How to Lighten up Your Holiday Dinner Plate: Our Top Tips

How to Lighten up Your Holiday Dinner Plate: Our Top Tips

With the holidays in full swing, you're likely surrounded by plates on plates of your favorite festive foods. From pumpkin pie to homemade bread rolls, the holiday season brings out the baker and foodie in all of us. Whether you're baking or eating the food prepared this season, if the treats you're diving into are laden with calories and sugar, they can leave you feeling quite crummy. Staying in tip-top shape this season doesn't mean you have to kick your favorite foods to the curb. In fact, you can continue to enjoy all of the dishes you love and feel great while doing so, with just a few healthy swaps. To help you out, our Bob's Red Mill Foodies have created a list of tasty ways to lighten up your holiday dinner plate. Check out our tips and tricks below!

Be Snack Conscious

How to Lighten up Your Holiday Dinner Plate: Our Top Tips | Bob's Red Mill Blog Cheese boards are in right now, and for a good reasonthey're delicious. When putting together your holiday cheese board, add a few reduced-fat cheeses or a light vegan cheese like this Vegan Cheddar Cheese. Additionally, be sure to add healthy in-season produce like grapes, strawberries, olives and figs for snacking. And lastly, don't forget the whole grain crackers! Adding healthy, homemade crackers like these Sunflower Crackers will provide an additional hearty flavor and texture to your plate and give the guests something to pair the cheese with.

Swap Healthier Versions of the Same Foods

Are you making a meal that calls for sour cream or mayonnaise? Swap it for healthier ingredients like Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt embodies the thick tanginess of these ingredients for a fraction of the calories. Plus, it's loaded with health benefits like added protein, probiotics and calcium. That being said, if your favorite recipe wouldn't taste the same without using mayo or sour cream, you can still use those ingredients; just opt for light or organic versions.

Upgrade Your Mashed Potatoes

How to Lighten up Your Holiday Dinner Plate: Our Top Tips | Bob's Red Mill Blog While potatoes provide nutrients, when mixed with additional foods like butter, milk and cream, they quickly become a heavy plate that will surely make a dent in your calorie count for the day. This year, instead of making traditional mashed potatoes opt for a healthier version like sweet potato mash or cauliflower mash. Making this swap will lighten up your holiday dinner while also providing an entirely new array of flavor possibilities. Or, skip mashed potatoes all together and make these Whole Grain Sweet Potato Muffins! If you choose to make traditional mashed potatoes, you can lighten them up using low-fat milk and less butter.

Change up Your Holiday Drinks

During winter, warm holiday drinks are served alongside nearly every meal. Hot chocolate, eggnog and peppermint lattes fill the cups of individuals all over the world. While these drinks may taste amazing, they're often made with sugar-filled ingredients that leave you crashing soon after dinner time. For a lighter way to enjoy these beverages, skip the traditional milk and creamer and use plant-based milk instead. Making these recipes from scratch will allow you to swap our sugar for a healthier alternative and will enable you to personalize the drink to your taste buds.

Cut the Crust

How to Lighten up Your Holiday Dinner Plate: Our Top Tips | Bob's Red Mill Blog Have you ever found yourself eating a large slice of pumpkin pie, just for the filling alone? You're not the only one. If you're one of many who prefer pie filling over crust, then we recommend skipping the crust altogether. When making your next pie, forgo the crust and pour the filling into individual cupcake trays. Bake it as usual and coat it with a dollop of whipped cream for a custard-like treat that's lighter in calories. Don't want to ditch the crust? Try our Gluten Free Pie Crust Mix.

Use More Veggies

Filling your plate with veggies is a great way to add healthy flavor and satiety to a dish. Green beans, cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli and kale are all low-calorie, delicious and nutritious veggies that taste great when added to just about anything. When baking your veggies, try not to go overboard with the oil, and use various spices and herbs to flavor them while keeping your dish light. For the ideal veggie-filled dinner, try out this Vegetable Lentil Salad.

Keep It Homemade

How to Lighten up Your Holiday Dinner Plate: Our Top Tips | Bob's Red Mill Blog It's no secret that at Bob's Red Mill, we love home-cooked meals. Aside from the fantastic taste (and smell) that a home-cooked meal offers, they can also be considerably healthier. Making meals at home allows you to choose the ingredients they're made with. By using wholesome and light ingredients, you can quickly turn your favorite store-bought meals into a healthy version of themselves. Plus, as we mentioned earlier, home-cooked meals allow you full control of the flavor profile, making it easier to satisfy your family's taste buds. We hope that this list of light dinner tricks works to help you offset all of the rich, filling foods you'll likely encounter at this year's holiday gatherings. These tips will not only encourage you to make delicious, healthy dinners, but they'll also save you lots of carbs, calories and unhealthy fats in the process. Ready to get started? Try incorporating the tips mentioned in your dinner recipes and enjoy the benefits!  
Bob's Red Mill
December 21 2020

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