Making Healthier Holiday Foods This Season!

I love the tradition of sharing a meal with family and friends on an annual basis. For this reason, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.

The American Thanksgiving is a traditional meal inspired by the pilgrims. The original feast was probably shared sometime in the fall, possibly in October, with the Wampanoag first nation’s people. Thanksgiving did not become an annual federal holiday until 1941, and what we have come to know as our traditional meal of turkey and fixings has evolved over time.

Thanksgiving often involves a number of rich, savory foods, creamy dips and fried foods. And yet, these foods don’t always make our body feel at it’s best. So, here are a few ingredient or food choice tips that can make our dishes healthier to share with beloved family and friends.

When making or serving snacks, dips can be a healthy high protein hummus or guacamole. Cutting some cucumber, red bell pepper or celery to use as the dipping chips is a great choice! If you want to serve crackers or chips, try using a whole grain, sprouted, organic version.

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 to mix into it when mashing them up to cook or to cut up and bake as fries. Sweet potatoes are delicious and high in fiber and beta-carotene.

When preparing a turkey, try using a little orange juice and coconut oil to add moisture to the turkey, 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.

For other types of animal, fish or fowl, you can grill, broil, or sauté them in a little coconut oil. After you remove it from the heat, you can drizzle some pure, organic, extra virgin olive oil on it and serve with lemon juice or a lemon juice vinaigrette. When dining, choose skinless, white meat pieces and then add just a tiny bit of gravy.

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 high saturated fat from the meat.

When making corn bread stuffing, purchase the non-GMO, organic cornmeal (which is free of the bT toxin). 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

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.

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 them 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.

For snacks, try serving combinations of organic, sprouted nuts, sprouted seeds and raisins.

With these ingredient substitutions, you can still eat all the delicious flavors you love while enjoying a number of health benefits.

In this way, you can feel and look your best as holiday activities continue on into December. Instead of regretting what you ate, you will glow with radiant health as you welcome the New Year of 2016!

copyright@nancyaddison2015