Beth's Cheesy Italian Chicken - Low Carb

Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
8 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cups low sugar spaghetti sauce
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix 6 oz of mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, seasoning, and egg in a bowl. Set aside. Place chicken breast on its side, cutting a deep slit into the middle of the breast. Fill slit with mixture, overflow is okay. Bake in a casserole dish for 40 minutes. Take out of oven, and pour spaghetti sauce over the top (use extra if you like). Sprinkle remaining mozzarella over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Serves 4.

To make this recipe, I used the lasagna cheese mixture from my mother-in-law's pasta recipe, but since there is no pasta allowed on the South Beach diet (at least in Phase 1), I decided to substitute chicken breast instead. Figuring out how to put the mixture inside the chicken breast was tricky. I thought about pounding the meat flat and doing a roll, but the chances of the cheese mixture leaking out was almost inevitable. So, I cut the chicken length-wise, and then set it split side up, so that the cheese stayed in place. The garlic and seasoning gave the dish a lot of flavor. I served it with a fresh green salad. YUM. And, it goes wonderful with a half glass of red wine.

Beth's Salsa and Cheddar Chicken

Thats right, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a recipe developed by yours truly in an effort to come up with a new low carb main dish, combining some of my favorite food. No cookbook, no recipes, just my good ol' imagination. This is a very simple dish, and great for low carb dieters.

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups salsa (fresh only, make sure there is no sugar added)

Directions:
First, heat olive oil skillet on medium high. Add chicken breasts and sauté. Add lemon juice and cook until chicken is golden brown. Turn off heat, top off each chicken breast with cheddar cheese. After you put the chicken on the plate to serve, add salsa to the top of each chicken breast.

This dish goes wonderful with a fresh salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and red wine vinaigrette.