I Think I'm Lying to Myself....

Ok, so at the moment, I'm making risotto. Right now I'm doing the rice part, and at the end I'm going to mix in some chicken (and apple/ham/and maybe some peas or broccoli or something so as to have another vegetable....), the plan being that this will make it more of a meal than a side-dish). Anyway, the point here, is that I'm fairly certain that every single one of the ingredients below is allowed on the South Beach Diet, phase two.

Here are the ingredients:

• Chicken Stock (organic)
• Short-grain brown rice
• one medium onion
• about 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• probably like 8 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, trimmed
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• boneless/skinless chicken breast
• maybe 4 slices of ham from the deli (that were in my fridge, so I figured, hey, that's yummy with chicken)
• A little bit of parmesan cheese (maybe 1/4 cup, and given that this will make about 6 servings....)

And yet, how is it possible that the above is diet food? It's totally not, right? And this is where it becomes clear to me that risotto is infinitely more than the sum of its parts.... Ah, love the risotto.

(That said, you'll notice I no longer use real and perfect actual butter in the dish nor do I use as much cheese as I did once upon a time nor do I use white short-grain rice, so I suppose it is possible that I've modified the recipe to some extent, thus making the risotto somewhat less sinful. Oh, and I'm not making the risotto as a side to veal, breaded and sauteed delicious veal with a lovely wine sauce. Nor am I serving the aforementioned with gorgeous and sinful maple-syrup-glazed carrots....)

[Edited to Add: Oh. My. God. I don't care if the above is diet food or not. Am in heaven. Could die now and wouldn't, honestly, be too fussed about it. Might lose my mind with the gloriousness of the meal that I cooked. Wonder what I will do with my evening now? Hmmm....]