Desperate Housewives

For the last few years, sexy twin and I have indulged our love of wine, the TV show Desperate Housewives, and good friends and partaken in a regular Monday night tradition of watching the show, drinking wine and eating good food in the presence of fine company.

There are 4 of us in on this tradition. Sexy Twin, JP, Nardi and myself. (Names changed to protect identities ;o) ). We take it in turns to play host. Whoever hosts puts on a little supper and the rest of us bring the vino. It's a fabulous arrangement, and as we agreed last night it's the best cure for the dreaded Mondayitis!

Ordinarily we have lovely cheeses, dips, crackers and so forth. However, yesterday morning when I woke up and sent the standard "YAY it's DHW night" email, I decided to make us dessert! I rarely crave sweet foods but when I do I feel the need to willingly obey my taste-buds desires and succumb to chocolate!

Aside from wine which I flat out refuse to sacrifice (I'd rather run an extra 5ks than give up my lovely friends white, red and rose) I generally eat very well. So when I have cravings I try and make sure they can be accommodated as healthily as possible. I am a firm believer in balance and I can honestly say that over the past two years I have never consciously been on a "diet". I have changed portion sizes, eliminated certain foods and abstained from bathing in vats of oil. Aside from this, increasing my exercise (OK, let's be honest, beginning exercise) and keeping a sensible eye on what I eat has been the key factors to my ability to loose weight and keep it off.

My besty, Nardi, has just started some personal training sessions with me (brave considering I ain't qualified). Anyway, I am always very conscious of not sabotaging any ones health efforts. I know how unhelpful and frustrating it can be when you have the best of intentions and chocolate gets in the way! So, with this in mind and also conscious of my own eating habits I decided to prepare a delicious low fat, low calorie dessert. To this affect I decided to scourge the aisles of the local Woolworth's to see what tasty treats I could whip up on a low calorie budget!

And voila - a yummy fresh fruit platter, weight watchers chocolate mousse (half serving each) and a fancy looking brandy snap basket with strawberry yogurt, fresh fruit drizzled in passion fruit and a small dollop of lite thickened cream.

Hmmmm, do you think it's too early in the day to indulge in another ;o)