Chocolate Cherry Shake

This is an easy shake to make. It is almost as simple as the basic shake. Although I prefer 'real' flavors, this is ok for a winter time occasional break from the ordinary.

2 tablespoons cherry snow cone flavoring syrup

4 oz. water

1 scoop or envelope of chocolate shake powder

8 - 10 ice cubes

Make this the same way you make a basic chocolate shake, except add the flavoring syrup right away with the water. Add shake powder and ice cubes as usual.

Root Beer Float Shake

The second snow cone flavor I found was sugar-free root beer flavor. This makes a reasonably tasty root beer float flavor with the vanilla shake powder. I added a generous amount of flavoring, and it really was a root beer float flavor. I wonder if a half a can of diet root beer instead of the water and flavoring would give me the same result. I'll check that out, too, when the opportunity presents itself, and get back on that one.

2 tablespoons root beer flavoring

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

4 oz. water

8 - 10 ice cubes

Make the shake as usual, except, add the root beer flavoring with the water right at the beginning of the process.

Cherry Cheesecake Shake

This is the result of a shopping trip through the 'end of season' aisle at Shopko. Along with the snow cone and ice cream makers were the syrups that are used for making those things. There were 2 different kinds of sugar free syrups, including cherry flavor. They were half priced on clearance, so I decided to experiment. These syrups are pretty good. They aren't as strong or intense in flavor as the higher priced coffee syrups, but they are just fine for this type of shake. I used 2 tablespoons of this, rather than the 1 tablespoon or less I use of the Italian syrups.

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

4 oz. water

8 - 10 ice cubes

2 teaspoons jello cheesecake flavored SF, FF pudding powder

2 tablespoons cherry snow cone syrup

Add water and flavoring syrup to blender container. Start blending and add vanilla shake powder. Add cheesecake powder. Add ice cubes a couple at a time, and continue blending until the shake is the consistency you want.

Peach Melba, HMR Style

I am now moving into processed fruits and vegetable mode. Although I love fresh produce, I have to balance that with the cost to our family as well as the true cost of transporting fresh fruit and veggies from wherever it isn't snowing. I am using canned peaches and frozen raspberries for the fruit component of this Peach Melba dessert, and substituting the vanilla HMR shake for ice cream. This recipe makes two servings.

1 can of canned peaches in pear juice. Reserve 4 tablespoons of pear juice for making raspberry sauce

1/4 cup frozen raspberries (Fresh can also be used.)

1 teaspoon SF/FF raspberry jello mix. 

1 scoop vanilla HMR powder (I use the 120)

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

4 oz. cold water

10 - 12 ice cubes

2 teaspoons vanilla pudding powder, sugar & fat free (optional, for thicker texture)

Make the raspberry sauce first. Put the raspberries into a small saucepan, and crush them up. Add reserved juice from the canned peaches. Stir while heating. When they come to a light boil, add jello powder and stir to disolve.  Allow this mixture to cool while you make the rest of the dessert. Make the vanilla shake as usual, except add additional vanilla flavoring, and use less water and more ice cubes than usual. Add pudding mix if a thicker texture is preferred. Texture should be spoonable. Put about half of the vanilla shake into each small dessert bowl. Place 2 peach halves or 4 peach slices into the dessert bowl. Drizzle raspberry sauce over peaches and vanilla dessert, and eat immediately.

Legal Vegetable Soup

I really like soup. I especially like to find things that I think will go together well, and create my own homemade soup. In the past, that usually included doing things like sauteing onions in butter and adding cream, or oil or sausage. Well, I know I can't do THAT on this diet, so here's a cream, meat & butter free soup that is actually quite satisfying, but still fits into the guidelines of the 'at home' HMR diet. This makes a big pot of soup. I ate about two cups of soup, and figured out that it is between 120 & 140 calories for that size serving. It uses mostly canned and frozen ingredients, so it is fairly high in sodium, but that's not a terrible drawback for me, since my blood pressure is normal. I won't be eating this every day, and I think that's the balancing act everyone has to perform in healthy eating. If I had left out the garbanzo beans, it would have come in at about 100 calories per 2 cup serving, and if I'd eat the soup that way as an accompaniment to an entree, using 1 cup as my serving size, I could get it down to 45 - 50 calories. My family ate it with me, and even thought it was 'pretty good.'

1 Quart canned tomato juice (I thought about V8, but the tomato was on sale at the grocery store)

1 lb. frozen mixed vegetables

1 cup frozen seasoning mix vegetables (onions, peppers, parsley, celery)

1 tablespoon 'Better than Bullion' seasoning OR two cups worth of vegetable bullion

2 small or 1 large potato, cut into bite size cubes

Additional seasoning greens- parsley & basil were used, but dill, oregano, cilantro sage or whatever you like could be added or substituted

1 can drained garbanzo beans (black beans can be substituted for a dash of color if you prefer.)

1 - 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 to 2 cups additional water

Using a large soup pot, place the pot on medium high heat. Add and stir around the seasoning vegetables until they begin to brown, or until they begin to stick to the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring between each addition. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about an hour, or until potatoes are done.

Hot Chai, HMR Style

One of my favorite hot drinks is this vanilla chai. It's made quite simply with my Keurig brewer and the blender. It's also easy to make if you just wish to use a chai teabag, and hot water for the basic liquid. I use an 8 - 9 ounce cup of liquid for this and all of my hot drinks, since the ice cubes are not added to bring up the volume of liquid. I warm this for about 30 seconds in the microwave, but if you are using freshly brewed tea, it's not necessary unless you really like your tea piping hot.

1 cup (8 - 9 ounces) freshly brewed chai tea.

1 scoop vanilla HMR shake powder

Pour tea into blender. loosely cover, and run on low speed for a few seconds. Raise cover to add vanilla powder carefully. Add powder while still blending on low. Recover, and turn speed to medium or high. Pour into a tall mug and enjoy.

Success! Lemon Lime Shake

After several tries with jello and juice, I've finally gotten a good lemon lime shake. It's not yet a key lime pie flavor, but at least I'm past the curdled texture of previous attempts at citrus flavors.

1 or 2 envelopes of 'True Lime"

1 envelope of Truvia

1Tablespoon of lemon flavored pudding mix, sugar free & fat free

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

6 oz. water

8 - 10 ice cubes

Put water, Truvia and True Lime into blender. Stir on low speed. Add vanilla powder and lemon pudding mix. Add ice cubes one at a time until your desired consistency is reached. Since this has a pudding ingredient, it will thicken quite quickly. Pour into a tall glass and enjoy.

Baked Apples

There are lots of ways to eat apples. Here is one of the ways I like to make them so they can be part of a fancy meal. I have used Cortlands, Macintosh, Jonathans, and unidentified apples from a tree that a lady at church has. All are good. The Macs get a little mushy, but all of them taste great. Here's the recipe:

1 apple

1 tablespoon water

1/2 to 1 envelope Truvia

1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice (or a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg & allspice that you like.)

5 - 6 raisins

Wash and core the apple, and place it in a small bowl. I use a little glass apple dumpling bowl that I got from my mother. Pour the water over it. Then sprinkle on the Truvia and apple pie spice. Finally, put the raisins in the cup. I like putting a couple on top of the apple, and the rest in the core area, so they get a little plump from the water. Microwave on high for a minute and a half. If you like a softer apple, cook longer; for a firmer apple, cook for a shorter time.

This is not the apple dumpling bowl. As far as I remember, it is a dip container 

from an old chip and dip combo set I received . It works great, though!

What Doesn't Work

I've been doing fine on phase 1 of the diet. I've been kind of busy lately, so I haven't had as much time to experiment. I use the recipes I have been used to, and even just drinking plain vanilla shakes.

In my graduate work, I remember a professor reminding us that, while it's important to share the ideas that DO work, it's also important to share the ideas that DON'T work. In that spirit, here are some of the things that didn't work out so well for me:

1. Dry gelatin mix. I tried cherry jello mix with cheese cake pudding mix to create what I thought would be a cherry cheesecake flavor. The flavor was great, but the gritty texture was really unpleasant. Then, since I'm either an optimist or a person who doesn't learn from my mistakes, I tried the same dry gelatin mix idea to try to make a 'Key Lime Pie' flavor. Still gritty.

2. Lemon juice or lime juice. Still determined to get that key lime pie, I used some bottled lime juice. I think I used too much, and got a very sour shake. When I set it aside to get some sweetener, the whole shake curdled. I believe that's the only time I just gave up and threw the whole shake away. It was just plain gross.

3. Mixing flavors of HMR entree meals. I know it's supposed to work, but I think I'll just stick with one meal at a time. I only eat two entrees a day, anyway. I'd rather spread them out between two meals.

There are the big three. I'm sure there are more that I could share, but I'll save those for another day when I am out of fresh inspiration for new ideas that DO work.

Hot Carmel Chocolate

This is really easy to whip up with a packet of the Chocolate HMR 500. Although I don't like the clean-up associated with using a blender, I do like the frothy, light texture that it gives to hot drinks. I use caramel sugar free flavoring with this, but I think any favorite flavor would work. Try it with almond, vanilla and hazelnut flavored sugar free flavorings. Those flavors are generally available in the coffee section of larger grocery stores, and additional flavors are available online through many vendors.

1 packet or scoop chocolate shake powder

8 oz. room temperature water

1 Tablespoon sugar free caramel coffee syrup

Add syrup to water in blender container. Cover, and turn blender to low speed. As blender runs, slightly open blender and add chocolate powder to the mixture. Recover blender, and run at medium speed until frothy. pour into tall mug, and warm in microwave for 30 seconds to a minute. (50 seconds is perfect for me) Your drink will overflow the cup if you allow it to get too hot. 

Pumpkin Creme - Another Great Hot Drink

I always think of the 'pumpkin juice' from the Harry Potter books when I make this. It is borrowed & then changed from one of the HMR recipe sites. On that site, this is a cold shake. In my remake of the classic, I drink it hot. I tried it without the sweetener and even though I usually get along fine with things that are less sweet, this drink can use the extra touch of Truvia. I'm also not particularly accurate on the measurements, so change it up as you like for your own taste.

7 - 8 oz cool water

2 heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin

1/2 to 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 scoop vanilla powder

1/2 to 1 packet Truvia or other artificial sweetener

Put water into blender. Add pumpkin and spice. Blend on low speed until mixed. Add sweetener and vanilla powder. Blend on medium speed until frothy. Stop blender and pour drink into large mug. Heat in microwave until warm, about 50 seconds to a minute. Do not overheat.

Simple Salsa - Summer Memories

This is a great vegetable dish. No oils, sugars or dressings are needed beyond lime juice and salt, making it a low calorie accompaniment for anyone, particularly the HMR dieter.  I enjoy fresh vegetables in season. I probably won't make this again until next summer, but I can at least put the picture up to remind me of how tasty it is.

2 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

1 or 2 banana peppers (optional)

1 small onion

1/2 bunch cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice (I use bottled unless limes are really cheap)

1/2 can corn kernels, drained

1/2 can black beans, drained

salt

Chop all fresh vegetables to pieces the size of your little fingernail into a large bowl. Chop cilantro leaves into very small bits with a kitchen shears. Add to bowl. Add drained corn and black beans. Add salt to taste. If I am making it to last for a few meals, I wait to add the salt until just before eating. This keeps the vegetables from getting soft while it sits in the fridge. This recipe is very easy to double, and has hundreds of variations. Different kinds of tomatoes or peppers or additional garden vegetables will change the flavor.

Time for Hot Drinks! "Almond Joy" Cocoa Cream

While drinking my evening shake a couple of nights ago, I decided that a nice, warm drink before bedtime would be a welcome change at this time of the year. I looked up 'Hot Beverages' in my HMR Recipe Booklet, and found some good choices. I have, of course, done some variations that are quite tasty. I started out mixing my hot drinks with a fork, but found that the blenderizing makes a frothier drink, with fewer clumps of unmixed powder. (of course) I also like it better if I blend first, then gently heat in the microwave just to drinking temperature. Here's a variation that's similar to the candy bar shake of this summer:

7 to 8 oz. cool water

1 scoop vanilla 120 powder

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Put water and extracts  in blender. Run blender on low speed, adding vanilla powder and cocoa to the blender as it runs. Turn speed up to medium, blending until frothy. Pour drink into tall mug, and heat in microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. (My drink is perfect for me at 50 seconds.)

I personally find the chocolate powder too overpowering, and prefer the vanilla/cocoa combination. Chocoholics, however, may find the chocolate powder exactly what they crave. I also like the less sweet, faintly bitter flavor of this recipe, but my daughter thinks it tastes better with a half of a packet of Truvia. Obviously, do what you like to get it just right for your personal tastes.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Here is a recipe for carrot soup that has a few variations. This particular soup can be made a couple of ways, depending upon if you have the HMR chicken soup available or nonfat dry milk powder. I make this in tandem with the orange shake recipe, then put the finished soup in the fridge so I have it available to microwave for lunch. In the olden days, I used to make this with lots of butter and real half & half. The variation here is not quite as creamy, but using the immersion blender gives it a nice, smooth consistency, and I can live with that.

1 lb bag of baby carrots

1 small potato

1 onion, diced

6 to 10 basil leaves

2 tsp. "Better Than Bullion" vegetable stock

1 package HMR chilcken soup mix OR 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk mix

1 small green pepper and parsley (both optional)

Peel and cut potato into 1 inch chunks. Add baby carrots and potatoes to 2 cups of water in a soup pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until carrots are soft. Remove 6 -8 carrots, slice into rounds, and set aside. (At this point, I remove 6 additional carrots and 3/4 cup liquid for an orange shake if I want it.) Add onion and basil leaves. I have also added green pepper from the garden at this point, but that's optional. After all of the vegetables are very soft, remove a few pepper bits and larger onion pieces. Using the immersion blender, blend the remaining vegetables smooth. Add either the soup mix or nonfat dry milk to 1/2 cup of cool water, blending until smooth. Add this mixture and the vegetable stock to the soup, and heat, stirring well. You may wish to blend again after this step if you like your soup super smooth. Add reserved vegetables to the mix, and serve, or pack into a container for rewarming. Garnish with parsley.

Apple Pie & Ice Cream Shake

One of my favorite Fall flavors is apple. Since I may have any kind of fruit on this diet, I am sampling several apple varieties that are new to me. Incorporating apples into a shake, however, was a trickier business. The secret ingredient for this concoction is coconut extract. It gives a smooth, buttery flavor which gives the illusion of pie crust without the calories. I tried a couple of ways to make this using fresh apples, but I've fallen back on natural applesauce without sugar as the apple ingredient. Here's the recipe:

1 single serving natural applesauce (mine had apples and water as the only two ingredients)

1/4 teaspoon coconut flavoring

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 scoop vanilla shake powder

3/4 cup water

8 - 10 ice cubes

Add water, applesauce, cinnamon & coconut flavoring to blender container. Mix on low speed until ingredients are combined. Add vanilla shake powder and continue blending on medium speed. Add ice cubes, a couple at a time, until shake is the volume & consistency you like. Pour & serve.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I like soup, and I'm trying to stay within the boundaries of my HMR Phase 1 plan. That's 2 entrees, 3 shakes (or soup or hot cereal), and at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. I have gotten to kind of enjoy the chicken soup available on the plan, but I also wanted to use that soup as a base, and then see how I could change it up a bit. Here is my first attempt:

1 packet of chicken soup

1/2 cup tiny fresh broccoli florets, washed

1 teaspoon dehydrated onions, chopped

1/4 teaspoon chicken bullion granules (don't use if you're on a low sodium diet.)

pepper to taste

1 cup water, room temperature or warmer

Put the cup of warm water in a soup bowl. Add onions, and allow to sit for about five minutes. Add the tiny broccoli florets and microwave, lightly covered with waxed paper or a plate, for 3 to 4 minutes. Check broccoli for doneness. Continue to microwave in 1 minute intervals until broccoli is tender, and onions are rehydrated. Add water if it seems to be below 3/4 cup of water (or if you like a thinner consistency soup.) Add chicken bullion granules, stir to dissolve. Add chicken soup powder, and whisk until completely mixed. This is good to have with an entree when you feel like a special dinner. I like it as a first course, then lasagne and spinach or green beans, then a serving of fresh fruit salad or frozen berries with Truvia and a cup of decaf. Lots of variety, enough food to feel full, and no reason to feel like a food martyr.