Diets Detox and Weight Loss Blog

Christmas Dinner (or Lunch) does not have to be an exercise in gluttony. Instead of piling on pounds lets look at how you can cook your Christmas meal healthily, whilst still keeping all those extra trimmings that make it so special (and delicious!).

A healthier Christmas Dinner

Preparation for Christmas

Just because you are trying to lose weight does not mean you cannot enjoy one of the tastiest meals of the year! You are going to eat more than on a normal day so the first thing you can do is prepare for it. For the whole of December leading up to x-mas day, try eating a 50 or a 100 calories a day less than usual. If you can do that you can afford to eat 1200 – 2400 extra calories before you put back on the extra weight you lost.

Trading in a chocolate advent calendar for a more traditional picture one will help, as will trading soft drinks for their diet equivalent or water. There are plenty of other ways to lose 50-100 calories extra a day and you can find a lot of them here

Cooking a Healthy Christmas Dinner

Vegetables are a big part of any Christmas meal – below are some great ideas for your vegetables and some healthy, interesting ways to cook them:

Vegetable Ideas

Red Cabbage/Green Cabbage – do not boil as that takes away the cabbages nutrients. Instead steam or roast the cabbage. Add onion, cooking apples, low fat butter alternative and cider, to spice it up a little.

Brussels sprouts – Boil and then steam. Try with roasted chestnuts, lemon juice and pepper. Chestnuts can be quite heavy in calories so don’t be overly generous.

Asparagus - Boil, steam and then roast for best taste. Add a little low fat butter on once out of the oven

Green Beans

Broccoli - Grill with plenty of herbs and seasonings and a little low fat cheese grated on mid grilling.

Carrots – Boil or grill.

Potatoes /Parsnips /Swedes – look for a low fat oil or an oil substitute so that you can still brown them and get them crispy without making them really unhealthy. Alternatively boil and then herb them. Not as nice maybe, but they are healthier and will have less calories.

Vegetables are packed with antioxidants, folic acid iron, fiber and vitamins. They are also great for your heart.

Trimmings

Stuffing – If you are already having chestnuts with your sprouts you will not want them again in your stuffing. Try a lighter lemon stuffing instead – lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley, olive oil (a dribble), pepper, a salt alternative, bread

Sausages wrapped in bacon – if you really want these, use lean sausages and bacon. Limit yourself!

Turkey

I wont interfere with how you cook your turkey, you cant go too wrong with it. Lightly oil, season heavily and cook well.

Extra Tips and Advice

As always eat your meal slowly. It takes a while for your brain to realize that you have eaten enough food and you are in fact, full. When you are full don’t eat anymore! There is not need to stuff your self as well as the bird.

Look for a low fat cranberry sauce. Be sensible with sauces and gravy!

Next issue we will look at desserts!

Best of luck!

This week we are going to be looking at festive foods you can still enjoy on a diet. Today we will look at Mince Pies- we will look at the actual Christmas Lunch/Dinner and how we can keep it just as tasty but make it much healthier next week.

Low Fat Mince Pies Recipe

I’m from England originally and when i was young my mum (thats ‘mom’ to our American guests) used to cook great mince pies and since then i have always loved them at Christmas time.  If you have never cooked them before its time to give them a try! Before we begin you should know mince beef is not used in these pies anymore so don’t let the name fool you. We now use “mince meat” which contains fruit instead of meat and so preserves the mince pies much longer and tastes great.

The recipe we are going to use is from Low Fat Veggie Foods

Spicy Mincemeat

1. Place 1 1/4lb/500g grated aples and 2lb/900g mixed dried fruit in a pan. Add 2 tsp mixed spice and 1pt/600 ml cider.

2. Simmer for about 20 mins or until mixture forms a pulp and most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in 2 tbsp brandy, whisky or rum, and allow to cool.

3. Pack the mincemeat in sterilised jars and store in the fridge until required.

Healthy Chritsmas Mince Pies – 150 calories per mince pie

Six Filo Pastry sheets (12 x 8in/30 x 20cm) on top of each other. Cut into 6 square-shaped sections to end up with 36 individual squares.

2. Take 6 non-stick patty tins. In each tin, layer 4 individual pastry squares at slight angles to each other, brushing with beaten egg white in between each layer. Place 1/2 tbsp mincemeat (see mincemeat recipe) in the centre of each pastry case.

3. Brush remaining 12 pastry squares with egg white and scrunch them up. Place 2 scrunched-up squares on top of each portion of mincemeat. Bake in a preheated oven at Gas 5/190C/375F for 10 mins until crisp and golden.

And thats it! You can decorate your pastry however you want. Usually some kind of festive picture on top works well, such as a christmas tree cut out of the left over pastry and placed ontop before being put into the over. Sprinkle flour or sugar on afterwards according to taste.