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.
If you’re anything like me, you have a ton of leftover turkey after the holiday season and you’re looking for fun and creative ways to use it all up while staying on track with your weight loss plan during the holidays!
Don’t let your bird go to waste – it’s super easy to repurpose cooked turkey for a few more meals. If you have more than you can eat a few days after your holiday, place your carvings in a sealed container and freeze for future use.
Here are 3 Healthy Turkey Leftover Recipes to use for your next meal!
1. Shepherd’s Pie
Rather than cook another batch of ground turkey, use your already-cooked leftover turkey in my recipe for a healthy low-carb Not Your Momma’s Shepherd’s Pie. Add your cooked turkey to your onion and garlic mixture to the pan to warm your turkey. Bonus points if you have leftover Thanksgiving veggies such as carrots, green beans and other low-sugar veggies that would be yummy in this dish!
2. Low-Carb Turkey Tacos
Use your leftover turkey meat combined with your favorite low-sugar salsa for a spicy meat mixture using my Cauliflower Tortilla recipe. Add toppings such as shredded lettuce, a bit of cheese (yes, it’s allowed!), sour cream and tomatoes! If you can make these tortillas a day in advance and put them in the toaster to crisp them up the day of, they are perfect this way!
3. Middle Eastern Turkey & Carrot Stew
Use your leftover turkey in this Middle Eastern Turkey & Carrot Stew. Follow the recipe and instead of cooking a new batch of ground turkey, add your already-cooked leftover turkey to your stew mixture to warm up the turkey. If you have leftover carrots from your Thanksgiving dinner, use these up, too!
Do you have a fun idea on how to use your leftover turkey? I’d love to hear from you!
Original article and pictures take 17ddblog.com site
If you stuffed yourself with sweet potatoes over the holiday, no fear! Follow this 17 Day Diet 2-day detox plan to maximize weight loss post holiday feasting. Sign up below for your instant access downloadable PDF for printing.
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Original article and pictures take 17ddblog.com site
The chicken is marinated in an easy DIY teriyaki sauce — crushed pineapple, soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic — for as short as 30 minutes, or as long as overnight. Get the recipe.
You'll pound down (or butterfly) the chicken until it's thin and even. Then you'll wrap it around a mixture of spinach and cheese, and bake. It takes a bit of prep — but it's worth it. Get the recipe.
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bonappetit.com
Chicken is shredded and piled onto a cauliflower crust with enchilada sauce. (To make this gluten free, just swap store-bought sauce for an easy homemade version.) Get the recipe.
Vegetarian eating isn't for everyone, but if you're trying to eat less meat OR you're going meatless for the long haul, getting enough protein is super important.
Of course, how much protein you need differs from person to person depending on your size, activity level, and whatever your health and fitness goals might be. For these meals, we aimed for at least 15 grams as a good place to start when you're cutting meat (aka a big source of protein) out of your diet.
Also worth noting is that the 400-calorie limit here is mostly arbitrary: The goal is to show that you can be mindful about portion sizes, if that's your thing, but still get the protein you need to function and feel good. You can figure out how many calories you actually need throughout the day here.
Two tacos = 389 calories and 15.9 grams of protein. Nom nom nom.
Photograph by Yael Malka for BuzzFeed / Via buzzfeed.com
Unlucky is the vegetarian who forgets peas as an excellent source of protein. Assuming you split the batch into four servings, this soup has 400 calories and 24.8 grams of protein.
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Original article and pictures take www.buzzfeed.com site
