Cold Cucumber Soup (Dairy Free, Gluten Free)

As some of you know, I'm currently on the HCG diet and have a VERY limited list of foods I am allowed to eat for the month that I am actually using the HCG injections. Needless to say I'm getting a little bored with my food choices, so I've found myself getting creative. Luckily it is summer time, so I have easy access to lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

I've been doing tons of plain sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, but I decided I wanted to switch it up some, so I did a search for cold cucumber soup recipes to defeat the boredom.  Lots of the recipes look incredibly delicious, but include ingredients I can't have at this time, like avocado, and sour cream (but OMG they make my mouth water!!) I wound up modifying and combining several different recipes and came up with an amazingly tasty solution, that I'm going to share with you.

Ingredients

-3 Large cucumbers (or 6 pickling cucumbers), I used a mixture of both
-1/2 c. water
-1/2 lemon juiced
-garlic (my diet requires me to use garlic powder, but if you don't have any restrictions like that and have fresh garlic available go ahead and mince a whole clove of garlic)
-salt

Peel and dice up your cucumber and put in blender or food processor, blend until everything is smooth, and a liquid texture.
Add in the water (give or take depending on how runny or creamy you like your soup), and lemon juice.
Continue blending as you add in the garlic (I used about a 1/2 tsp of garlic), and salt (about 4 or 5 shakes).

Go ahead and taste it just in case you want to add more seasoning, and you are done. Go ahead and refrigerate it to chill before serving. The longer you can let it sit the more the flavors will come out, so keep that in mind as well, if you like it less or more spicy.

Then enjoy your yummy summer soup!!

Dinner recipes - Chicken Elaine

My family loves this recipe (even the super picky one), it only takes a few minutes to throw together, so works super good if we have been busy all day, and I'm trying to multitask while making dinner.


2 or 3 chicken breasts (sliced into thinner pieces)
1 can or box of condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can or box worth of milk (to mix with the cream of mushroom)
8 oz of sliced swiss cheese

whatever rice you like (we use basmati)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large casserole dish, mix the cream of mushroom and milk well.
Place chicken pieces in a single layer, into the soup mixture (the mixture should cover the tops of the chicken pieces).
Then layer the swiss cheese on the top.

Throw in the oven and bake for 30 - 45 minutes (just until the chicken is done, and the cheese is starting to brown a bit).

The soupy sauce thickens up a bit if you leave it out for a few minutes before serving.
Serve over rice.

**Will have to add a photo later, since there aren't even left overs tonight :)