Thinner chicken dinner

One for the blubber busters:

Roast Chicken Picasso - this is the easiest, cleanest and most delightful way to cook a chook. Rub it all over with olive oil, S&P. Now, take one whole lemon, prick it in several places with a fork and place it inside the chook with a sprig of rosemary and parsely. Place in an oiled baking tray, sprinkle with more rosemary - fresh if you've got it - and cook in the normal way. The lemon perfumes the meat and steams the chook from the inside, making the flesh extraordinarily tender.

For the baked vegies - go for spuds if you can't resist the temptation, but don't peel them - put them in the oven whole as they are (no foil - oxidised aluminium give's you Alzheimer's, they say). When they're done, cut them in half, scoop out the white flesh and give that to the chooks, or save it as spakfiller, and eat the skins. They are delicious roasted like this with black pepper, and maybe a little of that mayo you've got left in the fridge. You can do the same with sweet potato, but save the flesh of those for a cold salad the following day. If you are desperate for the LOOK of a baked dinner with a pile of white stuff as a side issue but are off carbs entirely, steam some cauliflower and toss it in olive oil and garlic.

For the veg, mix only-just-steamed green veg lightly sauted with julienned carrots in a little butter and a tabspspoon of sugar to caramelise the carrots - these quantities of 'bad' stuff will not blow the diet, but they will make vegetables worth eating. Whatever you do, don't over cook the veg - they should be al dente - never mushy.