Thanksgiving Tips to Keep it Healthy

I recently read an article by a doctor who said that gaining weight throughout the holidays is a national pastime. I hadn’t heard it put quite like that but certainly weight gain is a problem for many people. But weight gain doesn’t have to occur as long as you can balance your meals with delicious whole foods and eat within reason. Here are some of my tips to help keep the holiday relatively healthy.

1. When planning a holiday such as Thanksgiving, think about all the wonderful varieties of foods that you can prepare and enjoy with friends and family. Think about their color, texture and flavors. Try to make your meal as fresh and colorful as possible with various crunchy, creamy textures and a variety of tastes such as sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty. When you balance meals with these various elements, it is more satisfying and can prevent overeating. So think about these elements as you make your shopping list and plan what you will be serving.

2. If your guests are arriving several hours prior to serving the meal, set out beautiful vegetable and fruit trays with dip or even some freshly made guacamole, popcorn or raw nuts for people to snack on. This will give them something lite to munch on that is also healthy and that takes very little time to prepare. I like to serve pomegranate seeds with orange slices and pineapple or a vegetable tray with a nice creamy dip made of goat cheese such as chevre and herbs. Guacamole is also always a big hit and is great served with crudité as well.

3. A delicious way to start the Thanksgiving meal is with a beautiful small cup of creamy carrot ginger or butternut squash soup. You can serve the soup along with a small green salad and both will make great leftovers.

4. Forego all the boxes of processed and packaged rice and stuffing mixes which have lots of sugar, MSG and other chemicals when both are relatively easy to make. I personally only rarely make a cornbread stuffing. I have a gluten intolerance so I prefer wild rice with my holiday meals. I love the taste, texture and color of wild rice. If you cook your rice with some vegetable stock, it can add extra flavor.

5. Keep your dishes fresh and simple but flavorful such as baked sweet potatoes drizzled with some butter, honey or maple syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon, asparagus lightly sautéed with toasted almond slivers or halved and roasted Brussels sprouts with fennel seeds.

6. Use real cranberries to make a beautiful relish instead of using canned cranberry sauce which has ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup. I like to use a food processor to lightly chop fresh cranberries, apple, orange and walnuts or pecans. Then I add some shredded coconut. If you need it sweeter add a little maple syrup.

7. If you are cooking a turkey, capon or hens choose those that don’t have growth hormones and antibiotics and make sure to thaw them out properly in the refrigerator. For large birds this might take several days. Once cleaning and prepping your bird, make sure that if you aren’t cooking it right away to keep it away from your vegetables in the refrigerator. It is always a good idea to place meats below vegetables in your refrigerator so to prevent cross-contamination. Always keep your kitchen clean and use bleach or hydrogen peroxide and soap to clean any areas where you have handled meats and always wash your hands well!

8. Be selective with sweets and only make a few that are enough to serve yourself and guests for Thanksgiving day and throughout the weekend. Enjoy the indulgence but keep it special and not a month long splurge. Christmas and New Years are just around the corner so there will be more opportunities to splurge throughout the holidays. I like to make a few pies and tarts, some of which are raw treats. All of the desserts that I make are made with unrefined ingredients.

For a delicious healthy treat, click here to check out my Raw Coconut Carob Almond Crush Balls recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Artemis in the City!

If you would like to create a more vibrant and healthy life and need personal support and assistance to help you get started, please contact me today! I can help you 866-330-5421. Services are provided nationally via telephone sessions.

Thank you very much for reading my blog and please continue to visit often.

I wish you good health, happiness and love!

Danielle

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