Diet recipe: Baked chicken with cocoa/pumpkin seed paste.

(For all the recipes I tried in 2016, click the "recipes2016" label at the end of this post, or simply "recipes" for all the writing I've ever done on the subject.)

Tried a new diet recipe the other night! This is a simple baked chicken breast with a complicated paste that was put around it, made up among other things of cocoa, pumpkin seeds, raisins, cloves, cinnamon and more. My friend Carrie laughed when she stopped by that night and saw me eating this, because she said it looked so stereotypically like some dish you'd find in a diet cookbook; but I gotta say, this was really good! The chicken itself is 307 calories, not counting the vegetables you're seeing in the photo; full recipe below.

Serves 4

1 tbsp onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, cut in half
1 tomato, seeded and cut into 4 pieces
2 tbsp raisins
1 tbsp chili powder
Pinch of cloves
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa
.5 cup pumpkin seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
4 skinless chicken breasts (4 oz apiece)

Process all but chicken until smooth. Coat chicken breasts with mixture, cook in 375 degree oven 15 min (or just until chicken is barely cooked through).

New diet recipe: Poached chicken in a wine and tomato sauce.

I'm on a diet right now for the very first time in my life, which so far is going really well -- I've lost 25 pounds in the six weeks I've now been on it, and for the most part have found it to not even be the slightest bit challenging. One of the things I've been doing, then, is cooking low-calorie but interesting meals out of various cookbooks I find in the Chicago Public Library; I had been sharing those at Facebook, but will now be sharing them here since deleting my Facebook account as a New Year's resolution. This is only 170 calories for a serving the size you're seeing here, which is incredible.

Notes: 1) The original recipe calls for white wine, presumably to make the cooked mishmash look nicer; but I was just cooking for myself tonight, so used some red wine I already had in the house instead of buying a brand new bottle of white; 2) the original recipe also calls for this to be a way to cook entire chicken breasts, with the sauce spooned on top; but I've had a bag full of pre-sliced chicken strips that I haven't been using, so made more of a stew-like concoction instead; and 3) I topped mine with a liberal amount of Moroccan spice blend from Chicago's The Spice House; I love going to this Old Town store, so am always looking for excuses to give them online shout-outs.

Serves 4
169 calories

1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
Pinch of cayenne flakes
4 chicken breasts (4 oz apiece)
Pinch of salt

Cook onion in skillet over med heat 5 min. Add garlic and cook another 5 min. Add everything else but chicken and bring to a boil. Add chicken and spoon mixture on top of it. Reduce to simmer for 5 min.