Healthy Holiday Dinners and Snacks

19 Dec, 2011Food, Healthy, Holidays

Foods served during the holidays become a vicious cycle for most of us. We can eat healthier by just giving our food choices some thought. It is easy to make better food choices for our families. We have to try to get through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day and all the scheduled football games that will demand just as many food choices for planned buffets and snacks. There will be no let up, at least until next March. We can make better food choices, or hang up our belts up.

Grandma or mom’s cooking if old enough did not always use the best ingredients, but boy, their dinners were tasty that made one want to eat all day. There is a better way. Food researches have come up with alternative food substitutions that are healthier and not laden with so many empty calories and carbohydrates. When planning holiday meals one can make healthier food choices, lower in sugar and fat content. When cooking use extra virgin olive oil instead of vegetable oil or Canola. Do not do like grandma used to do and use lard for cooking and baking. Lard is a wonderful artery cloggier and as good as those pies were when made with lard they are not good for you.
. Use extra virgin olive oil on muffins, bread, toast, or season and use as a bread dip
. Use sweeteners for baking and cooking instead of sugar
. Use yogurt instead of sour cream
. Buy only products that advertise ‘lite’. These have less carbohydrates and sugar content
. Bake using carob instead of coco or chocolate. Carob is a natural chocolate
. Bake, grill, or broil all meats. Do not fry anything
. Use soy or rice milk instead of milk products
. Use sugar free ingredients instead of ingredients with high fructose or corn syrup
. Bake or steam fresh vegetables
. Use fresh or fresh frozen vegetables and fruits. Avoid canned fruits and vegetables due to high carbohydrate content
. Use bread products that have no cholesterol content
. Use herbs and spices in abundance
. Use sea salt or Mrs. Dash instead of regular table salt
. When buying cream cheese buy the ‘lite’

Everyone likes to have snacks around the house during the holidays and there is nothing wrong with healthy snack alternatives. Some examples would be:
. Apples, bananas, oranges, tangerines, and grapes placed in a bowl
. Nuts are a good option; however some are high in fat content. The pistachio nut is an excellent choice to snack on, and besides it offers some sort of exercise just cracking them open
. Baked potato chips are healthier then their counterpart
. Have yogurt as a snack instead of cookies, cakes and candy.
. Offer guests sugar free chocolate and hard candies
. Offer an assortment of holiday breads to snack on instead of cookies and cakes
. Meat and cheese trays along with a good variety of vegetables and dip make a good healthy snack
. Celery sticks filled with P-nut butter is always a healthy option

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