Foodie Friday:PF Chang Lettuce Wrap

Here is another yummy carb free dinner! We were craving some Chinese and this really hit the spot for us to the point that I was craving it again a few days later. 17 day diet Cycle 1 Carb free!

PF Chang Lettuce Wrap-Carb Free

Talented Terrace Girls

Pam to spray the pan
2 ground Turkey (original recipe said chicken breast) 
1 cup diced celery
2/3 cup mushroom 
1/4-1/2 C. chopped onions 
2 tsp minced garlic) 
4 -5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce
1/4 C. sugar (4 packets of truvia or any sugar substitute you use)
1/2 C. hot water
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar 
2 tbsp sugar free ketchup 
1 tbsp lemon juice 
1/8 tsp sesame oil 
1 tbsp hot mustard (I omit) 
2 tsp water 
1 -2 tsp garlic and red chile paste

Stir-fry sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce 
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

 Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil. Mix well and set to the side until you ready to serve. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps. I didn't use the hot mustard so I just used hot water to mix everything and pour that over my wraps. 
 Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Cook the meat. Remove chicken from the pan and dice or just pull the ground turkey out. Mince celery and mushrooms to about the size of small peas. 
 Add meat, garlic, onions, water clery and mushrooms to the pan. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups". 
Top with"Special Sauce".

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

Wild Card Wednesday: Chicken Mushroom & Green Beans

Recipe to follow is carb free and 17 day diet Cycle 1 friendly!

This is Teresa! My husband and I are still trying to do the 17 day diet. It is lots of veggies, chicken, fish sometimes red meat depending on the Cycle you are in, more fruit and a truck load of yogurt! It has been interesting to see myself full without carbs :( I really miss those (we have been cheating a lot with birthday parties and church events but we are still trying to not eat carbs after 2 like the book teaches) 

When my husband and I followed the diet really well the first 2 weeks he lost 10 lbs and I lost almost 6. Nice to lose quick and actually see some results to keep you motivated.

This recipe was super easy and had a little tiny kick which was a nice change.  I got this recipe from a real simple magazine years ago and was too scared to try it cause I used to hate mushrooms but they are finally growing on me. 

Chicken Mushroom and Green Beans 

Talented Terrace Girls 

                    3-4 chicken breasts                            3 Tbsp Olive oil                                       

                    3/4 tsp dried thyme                            2 cloves garlic finely chopped, and 12 whole cloves                                                                    

                    1/4 tsp red pepper flakes                   1 small navel orange or clementine                                                        

                    1 1/4 tsp kosher salt                          3/4 lb green beans trimmed                                                         

                    1/2 tsp black pepper                         1 10 oz pkg button mushrooms, quartered                                                           

                         

                         Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place Chicken in a roasting pan. In a small bowl, combine the thyme, red pepper, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Brush chicken with 1 1/2 Tbsp of the olive oil (or skip like I did). Rub the seasonings and the 2 cloves of Garlic Chopped onto the chicken. Arrange the whole garlic cloves and orange slices around the chicken. I didn't have clove garlic so i dropped 1/2 tsp amounts of the bottle diced garlic it might not has been as great. Roast until the chicken is cooked through, 35-40 minutes.  Meanwhile, place the green beans and mushrooms on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with the remaining oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast until the mushrooms are cooked through, and the beans are lightly browned, stirring once, about 15 minutes.  (We used frozen beans, they were not as good as fresh were.)                                           

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

Foodie Friday-Stuffed Chicken Marsala

Well I never thought I would have such good carb free eating!! I LOVE my carbs but need to lose a few too many pounds and so the diet we decided to do was the 17 day diet. It is a hard one but worth it when you do it right and the weight drops quick for you. It is also nice that going carb free isn't super new to the world so we had some insight to help us out :) Another helpful thing for us is that "The Doctors" did a show about the 17 day diet and challenged people to join just this year so their website has tons of help and recipes. YAY for making me think less. With this diet being so strict and carb free completely (but limited fruit is allowed) you sometimes just miss a comfort meal. This was our comfort meal and boy were we happy to eat it. Lets just say I grew up hating salads so we can't eat salads day in and out if my husband wants to live through this.  This recipe is totally created by NOT ME!! but by my loving husband who likes to cook. 

This is a 17 day diet Cycle 1 recipe 

Stuffed Chicken Marsala

Dice desired amount of mushrooms, and onions, saute in a pan with some garlic and 1 Tbsp olive oil.

Then in the same pan add 

1-1 1/2 C. low sodium chicken broth

1/2 C. Marsala cooking wine

1-2 Tbsp dried oregano

bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes. Mix 1 Tbsp of cornstarch with a little bit of cool water and mix into the "gravy". Simmer another 10 minutes until thickened. 

While your sauce is simmering cook your chicken breast on a skillet with a little Italian seasoning on top. Cut your chicken down the center length wise but not all the way through only cut it 2/3 across so it is still connected and you can STUFF it :) 

Separate the sauce and the (chunks) the mushrooms and onions. Easily done with a slotted spoon. The veggie mixture gets stuffed into the chicken sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and place into the oven on broil until the cheese melts

Then pour the sauce over the chicken and potatoes.

Now the "Mashed Potatoes" cause we are carb free those are.......... yes you know what they are..... name that white vegetable.....

Cauliflower! I know people are using this great versatile veggie for many things (we are at our house recipes to come). 

The one tip I discovered was DON'T add any LIQUID to the mashing they become way way too runny. I added a little chicken broth and boy was that a mistake. Just whip them to death add some seasonings if you like. We added onion powder and garlic powder.

Add some steamed broccoli and you are ready to go.

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties: