January - New Year's Resolutions

Let's try the South Beach diet. I've tried everything else from Jenny Craig, Grapefruit, Weight Watchers, special cookies and appetite supresants to Nutrasystems.

Here goes...

Mom spent hours in the kitchen mastering the South Beach recipes. She has really out done herself - being so supportive in yet another of my diet attempts. The dishes are absolutely fabulous and I've lost five pounds so far. However, some resulted in comical moments in the kitchen.
The first dessert she called "custard" but it was more like a mini cheesecake without the crust. She was disappointed with it, I believed she used the words "horrible", which was great to hear since it was the only dessert I could eat on the diet. I chalked it up to "diet" food. Not so bad, no ice cream sundae! I was allowed dessert and thankful she had made it.
The second dessert she made caused a red flag to go up. This was called "lemon cheesecake" however; I could tell she wasn't quite confident in her creation. She was pacing and hovering over the stove. When I asked what was wrong, she confessed, "Well there isn't any cream cheese in this one." I was afraid to ask, but did anyway, "was there cream cheese in the first dessert?" She was defensive at this point, "well yes, that's what the recipe called for, running for the cookbook as evidence." I suggested maybe the author got the recipes backwards. I guess she panicked! She had to taste it right then and there, even though there was a "four hour cooling period recommended". She flipped one of the beautiful "cheesecakes" into a container - with a gurgle and a splat! How could something so beautiful turn so ugly so fast? There had been two golden "cheesecakes" five minutes before. Now we had a white pile of bubbly mush (caused by the splenda) - yummy.
She hasn't tried any new desserts since. I'm pacing myself on the delicious golden "cheese less cheesecake". I never did get another dessert on this diet!
Another recipe gone bad - Mom's eggplant veggie lasagna. She spent hours working on the creation, it smelled divine. The problem... it remained in the oven past it's prime. This is a common affliction many of Mom's prior dishes have fallen for. The story goes, my mom's friend, who was watching me, asked me to check if the dinner was ready, after checking in the oven I responded, "No, it's not black yet." We gave it a try, but it really had lost its sparkle, charcoaled on both the top and bottom.

I lost ten pounds but have gone off the diet mostly. I've kept some of the good habits until May, then I started to travel and all was lost. It's June now, and I'm back to my ice cream.