mix berries and divide among muffin cups about 3/4 full.

-Bake for about 15-18 mins or until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

*I like to do them as mini muffins to help with not getting to much sweet stuff in my system, bake time will be slightly different.

ENJOY!

Beanless Chili- Phase 2

Now that the temperatures are starting to drop there is nothing I love more than a big bowl of Chili. My dad makes the worlds best chili! Unfortunately it is loaded with things that we can't have, brown sugar, beans galore, cheese...
Well all that doesn't mean that you can't have a healthy yet delicious version. I began thinking about my marinara recipe and started there. I love hot and spicy food so this was fun to develop.
Well I will not make you wait any further!

3 oz Beef : 117 cal, 3.5 oz Tomato Sauce:  60 cal

Ingredients

4 cloves of Garlic, minced and reserved

3 TBSP of finely chopped Chives

2 TBSP Fresh chopped Marjoram or 1 TBSP dried

2 TBSP Fresh chopped Sage or 1 TBSP dried

1 TBSP Fresh chopped Rosemary or 2 tsp of dried 

1TBSP Fresh chopped Oregano or 2 tsp of dried

1TBSP Dried Oregano

2 tsp Salt, divided

1 tsp Onion Powder, divided

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/2 tsp Sumac Berry, reserved

1/4 tsp Stevia

1/8 tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 TBSP Garlic Red Wine Vinegar or just Red Wine Vinegar

1 TBSP Liquid Aminos

1/4 tsp Liquid Smoke

about 3lbs of 96/4 Lean Ground Beef

2 Dried Ancho Chili Peppers, chopped with seeds

1 Large can of Tomato Sauce

1 15 oz can of Tomato Sauce

1 15 oz can of Tomato Puree

1 can of Rotel

1 can diced Tomatoes

1 6oz can of Tomato Paste

1 Large jug of V8 juice, do not use the low sodium it has sugar in it.

Sugar Free Chicken Stock

-In a large skillet brown beef in about 1/4 cup of chicken stock, add just a little salt.

-Once the beef is cooked through drain all fat and rinse under cold water, wipe pan of all grease.

-Place meat back in skillet and return to medium heat, add 1/4 tsp Salt, 1/2 tsp Sumac Berry, 1/4 tsp Onion Powder.

-Let cook for another 5-7mins

-In a crockpot on medium heat add all cans of Tomato Sauce, Puree, Paste, V8, Diced Tomatoes, Rotel.

-Add Chives, Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Marjoram, Cayenne, Chili Powder, Pepper, Cinnamon, Stevia, Vinegar, Aminos, and Liquid Smoke. 

-After meat has cooked, add to crockpot

-In the skillet add about 3 tbsp of Chicken Stock, add minced Garlic and Ancho Peppers with seeds. Cook for about 10 mins.

-Add cooked Garlic and Ancho Peppers to crockpot.

-Stir and leave closed on high heat for 2hrs, do not open.

-After 2 hours stir, let cook on high for an additional 2 hours.

-After 4 hours on HIGH, stir chili and turned down on medium for 3 hours, stirring every 1 1/2 hours.

After the 7 long hours in the crockpot grab a ladle and dip out some of this winter-time goodness. 

I like to dip my Grissini Breadstick in my chili.

*If you are on phase 3 sprinkle with a little cheese.*

**For Thicker chili add about 1 1/2 tsp of Guar Gum to thicken it up or subtract about 1/2 cup of V8 juice. 

Spicy Moroccan Shrimp- Phase 2

I love Shrimp but man do I get bored of having something the same way day after day. I am not afraid of spices and love to play around with different flavors. It's been rather rainy lately and I just wanted to mentally escape from the gray skies. Spices and food are such a great way to get away and enjoy a moment in a far away land.
Lately I have been craving foreign food; Greek, Mexican, Italian, Middle Eastern, you name it. I have really been wanting something spicy and different. I was watching my favorite network, Food Network, and it seemed like that day was Moroccan themed. So I decided to get inspired and make a Moroccan dish and since I pretty much eat fish every night I decided to go with shrimp.
Shrimp is a great fish for going a little wild with your flavors. It will taste pretty good anyway you flavor it.

2lbs of Shelled, Deveined, Precooked, Frozen Large Shrimp (I do frozen because it helps prevent the fish from sticking.)
3-4 cloves finely minced Garlic
4 tbsp Chicken Broth (Remember there is a specific type that we use)
2 tsp Paprika
1TBSP ground Coriander*
1TBSP Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Ginger
3/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Stevia
1/2 Lemon, reserve
More Chicken Stock, reserve

* Note* Now I know that not everybody has Ground Coriander in their spice cabinet, so you can substitute with an ADDITIONAL TBSP of Cumin and 1/8 tsp of Ground Clove.*

-Preheat oven to 400
- Mix all ingredients together in a small mixing bowl EXCEPT the RESERVED ingredients.
-On a large cookie sheet add a few tablespoons of Chicken Broth
-Evenly spread Frozen Shrimp on the Cookie Sheet
-Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon over all the Shrimp
-With a Rubber Basting Brush, evenly coat Shrimp
-Place in oven and bake for 18-20mins

Once you have served the shrimp spoon a few spoonfuls of the shrimp broth over your plate for additional flavor and enjoy.

I hope you enjoy this little escape to Morocco, I know I did!
I am currently working on my Phase 2 Beanless Chili, once that baby is complete I will post the recipe.
I have a ton of Phase 3 recipes that I am about to post too :)

Pistou Sauce-Phase 2

I love sauces and honestly it's hard to have sauces on phase 2 because most of them have oil. I also love pesto and in doing some research I found a french version of pesto called Pistou (sounds like Pea-stew, kind of looks like it too). If you know how to make pesto you know it has pine nuts and cheese but Pistou is pretty much the same but with out the nuts and cheese.

That being said here is the recipe:

1 cup roughly chopped fresh Basil
2 Cloves chopped Garlic
1/4 cup Chicken Stock
1/4 tsp Lemon Pepper
1/8 tsp Pepper
Salt to taste
a Pinch or two of Guar Gum

In a food processor at everything except the chicken stock and puree. Once everything is finely chopped add the chicken stock a little at a time and pulse. Once you reach the desire consistency your down.

I love this sauce, I put it on chicken, cod, beef, and in my marinara or tomato soup.

Cucumber Kanikama- Phase 2

MMMMMM.... Now my one of my favorite types of food is Japanese sushi and I have a favorite Sushi spot on the northside if town. I like sushi but my biggest draw to this particular sushi place is their Cucumber Kanikama salad. I love it! When I go that is pretty much all I get...okay I lie I get a Spicy Chicken Roll too :)

So I decided that it couldn't be that hard to figure out their recipe for the dish, Cucumber and Crab were a given but what else. I figured that they probably used some soy sauce and maybe rice vinegar but what else. Well a little call to the restaurant and I found out what that other ingredient was, sesame seed oil! Well most of those components are not allowed but luckily they are easily substituted.

3 oz Crab Meat: 61 calories, Cucumber: 45 calories

Onto the components:
-1 Large Cucumber, sliced or diced
-3oz of Crab meat (if you are not using fresh crab find some that is not vacuum sealed in sugar)
-Prepared Kanikama Sauce (see kanikama sauce page: http://hcgfoodrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/08/kanikama-sauce.html)

Mix all together and wallah!
Up next: Pistou Sauce

Lemon Tilapia-Phase 2

I'm not a real tilapia fan but it happens to be my mom's favorite fish. She eats this about 3 nights a week :) It's a great quick and easy dish to make on the fly.

Set your oven to 375 

Grab a baking sheet

I know that during phase 2 the hardest part it food not sticking to your baking pan. There are two way around this challenge, 

1st- squeeze a lemon over your pan and slice a lemon and place fish on top

2nd- Pour about 1/4cup of chicken or fish broth on baking sheet.

For this recipe I am going with the second method.

3oz Tilapia: 82 calories

After placing the fish over the broth season with:

-Dried lemon peel

-Cracked pepper

-Sea Salt

-Oregano

-Marjoram

-Basil

Cook for 15-20mins

I like to squeeze a lemon wedge over the fish once it's done cooking.

Enjoy! Up next Cucumber Kanikama

Beef & Broccoli Stir fry-Phase 2

I know many people love Chinese food, here is another great Chinese dish!

Hope it hits the spot!

3oz Beef: 175 calorie, 3.5oz Broccoli: 33 calories

Here ya go...
-2 cups Broccoli florets
-1/2lb Beef Sirloin steaks, thinly sliced
-2TBSP Liquid Aminos
-2 Cloves Garlic, minced
-1tsp Onion Powder
-1TBSP fresh chopped Parsley
-a few tablespoons of Chicken Broth

>In a large skillet, or wok, put a few tablespoons of chicken stock and saute beef until brown.

> Add garlic, onion powder, broccoli, parsley, and liquid aminos

> Saute until well done

And presto, your dinner is complete :)

If you are not a beef fan, substitute the beef with chicken.

Up next Lemon Tilapia