Roasted Chicken and Sample Meal Plan

Today I cooked my first whole chicken at home for dinner.  I don't consider myself an excellent cook by any means, but I did go to culinary school to become a pastry chef and I do have some experience in the kitchen.  So there is no excuse for me to not have roasted a chicken before today.  Checking that the giblets were removed was not fun, but otherwise it was pretty easy!

We have tons of fresh herbs growing in our backyard (post to come soon about how we made the raised garden beds for our growing garden) and I wanted to use them for a fresh, delicious poultry feast.  I took a handful of parsley, rosemary, and thyme and pulsed them in the mini food processor.

Then I got out the roasting pan we received as a wedding gift over two years ago but had yet to use, and poured two bags of frozen steamfresh veggies in the bottom.  I shouldn't have done this, as the fat from the chicken dripped down onto the vegetables.  Next time, I'll steam them separately and add them to the pan five minutes before taking it out of the oven, just so it can soak up a little of the flavor from the herbs and the chicken.

 

Then, I drizzled about half of a cup of chicken stock over the vegetables. I next sprayed a light coat of olive oil on the chicken, and rubbed the herb blend all over the skin.

I poured about a cup of chicken stock over the chicken which gave it a very crisp crust.  It baked at 450 degrees for about an hour, until the juices ran clear and the temp read 170 degrees.  Unfortunately we dug into it before I could get a picture of it out of the oven, but it was delicious!  Don't know what I was so intimidated by, and I will definitely be making this again.

This is not exactly "diet food" but I didn't eat most of the skin and I only had one breast and some veggies (and a large salad to start with).  And I don't eat like this every day!

 Here is an example of what I normally eat on a daily basis for my get fit program:

So even with dessert, 2 snacks, and very filling meals, this sample day was just under 1100 calories! This is a very doable plan to follow.

Would you follow a meal plan similar to mine? How do you keep your calories under your goal?