Commandeering the Kitchen

I COOKED A CHICKEN! A whole one! I'm so impressed with myself right now, it's crazy. My roommate came downstairs this morning and said, "it smells AMAZING in here! What did you make?!" And BAM! I pulled this beautiful bird out of the oven. That long black thing on the ground next to the chicken is my dog, who wouldn't leave the kitchen while I was making the bird. I used a hybrid of recipes provided by Trish, Kathleen, and the Weight Watchers blog I read- after removing the gross innards (EW. EW EW EW), I shoved an orange up there with 2 garlic cloves, used spray butter all over the bird and under the skin, and coated it in an herb mix of thyme, rosemary, basil, "poultry seasoning" and salt and pepper. I then cooked it for 425 degrees for 80 minutes- 20 minutes into the cooking, I surrounded the bird with the veggies (carrot, onion, potato and celery) and a cup of water. Then, BAM (I'm feeling very Emril-like today), I presented the bird. The most fun part was removing them meat from the bird- I probably had too much fun with that. I got rid of the skin (BOO- but the diet requires it!) and shredded most of the meat and popped it in the fridge. I mixed 8 oz of the chicken with a homemade barbeque sauce for sandwiches tomorrow for lunch, and have the rest for chicken salad, chicken *on* my salad... and had some of the chicken breast for lunch.

I was on a roll. I made Daisy's dog biscuits (yes, I make her treats- they're healthier for her and hella cheaper), and stumbled across an old Weight Watchers recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies- these cookies are huge, the recipe makes 24 cookies, and under the old program, it was 1 point a cookie. ONE POINT! I made the cookies, had one out of the oven (there's nothing better), and *then* point checked it. Yeah... it's now 3 points. But it was totally worth it. And it's going to be totally worth it when I have one later tonight, too :)

I've been cooking and baking since 10am. I took a break to go to the Y, but have been in front of the stove ever since. I'm tired- but I have chicken- and treats!- for the week. Hopefully this "preparing food in advance" strategy works...