Students Of Success

Holiday feasts can be fabulously festive without being fattening.
With a little creativity and positive intention you can enhance
your holiday meal traditions by serving sumptuous and healthful meals.
As a holiday chef you have the power to be selective, and create a
menu to delight as well as relieve traditional holiday table guilt. Simple
shifts in cooking techniques lighten your favorite fare with professional
ease. This year, create your own holiday traditions by changing
habits and helping recipes evolve, adding your own health-affirming
legacy to the family.

These 5 tips will help you begin… cheers!

• 1. Pick your “must-haves” and make a plan; choose the
  dishes and foods that are most loved, important, and symbolic to you
  and your family. These are the things that are most worth spending
  calories on. Edit out what you can without feeling deprived. Consider if
  another (healthier) option might possibly fit the bill. For example, would
  baked sweet potatoes work in place of candied yams? If the answer is
  no, set your original recipe aside for possible modification (see tip # 3).

• 2. Choose your menus differently and wisely. After your
  “must-haves”, balance and fill out your menu with healthy, whole food
  choices. Avoid more dishes with sauces and gravies. Seek out
  vegetable and whole grain based dishes, lean meats, beans and green
  salads. Consider more fresh fruits, low-fat yogurt and ice cream for
  dessert. Pumpkin or fruit pies have half the calories of pecan pie.
  Overall, think high fiber and low fat.
• 3. Select your ingredients differently. Low-fat (and some
  non-fat) dairy items can be substituted for whole milk products without
  any perceivable change. Evaporated skim milk is the classic dieters
  substitution for cream. Low-sodium salt is a great way to cut down on a
  common holiday culprit. Choose whole grain breads and rolls, brown
  rice and multi-grain pasta (tastes better than whole wheat). Chicken,
  ground turkey (skinless), lean beef and pork are better choices than
  fattier meats like rib roast, T-bone steak, sausage, bacon and ham. Low-
  fat and fat-free mayonnaise works wonders in recipes. Don’t forget the
  nonstick vegetable oil spray for cooking and cutting excess calories and
  fat. To be sure your feast is the most flavorful, nutritious and visually
  enticing that it can be (without caloric excess), use as many fresh, whole
  foods and herbs as possible.
• 4. Simple cooking techniques lighten your menu the same way
  the spa chefs have become famous for. In addition to making
  choices like those described above, spa chefs use techniques like
  braising, roasting and steaming to prepare tender, flavor-rich meat, fish,
  poultry, and vegetables, without added oil and fat. Baking and broiling
  are also considered key low-fat cooking techniques. Always trim visible
  fat and remove poultry skin before cooking. Basting with fat-free broth or
  fruit juice is essential to moist yet low-fat roasting. Steaming is an
  amazing and under-rated technique that can produce quite delicate
  results. Substitute two egg whites or an egg substitute for each egg in
  recipes and applesauce can take the place of up to 1/3 of the oil in
  baking.
• 5. Consider some positive manipulation. Plan gatherings
  where food is not the sole and central focus. Have a soup or salad buffet
  lunch instead of the normal afternoon or evening feasts. Arrange foods
  on tables in decreasing order of importance. Place the high-fiber, low-
  fat, healthy choices at the front of the buffet table and the richer, calorie
  dense items toward the end of the table. Serve dessert only after the
  meal.

Don’t wait… create your own healthy holiday traditions this year. Lighten
up your holiday feast without compromising an iota of enjoyment.
Savor
your meal and appreciate your intelligence in celebrating with mirth
without adding extra girth. Have a toast for the holiday chef!

© 2005 Karen B. Cohen. All Rights Reserved.

Karen B. Cohen C.L.C. RYT500 is a wellness coach and master yoga
instructor, writer and speaker residing in a college town in rural Virginia.
Karen leads people to their own limitless supply of creativity and vitality
so that they can express their talent and abilities fully in the world. A
former chef and caterer she believes that delicious, healthy food is
essential to our happiness and wellbeing. Karen provides seminars,
workshops, individual coaching and training nationally and
internationally. For more information go to KarenCohenYoga.blogspot.com
and RockbridgeCoaching.blogspot.com