Healthy Holiday Cooking
By Tracy Rohland

The holidays are just around the corner, and as we all know, along with the festivities usually come enough sweet and savory goodies to last the whole year. This can spell trouble and temptation for those watching their diets, but don’t worry – it’s not necessary to completely abstain from eating your favorite dishes. With just a few substitutions, you can turn a fat and sugar-laden holiday season into a tasty and healthy one. Below are a few suggestions to use in your cooking. Try any combination of them and use your imagination to create tasty holiday treats!

• Instead of whole milk, substitute skim milk, soy milk, rice milk or almond milk.

• Instead of cream, try plain yogurt or evaporated skim milk

• When making sandwiches or wraps, use an eggless mayonnaise with healthy, non-hydrogenated oil in it.

• Also look for vegetable spreads made from non-hydrogenated oils to use instead of butter.

• Applesauce can replace oil in a cake recipe.

• Instead of fat-and-caffeine-laden-chocolate, try making carob brownies, or carob-chip cookies.

• In baking recipes that call for eggs, use an egg replacer to reduce cholesterol and fat.

• Add some wholesomeness to your cookies by using whole-wheat flour in place of bleached white flour.

• Avoid too much sugar by using alternative sweeteners like Stevia, Xylitol, and honey.

• On top of that hot apple strudel put a scoop of non-fat frozen yogurt (or soy frozen yogurt), and leave the ice cream in the freezer (or at the store).

• For a healthy and tasty dessert, experiment with fresh fruit tarts – each different combination of fruits will make a different treat! You can also use seasonal fruit to make a colorful fruit salad.

• Make a toast with sparkling cider instead of champagne.

• Finally, forget the turkey and try making a Heathy Holiday Mock Turkey from this month's recipes or pick up a “Tofurkey” at Down to Earth.

• Top it off with some vegetarian Mock Turkey gravy! (See last month's e-newsletter recipe section).

These ideas will hopefully get you started on the way to a healthy holiday season. Take some carob cookies to a get-together and indulge your friends without feeling guilty. Share with them your secrets of healthy cooking. Just remember- moderation is also important. Despite the fact that your goodies will be healthier than normal, it’s important to resist overeating. Above all, have fun with your cooking. Get the kids involved and teach them about healthy eating. The good habits they learn will stay with them their whole lives.

Until next month - Happy, Healthy Holidays to all!

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