YUM.

Holy crap, what a discovery.

I'm sure a few of you who are used to the "bulk chicken breast cooking" business are probably going to laugh at me for not making this discovery sooner. But for those struggling with how to make TASTY chicken to eat day in and day out... this one's for you!

In the past, I would buy a bunch of chicken breasts and cook them all in one shot on my George Foreman grill, then freeze them... but just found that the grill made them really dry... and then even drier once reheated. Blech.

Well tonight I decided to try a technique I saw eons ago on TV (probably on 'The Biggest Loser' or 'X-Weighted') that I had totally forgotten about. It just popped into my mind... baking chicken in parchment paper! So I went online to look for some spicing ideas, and headed to the grocery store to stock up on paper n' spices!

I tried two recipes. To start, I rubbed a scant amount of olive oil on all of the chicken breasts. On a few of them, I sprinkled Mrs. Dash no-salt garlic and herb mixture. For the others, I added a little bit of egg white and patted them into a mixture of breadcrumbs (just a light coat!) and paprika. I wrapped them in the parchment paper as I would wrap a present, but loosely. I baked them at 375 degrees for almost an hour (I did 7 chicken breasts on two cookie sheets).

The result?? SOOOOOO juicy and SOOOOOO good. I have to admit, the ones done more simply with the Mrs. Dash were better. The ones with the breadcrumbs were okay, but got a bit soggy because of all the moisture that builds up inside the parchment wrapper.

Now I've popped them in the freezer, and they're ready to go for a tasty lunch or dinner! I've cut a few ounces into my salad for lunch tomorrow as well. Tasty stuff!

Among my other experimentation today: fat-free chocolate muffins. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, and I am CONSTANTLY trying to figure out how to make some sort of tasty, chocolate, cake-like product. Lorilee has touted her microwaveable pumpkin-cocoa-eggwhite-concoction... and it's not bad... but I am CONVINCED i can somehow make it better.

Actually, as I type that, I just had a brainwave... maybe I should have added some of the chocolate-peanut butter protein shake mix I had in my cupboard! Argh. Next time. Tonight's recipe included egg whites, pumpkin (i was out of applesauce), Splenda, baking soda, vanilla soy milk (milk is a bad choice for me), cocoa, and low fat pudding mix. I didn't have vanilla in the house, and I bet a little splash would have helped. I also didn't have oatmeal, so I had to use whole-wheat flour... and I didn't want to use flour, so that was slightly disappointing. I undercooked them slightly to make them kinda brownie-like. They're reasonably satisfying at about 90 calories, but could still use improvement. Back to the drawing board.

This is kind of the fun part of this whole diet thing... experimenting to avoid the boredom that comes with the same old chicken n' egg whites n' veggies :) Anyone have any good recipes to share?

On another note... what an overwhelming feeling of pride to see Alex Bilodeau win Canada's first gold medal on home soil!! It's amazing when you consider that for these people, sport is their LIFE. There is no cheating on their diets, no break from the workouts and practices... they dedicate themselves physically, mentally, and financially to being the very best they can be. Kinda puts things in perspective for all of us in THIS struggle, right? :) Congrats, Alex.