Holiday Helpings!

This may sound like a challenge, but you can enjoy delicious food this holiday without restricting  yourself (or indulging for that matter!). It is not about dieting and sitting across the table wishing you can eat something that you told yourself you couldn’t. It is about taking control. Make the right choices this year, because you can treat your holiday however you want!

Maybe this year, you offer to make some of the side dishes, desserts or goodies. Or at least have something small with you to nibble on that is healthy and tasty. You never want to be left without options that don’t suit your goals or your taste buds! You don’t have to give in to the 4-5 course rich and heavy meals and all the holiday candies, sweets, desserts that may be delivered to our door or are laying on your table. If you have to go for that “once-a-year” something, then treat yourself to a small piece and enjoy every bite. You never want to approach the holidays dreading the amount of food you are going to eat…just approach it with peace and let yourself know that you can still enjoy the holidays without guilt.

Here are a few more helpful tips:

If dinner is not at your house – have a small meal before you go (vegetable juice, smoothie, bowl of soup, veggies and hummus with crackers)

Bring a  flavourful and colourful holiday dish with you ( Citrus Wild Rice, Apricot Muffins, Quinoa with Porcini, Green Veggie Soup, Yam Pecan Tart)

Load up on veggies - if there is a salad or steamed veggies available – double your dose of them and leave only a small space on the plate for other things.

Wait before you have dessert - sip on herbal tea, let your tummy digest dinner before you indulge in dessert. Or better yet bring your own healthy and guilt free dessert – Ginger Date Cookies!

Get to the gym or go for a long walk - you will feel better  knowing that you can burn off some of those (extra) calories (even if you did cheat a little!)

Sip on wine if you must – watch the eggnog, beer and other rich holiday drinks. These all have calories that can add up!

Make time for bonding – have after dinner activities that are fun and keep you away from all-night nibbling!

Approaching the holiday dreading the amount of food you’re going to eat is no fun. So take control this year and give yourself the gift of eating good food, in moderation. If you must give in, to that second helping – do it with gratitude and pleasure not with guilt and disappointment. The only one who will be left upset in the end is you!

Date-Coconut Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups spelt flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup chopped pitted dates

1 cup unsweetened coconut

1 cup maple syrup

¾ cup coconut oil

1 tsp grated ginger

zest of organic lemon or orange

1 tsp pure vanilla

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper
3. Whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in large bowl.
4. Toss in dates and coconut and stir to combine. Add the syrup, oil, ginger and zest and vanilla and mix just until all flour is absorbed.
5. Drop heaping tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheets, spacing them out (2 in).
6. Bake for about 12 minutes, until golden.

Sugar n’ Spice

If there were two words to sum up the month of October it would be sugar and spice. Sugar is what makes Halloween so popular. It is not the fun and cute costumes, the pumpkins or the decorations, it is the empty calories that fill up the bags for millions of kids all across North America that make this holiday so memorable. If you were to rethink the concept of Halloween -you could change this and still make it fun and full of “sweetness”. Not to mention, you would be doing teenagers and kids all over a huge favour in the long run. In case you didn’t know, there are so many delicious healthy treats that you could be giving out on Halloween. If you’ve got kids of your own, you could be doing what a friend of mine does, Halloween in reverse. Invite all of your kids friends over…and make them most decadent chocolate cake, cookies etc. using natural organic ingredients, whole grain flours, maple syrup, real cocoa powder and then later have your kids hand out naturally sweetened lolly pops, chocolates, gummies, or anything else that is fun and naturally “colourful”. That way your kids can still dress up, get in their dose of sweetness and have a great time!

On a whole other topic…there is spice…the almighty contrast that compliments sweetness. Spice is thrown in the mix because the fall season begs for warming spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom. All delicious and all can bring flavour and natural sweetness to anything created in the kitchen. One of my favourite things to make this time of year that blends both worlds together is cinnamon baked apples. Not only are you getting the natural sweetness from the apples, which of course would sweeter if they are local, but they are full of fiber and taste delicious when they are baked. Then you top them off with a scrumptious mixture of maple syrup, brown rice syrup, raisins and some nuts such as almonds or walnuts. There is no healthier way to have dessert, snack or breakfast then to bake up some apples and top them with this glaze and spices such as cinnamon and ginger. These spices are warming and compliment the apples – what better combination than apples and cinnamon ?

So get your sugar n’ spice on and have fun with some “natural” alternatives to sugar and some warming spices and make this time of year, happy, healthy fun for the whole family!

Happy Halloween!

Baked Cinnamon Apples

Ingredients:

6-8 organic apples (braeburn, fuji, honey crisp, royal gala)

¼ cup chopped raisins

1 cup almonds or walnuts, chopped or ground

1 tbsp brown rice syrup

1 tbsp maple syrup

½-1 cup apple juice

1 tbsp cinnamon

Fresh ginger

(optional extras clove powder, cardamom pods,  allspice)

1 Tablespoon Coconut oil

Preheat oven to 375F

1. Core apples, leaving the bottom intact to prevent leakage
2. Finely grind or chop nuts by hand or in a food processor. In a medium bowl, combine ground nuts, cinnamon, raisins and syrups and mix well.
3. Stuff the mixture into each of the apples and place them into a small glass baking dish.
4. Pour the apple juice on top of the apples and into the baking dish.
5. Bake in flat corning ware greased with coconut oil, uncovered for 20 minutes and baste apples with juice at bottom and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes or until tender.

Stirring Things Up!

It’s always good to stir things up every now and then. Whether it is in a salad bowl, a pot of soup, a blender or a wok – it is easy to make a nutritious meal out of a combination of great ingredients. As simple as it is to make a stir fry, I find that often people are very intimidated to “stir” things up in their own kitchen. I often get asked by my clients or participants at workshops and even in my cooking classes – “what do I put into a stir fry? how many veggies can I use? what type of protein should I use? how do I make a “healthy” Teriyaki sauce?” These are all great questions, but it is much easier than people think to make a great stir-fry. I just tell people to just get creative and have fun! What you need to get started is a wok or a large stainless steel pan. I use Titanium cookware for my pots, pans and woks- they are great quality, conduct the best heat, non coated and rarely get burned or have stuff stuck to them – so in essence perfect for a stir fry! Once you have that all set, get your stove top turned up to high heat, throw a little grapeseed oil or coconut oil in the pan (two great oils for high heat cooking) and start stirring. You need to be quick, small movements, always keep the veggies moving. Don’t ever let them stay in one spot for too long. You want to cook them, but just a little – a really good stir fry will have crisp, tender and colourful veggies – that are just lightly cooked. There is nothing worse then a wilted brown, dark and soggy stir fry!
What I love about making stir fry’s – is that you can get as creative as you want and just throw anything in there. You can make a different combination every time! So there really should be no stress about choosing the right vegetables. For starters it is always good to have some onions, celery and carrots, they provide a great base. Then go crazy with anything like kale, broccoli, bok choy, peppers, bean sprouts, snap peas, green beans to zucchini and even eggplant. For my delicious bowl of goodness (photo above) this week I grabbed a whole bunch of fresh veggies from my garden (kale, carrots, broccoli, snap peas) added some purple cabbage and combined them with marinated Tempeh, Spelt/Buckwheat Soba Noodles and a simple “Teriyaki” sauce (you can just make some extra sauce and use that to marinate the tempeh).
Then I topped it with homemade sprouted mung beans. This just added a little extra boost of protein and raw enzymes to my meal to keep it fresh, light and crunchy!

So next time you want to stir things up, don’t be afraid! Grab some veggies, cook up some buckwheat noodles or brown rice, top it with marinated tempeh (or tofu, organic chicken, wild fish) for a change, and you will have yourself a nutritious and satisfying dinner!

Simple Teriyaki Sauce:

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup tamari
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of chopped ginger
juice of one orange
1-2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1 tablespoon brown rice syrup

Birthday Potluck Fiesta

There could not have been a better way to celebrate my 27th birthday, then to have my closest friends over for a potluck dinner. Everyone brought over something delicious to contribute to a collection of different dishes which made up our fantastic and unforgettable dinner!