21 Dec What Can I Serve at my Holiday Dinner?
Before you can decide what to serve at your holiday dinner, you have to know what is something good to serve. Oh, for the olden days, when all food was organic, and all things you ate were good for you. Then the only science that applied to food was cuisine.
Note that cuisine is synonymous with eating good tasting food. That’s always my goal. Yes, you really can eat good-for-you food that tastes good too.
So what should you eat or avoid at your special meal? There’s been so much conflicting advice over the years. So let’s go back to what people ate before experts, corporations, and the government got involved. People ate clean fats and grass-fed butter, and very little sugar. And they certainly didn’t eat processed food with chemicals in it.
Maybe you’re thinking all our ancestors died young so what does that prove. They died of infant mortality, accidents, warfare, and lack of emergency medical care. They did not die of heart disease, diabetes, or autoimmune disease, or at least few did. But these are our killers today.
So let’s take the best of both worlds, history and modern times. Science supports a real food diet that’s low in sugar, includes healthy fat, and lots of vegetables. And fine cuisine can include all that, and be quite nutritious..
I live in New Orleans where eating well is our way of life. I could never live with a boring, tasteless, deprivation style diet. I cook often, eat my leftovers, and eat out occasionally. Traditional holiday dinners here can be true feasts. They include a variety of real food dishes, prepared by family members. I serve myself lots of the vegetables, and less of the starchy foods, and a little piece of dessert. I maximize the healthy and minimize the less healthy, in daily life and on the special holidays.
Here’s a recipe for creamed greens. I have served this at my own Christmas dinner. Greens can be bitter, but cream has a wonderful way of cutting the bitterness. Cheese does too, and so does broth. But for this dish, use cream, and extra points if you use homemade sour cream, because then you’re getting the benefits of probiotics.
Creamed Greens
1 bunch kale, mustard or collard greens, or spinach
3-4 tablespoons butter (grass-fed, organic)
½ to 1 cup heavy cream (grass-fed, organic)
Salt, pepper, tarragon (optional)
Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium low heat. Add greens and cover for about 4-5 minutes to lightly steam it. Skip this step for spinach as it cooks quickly. Stir often until the greens are limp and tender. Add the cream and cook till the cream is warm, thick, and thoroughly mixed, then add salt, pepper, and tarragon (optional) to taste.
Since you should have lots of vegetables on your table, here’s a recipe for roasted vegetables. The high heat of the oven will hydrogenate some oils and that’s a bad thing. So choose light olive oil as it has a higher smoking point than extra virgin olive oil, which is perfect uncooked on salads. Or choose avocado, almond, or macadamia oil, or ghee. If you want butter flavor, or sesame oil flavor, then add it at the end when you add the garlic. This recipe is another great side for your holiday table, or any night because it’s pretty easy.
Roasted Vegetables
About 3 pounds vegetables: choose any combinations of winter squash, bell peppers, onion, mushroom, eggplant, asparagus
½ to 1 cup oil: choose light olive, avocado, almond, macadamia oils or ghee
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
Salt and pepper, rosemary (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut up the vegetables in chunks so that all are similar in size so cooking time for each will be the same. Grease roasting pan with some of the oil. Add the vegetables and pour the oil on top. Add salt, pepper, and rosemary (optional) and toss to coat. Roast in the oven about 50 minutes. Sprinkle the garlic on top and roast another 10 minutes.
As a board certified functional medicine health coach, I can help you find ways to enjoy your holiday meals and still have a healthy lifestyle. We will work together to find easy and simple steps you can take that move you to health without sacrificing your enjoyment of life. Contact me and let’s set up a free introductory 15 minute phone call.
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