Even though it is a little harder these days, we have long held the tradition of sharing a meal with family and friends during the holidays.
However, many of our holiday foods often involve a number of rich, savory foods, creamy dips and fried foods. These foods taste good, but they don’t always make our body feel it’s best. Here are a few ingredient or food choice tips that can make our dishes healthier to share with our family and friends.
A potato dish can be made with sweet or purple potatoes in place of white potatoes. Use a high quality, organic butter, or use organic ghee or coconut oil as the healthy fat for mashed potatoes or when baking fries. Sweet potatoes are delicious and high in fiber and beta-carotene.
For a healthy stuffing, try making one with organic sprouted rice or even wild rice. Then, bake your stuffing in a separate dish instead of cooking it inside the turkey (where it can absorb a high amount of saturated fat from the meat). Also, use vegetable broth in place of chicken broth. Doing both of these things allow the vegetarian or vegan diners to be able to enjoy that dish as well.
When making cornbread stuffing, purchase non-GMO, organic cornmeal (which is free of the Bt toxin). This can be a great option for those guests who need to eat gluten-free. If you are feeling brave, try using blue cornmeal, which is about 30 percent higher in protein and has more zinc and iron than white or yellow corn.
Many people are now needing to eat gluten-free. Rice and corn are gluten-free, so creating stuffings using these ingredients will be a wonderful option for your gluten-intolerant guests.
When preparing creature (beef, lamb, pork, fowl, fish) foods, try using a little orange juice and coconut oil to add moisture, and try baking it instead of frying it. If you are baking, frying or sautéing anything, use organic, pure coconut oil in place of lard, vegetable oil or a trans-fat like Crisco. It handles heat well and has fantastic health benefits.
You can also grill, broil, or sauté them in a little coconut oil. After you remove them from the heat, you can drizzle some pure, organic, extra-virgin olive oil on them and possibly top it with some lemon or lime juice, or a lemon or lime juice vinaigrette. When dining, choose skinless, white meat pieces, and then add just a tiny bit of gravy.
Now for dessert, try making a pumpkin pie! You can make a whole-sprouted grain crust yourself or you can find a whole-grain ready-made crust at the store, and make my cashew crème recipe as the whipped cream for the topping. (Recipe is on page 185 in my How To Be A Healthy Vegetarian, 2nd edition.)
They now have a coconut milk whipping creme in the freezer section of most grocery stores.
I also love having a simple pitted date as a sweet treat or dessert. It’s just fruit, and it is a healthier choice.
There are delicious pre-made, frozen gluten-free pie crusts in many grocery store freezer sections. Wholly Wholesome and Trader Joe’s are two of the brands. Most grocery stores now have gluten-free sections in the store and also in the freezer section. You may be surprised to find a variety of delicious healthy choices there.
Try using non-dairy milk in your recipes or for your coffee creamer. If you want it to be sweeter, blend the milk (like the unsweetened, vanilla coconut or hemp milk) with a little extra added vanilla or maple extract in a blender and add some pitted dates. I soak the dates in water to make them softer, so they will crème up easier, and voilà … you have a healthier version of a sweet, holiday creamer for your coffee or desserts!
When making or serving snacks, try an easy dip option such as a healthy high-protein hummus or nutritious guacamole. Cutting some cucumber, red bell pepper or celery to use as dipping chips is also a great choice! If you want to serve crackers or chips, try using a whole grain, sprouted, organic version or an organic sweet potato chip or cracker. (Late July is a good brand for chips and Mary’s Gone Cracker’s is my favorite cracker these days. Trader Joe’s has a delicious organic corn chip.)
For additional snacks that are easy for travel or on the go, try combinations of organic, sprouted nuts, sprouted seeds, pitted olives, pitted dates, raisins, dry fruits, kale chips, and coconut chips.
The cute little Santa appetizer the lady made in my healthy holiday food cooking class that I taught last month (in the photo above) is simply a banana with a strawberry hat. Santa’s nose is a candy “red hot”, and his eyes are chocolate sprinkles. You use large marshmallows cut to make the white hat brim and a small marshmallow for the top of the Santa hat. There are a few marshmallow slices (which aren’t the healthiest of foods, but there are some healthier versions, if you look for them), but it is all about balance and making foods more nutrient-dense. They are easy and fun to create! Children and adults love making these! I like to use the larger wooden shish kebab skewers with a small fork on the tip to hold them, because they are more stable and longer. Be careful to help smaller children with eating them, if you are using skewers of any type.
Here are some easy substitutions I use frequently:
1. Unsweetened yogurt or cottage cheese in place of sour cream
2. Hummus or mashed avocado instead of mayonnaise for sandwiches
3. Unsweetened vanilla coconut or hemp milk in place of dairy
With these ingredient substitutions, you can still enjoy all of the delicious flavors you love, and at the same time, you can increase your health benefits.
Eating this way, you can feel and look your very best as
holiday activities continue into January. Instead of regretting
what you ate, you will glow with radiant health as you welcome the New Year of 2023!
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