Tasty diet chicken recipe & a little check in.

I mentioned lately on Instagram I may start blogging how I'm cooking my boring diet food and some friends seemed interested, so here I am ready to share!

To recap... I'm on an intense diet right now.  I'm only consuming 800 calories a day (under Doctor and Nutritionist supervision!) and receiving weekly HCG/B12 injections in addition to taking B vitamins 3x a day.  I've completed 18 days of the diet and have 66 days left to go.  While on the diet I should lose 1/2-1lb a day.

Week 1 I lost 6.2lbs.
Week 2 I lost 5lbs.

I've also lost a lot of inches in 2 weeks... 2.5" off my stomach, 1/2" off each arm, 3" off my bust and breasts, 1-2" off each leg (like, literally I'm losing more from one leg than the other - ha!)... it's been great and the loss and daily visible changes keeps me highly motivated!

Here's my initial picture taken 2 weeks ago today and my week 1 picture taken 1 week ago today (another one being taken tonight - yay!).

Can you tell a difference in just 1 week?

And this is my face after 10 days.  Lots of differences!

please excuse my wild, crazy hair on the right. it was curly so the pony tail was all wobber-jawed.

So my daily eating looks like this...

Breakfast: 1 egg
Lunch: 5oz lean protein (fish, chicken or tuna usually) and 3.5oz vegetable (mostly green)
Snack: 1 piece of fruit (usually a bartlett pear)
Dinner: 5oz lean protein and 3.5oz vegetable
Snack: 1 piece of fruit or 1 cup grapes/melon or 1/4 cup berries
+ a TON of water

I can't use any "yummy" things on chicken like BBQ sauce and I've limited my sodium intake astronomically.  I still want my Diet Coke as a treat for the 3 liters of water I drink each day, so I've tried to cut salt completely.  This has made cooking really challenging because I LOVE eating and I LOVE flavor (obviously!).  So I've really been flexing my culinary and healthy muscles and working to find ways to make food delicious without salt or using too much sodium.

...On a sidenote I was SO pumped to try Mrs. Dash which is a sodium free seasoning after day 1 and rushed to the store to get some... yah, I was so disappointed because without salt food is just... dry!

But I'm trying to remedy that.  I've learned using low sodium broths can help with my cooking and here's a go-to chicken recipe I use several times a week.

Ingredients 
1/2 cup low sodium fat free chicken broth
1/2 bay leaf
pepper
garlic powder
5 oz chicken (or whatever you're eating)

First, I pour the broth and a little water in the pan.  Then I cover the chicken with pepper and garlic powder (seriously, I COVER!  These seasonings are strong so they help with the no salt thing).  Then, place the chicken in the pan and top with your half bay leaf torn in half.  Cover and let simmer.

After a few minutes I check my fluids and notice they're running low from that steaming business.  So, I cut my chicken into pieces with my spatula to cook faster and pour in a little more water.  Then simmer covered a few more minutes.

Once you notice your chicken isn't pink inside I remove the lid.  The fluids are usually gone by none and your starting to smell that burned smell from your pan (yay! Dishes will require scrubbing!).  I then let the chicken brown up and get a little crispy off that burned stuff so it's slightly caramelized.  This helps!

Then push onto a plate sans bay leaves and enjoy!  You could also bake chicken this way at 350* for 45 minutes, but anytime you bake chicken, let it stand 5 minutes so the juices redistribute!  Baking chicken has been my go-to this weekend because it's a little crunchier.

And, if you must, salt that chicken.  It's hard to quit cold turkey but any cut back and water increase will help you with water weight and reaching your goals!