Healthy Holiday Feasting

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Holidays are hectic. Between presents, decorating, crafts, holiday performances, entertaining, and snacking on all kinds of treats, it's no wonder we're tired -- and no coincidence that everyone's getting sick in January and February. But it doesn't have to be this way. Here are quick tips and good recipes for healthy holiday feasting. They'll help you save time and money. They'll also help you avoid the cycle of being tired during the holidays and sick afterwards. And many of them use traditional food storage foods.

Don't think of cutting out -- think of adding in!

If you think in terms of not eating holiday treats, you set yourself up for a struggle right when temptation is greatest. Instead of thinking in terms of cutting out treats and traditional holiday foods, think of adding in lots of good, healthy food. Then go ahead and have some goodies without feeling guilty. Concentrate on eating well, with a focus on eating these things:

• Foods that are high in fiber
• Lots of fresh vegetables and fruits (5-8 servings a day)
• Whole-grain cereals, breads, muffins

Make it convenient to eat good food

With tempting goodies so readily available, you have to make it convenient to eat healthy food. This isn't as hard as it may seem at first. First commit to do it, then prepare in advance:

• Include at least one fruit and one vegetable with every meal, and snack on fruits and vegetables during the day.
• Prepare fruits and vegetables in advance so they're easy to snack on (peel and section oranges, cut melons up into chunks, wash grapes and take them off the stems, peel and cut up carrots or get baby carrots).
• To encourage nibbling, put fruits and vegetables where you can see them in the fridge; set a bowl of them out where they're easy to snack on.
• If you're going to be baking sweets, set out a bowl of finger fruits/veggies right where you're working. Then, when you're tempted to dig into the dough or the batter, eat the fruits or vegetables instead.
• For easy whole-grain cereals, put whole or cracked grains in the crockpot the night before and cook overnight on low. Then the cereal is ready in the morning; all you have to do is dish it out. Cereals like oatmeal and germade only take a few minutes to cook in the microwave. Put them on before you step into the shower, and they'll be ready when you get out.
• Bake big batches of whole wheat bread, muffins, pancakes, waffles, etc. Then freeze and take out as needed.
• When you bake goodies, try to put sneak in fiber by using ingredients such as whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and all kinds of nuts. That way, you can get away with some sugar, candy, etc.

Simplify

Holidays are fun, but busy. Here are ideas for simplifying:
Plan quick meals. For everyday meals, plan things that take 30 minutes or less to prepare. The key to doing this is to plan ahead, stock your house with things your family likes and will eat, and make meal plans so you can combine tasks.
Do the day's cooking all at once. Instead of fixing breakfast, lunch, and dinner at different times during the day, do everything at once: Cook the breakfast cereal or whatever, make lunch sandwiches, and start a dinner stew in the crockpot, all at the same time. Then you only have to clean up the kitchen once. Plus, you enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing dinner will be ready at the end of a busy day.
Do a bunch at once. Make enough salad to last three days, then store a day's worth in a ziploc bag to keep it crisp and fresh. Prepare fruits and vegetables for snacking this way, too. When you bake, double or triple the batch, then freeze the extras.

Festive Fresh Fruit Salad

Cut up any fresh fruit you wish -- such as apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi, pineapple, grapes. Stir in a cup of lemon yogurt, then sprinkle coconut on top. To make it "Christmas-y," slice kiwis and place on top, along with a sprinkling of dried cranberries. This is really easy and pretty, perfect for entertaining.

Easy, Nutritious Suppers

For easy nutritious suppers, follow this formula:
1) Fix a soup in the crockpot (start it in the morning - try beef stew with stew meat, barley, potatoes, onions, carrots; chicken soup with chicken, onions, carrots, potatoes; chili with canned tomatoes, pre-fried hamburger, and kidney beans, seasoned with chili powder; broccoli soup; potato soup; clam chowder, etc.)
2) Have a fresh salad (prepare 3 days' worth at once, as explained earlier)
3) Have a slice of good whole-wheat bread
4) If you wish, have a whole-grain cookie or some whole-grain cake
Vegetable Bags for Easy Soup
Preparing and freezing "vegetable bags" ahead of time makes it easy to fix a quick batch of crockpot soup. In the morning, just throw in the vegetable bag, water, meat, and seasonings. Cook on low all day, and it's ready for dinner when you are.
To prepare vegetable bags, buy carrots, onions, and celery in quantity (2 lbs carrots, 6 onions, and a large bunch of celery make 4-6 vegetable bags). Run the carrots through the food processor, and chop the celery and onions.
Then combine 1 cup of each vegetable in ziploc bags (3 cups total) and freeze. This is a good basic combination that lends itself to lots of variations. When you make your soup, you can add anything else you want -- potatoes, rice, noodles, canned peas, corn, beans, and so on.