Nutritious choices made simple®
Messing around with a meal as traditional Thanksgiving dinner is likely to prompt plenty of questions (and a few complaints). I’m not suggesting that we completely toss aside the turkey or pumpkin pie, but let’s be honest, preparing the same Thanksgiving menu year in and year out can get, well, a bit boring—especially for the cook. What to do? Inject some new life into that traditional, but tired, menu by employing a few strategies and using some culinary creativity.
It’s the spookiest time of year. While it may be a time for a frightening number of sweets and candy, there is space for a less scary “middle ground”. Let’s find that sweet spot together.
Grilling season… the most wonderful time of year when you can bring the cooking outside and when pots and pans don’t greet you after a delicious dinner! As we embark on another season of warm weather cooking, it seems like the right time for a little “grill basics” refresher.
No one wonders why children countdown the days until Halloween. Trick-or-treating is a magical experience. You wear a fun costume, pretend you are someone/something else, and travel from house to house, through dark neighborhoods filled with spooky creatures and decorations. Along the way, you amass a treasure of treats (mostly candy) before getting home, perhaps past bedtime, to tally up your haul.
Around the holidays (and on through January) you’ll see plenty of blog posts and recipes touting “guilt-free” desserts and treats. I admit that I’ve even used the phrase before when writing about how to modify recipes for sweets to make them lower in calories. I don’t use this phrase anymore, here’s why…
We are deep in the festive feeling that begins with Halloween and takes us right into the New Year. While you can track these few months by the seasonal décor at your local retailer, you also know it by the candy, pies, cookies, and other colorful confections that make their way into your home. These foods, which I always refer to as our “sometimes foods” are intended to be just that, consumed “sometimes.” When seasonal sweets abound every day, it takes a bit of effort to balance it all and not feel like a holiday Scrooge.
It’s perfectly fine to want to thoroughly enjoy all the holiday foods at this time of year—they’re a wonderful part of the season and a big part of celebrations big and small. But when it comes to gifts, might I suggest that this year you skip the store-bought candle or gift card and create something practical, personal and delicious for the people on your list?
Slowing down during the holidays may sound about as hard as finding the perfect present in minutes, but it can be done. In fact, it should be a priority. After all, the essence of this joyous season isn’t to crank up the stress, but rather to connect with family and friends, capture the moments of your growing children, and maybe enjoy a cookie or two. Yes, even your dietitian understands the gravitational pull of Christmas cookies and other seasonal sweets. While I may not be able to lure you away from all your traditional treats, I can with that daily Advent calendar chocolate that counts you down to Christmas. Even better, with just a bit of thought, I can help you create those mindful moments and offer alternatives to chocolate-filled Advent calendars.