30 Minute Skillet Chicken Caprese for the 17 Day Diet
Here’s a cheesy chicken recipe that is perfect for any cycle of the 17 Day Diet. The combination of chicken, cheese and tomatoes along with the herbs and heat of cayenne pepper, make for a perfectly tasty, yet healthy meal!
30 Minute Skillet Chicken Caprese
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp herbes de provence
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 thick slices low-fat mozzarella cheese
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup basil leaves, chiffonade
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a small prep bowl, combine herbes de provence, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper.
Season the chicken breasts on both sides.
Set a large oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and sear on both sides until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side.
Place skillet into preheated oven and bake until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees, about 20-22 minutes.
Remove from the oven and top the chicken breasts with cheese, return to oven and broil 2-3 minutes or until melty. Remove and top with tomatoes and basil, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve immediately.
Yields 3 Servings
Approved for all cycles.
This recipe is easy to adjust for a family of 4. Add in an extra chicken breast and slice of cheese and increase all other ingredients by just a bit.
3 Reasons Keeping a Food Journal Helps You Lose Weight
When it comes to losing weight, it’s no secret keeping a written record in a daily journal is one of the main ingredients to your weight loss success, especially with the 17 Day Diet.
Sure, you can use the latest app to keep track of food intake, fitness activity and caloric intake, but there’s something really special about putting pen to paper. Yes, an old-fashioned food journal can be one of your best tools for losing weight!
Your brain processes ideas, thoughts, and new information in a different way when writing with a pen and paper as opposed to typing into an app or spreadsheet.
Here are 3 reasons keeping a written food journal helps you lose weight:
1. Keeps You Focused
When you keep a written journal, you’re focused on a single task – keeping track of your weight loss progress. Making journaling a daily habit and a priority, not only keeps you focused on your goals, but also de-clutters your mind so you can use your brain power to focus your energy on the task at hand.
Recording your food intake at each meal keeps you focused on eating healthy, and also keeps you mindful during those times when you get off track.
When you spend your time journaling, you’re keeping your focus on the things that matter most.
It’s super easy to lose track of what you’re doing and how you’re feeling, but if you stick with your daily journal entries, you suddenly have a strategy for success. Keeping a journal will help you reach your goals by staying focused and keeping your healthy lifestyle goals “top of mind”!
2. Keep a Written Record for Review and Troubleshooting
If you don’t recall that piece of chocolate cake you ate last week, along with the trip through drive thru for lunch three times in the same week, it might be a bit more difficult to troubleshoot why you gained three pounds.
Keeping a written log of all of your food intake, even the lunches out or those few pieces of candy, allows for a logical explanation of why you’re experiencing certain results.
I remember a reader coming to me complaining that she suddenly stopped losing weight and she couldn’t figure out why. She swore up and down she hadn’t eaten anything “off plan”, so it really puzzled her to no end.
I had her go back to review her food journal, and come to find out, she noticed she stopped eating as much protein as she had the prior week. We determined that the reduction of healthy protein actually kept her from losing pounds.
She quickly increased her protein intake, continued to log in her journal entries, and within days, she was back on track.
If not for her daily food journal, she probably would have gone weeks eating the same and still trying to figure out why the scale stopped moving.
Keeping a written food log to review on occasion will not only give you clues as to why you’re losing weight so you can keep up the same eating habits, but will also give you the exact data to troubleshoot why your weight loss has stalled so you can quickly fix it.
3. Keeps You Accountable and Successful
OK, maybe the third reason is a two-for-one, but when you hold yourself accountable, you will find success. It’s inevitable.
When you commit to journaling not only your food and water intake, but also writing down your daily/weekly goals, the simple act of “writing stuff down” will give you a greater chance of success. Acknowledging certain actions, goals, aspirations, etc., makes it suddenly “real”.
When you write down the fact that you had a bowl of ice cream for dessert, you’ve held yourself accountable to the fact that you had a bowl of ice cream for dessert. Sometimes we “forget” that we had a slip up here, or a bite of something there, because let’s face it, life’s busy.
When you stop to write every single thing down, you suddenly have become accountable not only to your journal, but to yourself.
When there’s accountability, there’s success. A daily food journal is a great way to hold yourself accountable so you see progress in the written form.
The Simply Me Daily Food Journal is Designed for the 17 Day Diet
Journaling is one of the main keys to weight loss success. If you’re looking to start journaling as part of your weight loss plan, or if you want to try a new food journal created specifically for the 17 Day Diet, check out my new daily food journal called Simply Me. It’s available in paperback on Amazon.
Simply Me is a daily food journal for the 17 Day Diet. This journal takes you on a daily journey for one complete round of Cycles 1, 2 and 3.
Easily keep track of your food intake with daily checklists along with room to record your daily food, water and green tea consumption.
Keep track of your daily fitness activity and optional daily stats such as weight, cholesterol and more.
