Holiday cooking made healthy

Jaclyn Brice, Health and Wellness Specialist Ministry Medical Group

By Jaclyn Brice
Health and wellness specialist, Ministry Medical

For many people, a gain of 5 to 10 pounds is common during the holidays. However, getting the weight off can be a challenge.
When making your family’s favorite dishes this holiday season, these tips below can help make your holiday cooking healthier.

Sweet Potato Casserole:
• Substitute egg whites or Egg Beaters for the whole eggs.
• Use light margarine, or reduce the margarine amount and add some applesauce to the sweet potato mixture.
• Make with fresh sweet potatoes instead of canned sweet potatoes.
• Choose pineapple packed in its own juice instead of the kind in heavy syrup.
• Add a cut-up apple to the streusel topping, and cut down on the amount of pecans.

Stuffing:
• Use low-fat margarine.
• Substitute eggs whites or Egg Beaters for the whole eggs.
• Replace pork sausage with chicken or turkey sausage.
• Add fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth.
• Choose whole-grain bread.

Mashed Potatoes:
• Use low-fat cream cheese or lite margarine.
• Replace some of the potatoes with steamed cauliflower (it sounds odd, but it works).
• Substitute 2% milk or low-fat buttermilk in place of heavy cream.

Squash or Pumpkin Soup:
• Use lite margarine.
• Add low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth.
• Choose lite whipping cream or low-fat half-and-half.