Fibermania

Diet Talk

When I announced I was starting my diet on the 10th, I wasn't kidding. So far I have lost 5.5 pounds and here is my secret weapon. Roast Chicken.

I find the largest roasting hen in the meat counter and take her home. A few months ago I bought an oval roasting pan with a pyrex lid and teflon lining. O how I love to use this pan.

Roast Chicken for Dieters

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Wash chicken and insert a half onion in body cavity and surround bird with the rest of the onion, chopped, and several chopped cloves of garlic. If you have celery and carrots laying around, even if they are wilty, toss those in too. Salt and Pepper the bird and if you are feeling French, add some Herbs de Provence. Oui oui. Cover pan.

Pop bird in the oven and go away. Return when the aroma is mouthwatering. The bird is done when the leg bone can be twisted off the carcass leaving the meat intact.

Allow to cool, and nibble only a leg or two, removing the skin of course.

When cool, remove skin and bones and place meat in a Gladware container. I ought to be paid by Gladware, it is so often mentioned here.

I like to add lemon zest and the juice of the lemon to the meat. Cover and refrigerate. The meat will be added to salads for the next four days. This is my main meal usually eaten midday. Protein staves off hunger.

When one roasts a chicken the drippings are rich with fat. I pour those into a small container and refrigerate until the fat solidifies, so it can be removed from the remainder of the drippings. I add the drippings to canned chicken broth for my soup du week. I don't know the French for week. It makes it taste more homemade.

This week it is Leek and Potato soup. I have recently discovered that any homemade vegetable soup is immensely improved by pureeing it in the blender. Yummamente. Soup and salad is diet food deluxe.

Later in the day I'll have baked apples for dessert.
Peel, core and slice two apples. In a small serving dish, arrange artfully and top with a squeeze of lemon juice, or not. Sprinkle with cinnamon and Equal or Splenda, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for two minutes. Top with fat free sugar free vanilla yoghurt. It takes no time and tastes like a real dessert. I kid you not. If you have raisins or walnuts handy add those. Or granola. Too good for diet food.

Dieting like this takes some time in the kitchen. But I have found that being too busy to eat and cook right means eating things that much more fattening.
Dave is on a special diet with his new medication and has to eat every two hours and can't have lots of things. One of them is banana peels! Poor baby. And he is not allowed red wine. This is really helping me stay clear from my chief vice too.
He makes his own food and we don't eat together. This was particulary difficult for me and I had to let go of that 'nurturing thing'.
There have been other changes at Chez Johnson and it is all good. We do have separate bedrooms as noted before in this blog, since he wakes up during the night for meds and has to stay awake for an hour. I love having my own bedroom, but now we have our evenings in his room watching tv in bed and talking late into the night. You'd never know how sweet these moments can be.