Recipe - Simple Chicken Bake

This is one of my staples on the VLC diet. Super super simple, fast, easy. Did I mention simple? This creates several meals for one dieter. Excellent for a quick, cold (but greasy) breakfast or hot with a salad. Or the chicken shredded on a salad.

Ingredients

• Chicken - Several pounds
• Ranch Dressing Mix packet
• Whole Mushrooms - I don't measure, just a bunch o' mushrooms
• Feta or Romano cheese, crumbled or shredded - A cup, give or take

Oven @ 350 degrees

Start with a load of chicken. I typically use thighs because I like dark meat. I normally just buy the cheap "family pack."

Put the chicken in a big plastic bag. Yeah, I use the unscented trash bags. I'm that lazy.

Dump the Dressing Mix on the chicken. Close the top of the bag. Shake to coat the chicken.

Open the bag, toss in the cheese, close and shake again.

Open the bag, pour out onto a large baking pan with sides (don't use a cookie sheet without high sides, trust me). Spread the chicken out more or less evenly. Don't fuss too much, you're not creating art, just dump 'em on and spread 'em out.

Spread the 'shrooms over the top and in between the pieces of chicken.

Toss the whole mess into the oven and walk away for an hour.

Omnomnomnomnom while reflecting that yes, this IS diet food!

Week the First

Tomorrow morning will mark one week back on track to lose weight and get back into a somewhat better shape than your average walrus. Fascinating how much better I feel already overall. I forget how good my body feels when I'm actually giving it things that it needs as opposed to stuff that I want. More energy, and more mental energy.

Dunno if I've lost any weight 'cause I'm not looking at a scale yet (some things are just TOO depressing for words, thanksmuch), and certainly if I have it'll be mostly water weight, but noticing that my jeans are a bit looser. Especially in the arse. Had to tug them back up several times yesterday, too. Funny how something that most people would consider an annoyance is, under some circumstances, a real pleasure! *grin*

So ... it's been a week of eating very low carb (VLC), taking a mult-vitamin every day, drinking 3-4 liters of water every day, eating masses of shrubbery every day (mostly green, leafy, crunchy stuff), tracking my intake at Fitday every day.

Not worrying about the scale because I know that this way of eating works. It works for losing weight and it works for my body. My body likes to eat like this. Meats, small amounts of cheeses, bare minimum of dairy, lots and lots of fresh shrubs. I did this once before, last year, and lost 50 pounds. I also lost the need to take a heartburn pill before bed every night, and the blood sugar swings that have been part of my entire adult life.

It's a diet I can sustain without too much effort for a number of reasons: It doesn't take much work or thought. I know what I can and can't eat. What I can eat is lots of the kinds of food I actually like! Pretty sure I was born a carnivore, actually. Even as a kid I was all about the "Gimme the meat, man! The bloodier the better! I'll gnaw it right off the bone, nomnomnom!" Yeah, okay, I was a weird kid, too. Hated most vegetables, still do.