Garlic Chicken

This is a recipe I found in a Crock Pot cookbook that was given to me for Christmas.  I changed a few things around, and cooked it in the oven since I didn't give myself the 6 hours called for in the recipe!

Garlic Chicken

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• Most of a head of garlic, peeled but left cloves left whole
• Chicken stock
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Parsley flakes

Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides and brown in a sprayed pan (I used olive oil spray).
Put celery and garlic cloves in the bottom of your crock pot or baking dish (with a lid).
Once chicken is brown, put it on top of the celery and garlic, then deglaze pan with chicken stock.  Add oregano and parsley flakes to stock and stir to combine.  I used about a Tbsp of each, but make it to your taste.
Pour chicken stock over chicken/celery/garlic, it should surround the chicken, but not cover it.
Bake at 350F for about 3 hours or crock pot on low for 6 hours depending on your time allotted.

My husband smeared the garlic cloves on toasted bread and happly munched away.  Since I'm still in phase 1 of SB I ate them seperately and they were delicious!

Preparation

I took these pictures on my cell, so they are not the best quality...

In a post a while back, I added the recipe for Flax Pancakes.  While doing Phase 1 of South Beach, I usually eat these for breakfast because I am not an egg lover.  The only problem I have is that when I get up in the morning, I don't want to cook anything, I just want to eat and enjoy my coffee.  So, I decided the best way to success for me was going to be preparation!  I prepared 7 days worth of flax pancakes!  I ate one batch and froze the other 6.  To make it easier for me to separate them I put two pancakes together then put wax paper around them and stacked all 12 pancakes into a gallon Ziploc bag.  Now, when I wake up, I can groggily go grab two pancakes and toast them in the toaster oven, add some natural peanut butter and sugar free syrup and eat!  Also, I don't have a pan to clean every morning. 

For this week batch, I used 1 carton of egg beaters (Kroger brand) and 1 egg plus the other ingredients.  I found that the carton had a little more than the 12 eggs, so that's why only the 1 extra egg.

I also decided to make up a bunch of salads that I can easily eat for lunch.  Given the choice between making a salad and grabbing whatever is easiest, guess which I'd usually choose?

I saw this great idea on Pinterest!  I poured in about 1 Tbsp of sugar free raspberry dressing, then put in a mixture of kidney beans and black beans, shredded chicken (I cooked this in the crock pot over night on low for about 10 hours in a water/chicken broth mix), diced celery, and chopped Romain lettuce.  I usually enjoy radishes on my salads, but I didn't buy any at the store this week, maybe next time...

Here's the salad platted.  It was plenty of food to fill me up and satisfy me at lunch time.

I hope you find these to be helpful tips!

Cathy's Beany Muffins

Cathy's beany muffins

Bean Muffins, Phase 1 (or any Phase)
Here are the recipes for the bean muffins. Try a sweet version first and then you can experiment with more. As I told everyone on TOB--we love them. I am having one right now with my coffee--a banana pecan one. It is really important to fully blend the beans so that they can't be seen at all. My Braun blender works really well, but some people use a food processor. I like the blended version better because I can't even see that there are any beans in it. Really blend them well--see my directions below.

Suggestions about recipes:
--Store these in the refrigerator or freeze them. They are perishable! I freeze them and we just take out one when needed from the freezer bag.
--for better flavor/texture: use large eggs, not extra large or jumbo size. Also see my note about using egg whites and one whole egg for those who are watching egg intake.


Recipelover’s Basic Sweet Version Muffin recipe:

1 can Great Northern or cannelini beans, drained, rinsed well, drained
4 large eggs (or 1 whole egg & 4 egg whites) or (egg substitute)
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt flavors of your choice (spices or extracts) See below
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 T. oil
scant 3/4 c. Splenda
optional for added texture: 1/4 c. flaxmeal or ground nuts
(in Phase 2, you could add a little whole wheat pastry flour)
Combine all ingredients in the blender (suggested order--2 eggs, beans, rest of ingredients and last 2 eggs) and process until smooth. Pour into muffin tin; bake at 350 for about 25-30 min. or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. It makes about 7 muffins.

My additional notes: I usually make two batches with two different flavors so that I fill up a muffin pan. I use maybe 2 custard dishes to use up the remaining batter. Or, now I use muffin top pans and I love how the muffins turn out--more like a cookie.

Flavor Variations: add these in the middle of the mixture in the blender

Cinnamon Spice Muffin:
--1 tsp. cinnamon or pie spice mix
--fresh ground nutmeg (we love it)
--chopped walnuts
--(could add some dried apple chopped up)


"Mock" Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin--1 tsp. lemon extract
--some freshly grated lemon peel (maybe 1 T.)
--1 tsp. poppy seeds
Banana Nut Muffin--1 tsp. banana extract
--1/4 tsp. vanilla
--freshly grated nutmeg (1/2 tsp.?)
--chopped pecans or walnuts

Orange Apricot/Cranberry Muffin (Phase 2 with fruit)--1 tsp. orange extract
--about 1 T. grated orange rind
--few grinds of freshly grated nutmeg
--1 tsp. vanilla
--cut up slivered almonds
--a few chopped dried apricots, cranberries or cherries

Raspberry Almond Muffins--1 tsp. McCormick raspberry extract (new in stores)
--1/2 tsp. almond extract
--few grinds of freshly grated nutmeg
--1 tsp. vanilla
--cut up slivered almonds
--For Phase 2: a few chopped dried cranberries or cherries


Chocolate Almond: almond extract and a little cocoa powder, almond slivers
Pina Colada: coconut extract, pineapple extract, coconut (I use unsweetened) and pecans
Butter Rum: rum extract, butter extract, pecans
Chocolate Peppermint: peppermint extract, cocoa powder and walnuts
Orange Pineapple: orange extract, pineapple extract
I just keep combining extracts for new flavors.

Flax Pancakes

I can't take credit for these delicious low carb pancakes.  I got them from a great friend, who I believe also got them from a friend, so I don't know the origin and can't give credit where it is do. 
They aren't pretty, but they are delicious!  I like to have mine with 2 tsp peanut butter and some sugar free syrup!  My DD (4) also likes them, although I use regular syrup on hers.

Flax Pancakes
2 eggs
4 Tbsp ground flax
1 tsp baking powder
2 packets splenda
a dash of vanilla extract
a dash of salt

Mix it all together and cook in a small frying pan like you would pancakes.  You can either make one giant one or two smaller ones.  Then enjoy with sugar free syrup and either butter or my favorite peanut butter!

I am not a big fan of eggs, so these pancakes are a great way for me to have eggs for breakfast without thinking about it too much.