‘70s diet recipe cards satirized

Dieting can be nasty business. You sweat and strain at the gym; you thumb through page after dreadful page of diet books.

Your reward? A dull salad with dressing on the side. Sigh.

It must have been much easier during the heyday of Weight Watchers in the 1970s, when watching your waistline didn’t mean sacrificing a good time at the dinner table. With the diet system’s series of colorful recipe cards, you could dine lavishly on Frankfurter Spectacular, Aspic Glazed Lamb Loaf and a Chilled Celery Log, then wash it all down with a refreshing glass of Pimento Puree. Yum!

Er … on second thought, yuck.

That’s the more common reaction nowadays to these Me Decade culinary artifacts, as hilariously compiled by satirist Wendy McClure in “The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan: Classic Diet Recipe Cards from the 1970s.” The paperback book (Riverhead Trade, $12.95) includes more than 100 Weight Watchers creations, complete with spine-shuddering pictures, as well as McClure’s sly interpretations of what the recipe creators might have been thinking.

McClure skewers both Americans’ obsessions with the battle of the bulge and 1970s working moms, who were pressed for time and turned to fast preparation entrees like Chicken Liver Bake, Tuna Puffs and Molded Cheese Souffle, which the author notes would never collapse and could also give you a therapeutic massage.

Molded Asparagus Salad anyone? Anyone?