Cast a Healthy Halloween Spell
The string of seasonal celebrations is just beginning, and it all starts with one of my favorites, Halloween. While the candy and treats of Halloween might be scary...there is no better time than now to set up strategies and goals for a healthy holiday season and enter 2012 feeling gratified and renewed.
One of Halloween's greatest gifts is the traditional pumpkin. This nutritional powerhouse offers much more than a way to decorate your front porch! One cup of canned pumpkin provides only 80 calories, 0 grams of fat, 7 grams of fiber, and an array of vitamins and minerals such as iron, vitamin A, and beta-carotene.
One of my favorite pumpkin recipes is a Thai Pumpkin Soup (see below), which turns canned pumpkin into a nourishing fall dinner. Other simple ways to use pumpkin is to mix it into recipes you frequently eat. At our house, we add canned pumpkin into foods like oatmeal or pancake mix, and my one of favorite fall pumpkin desserts is a pumpkin mousse:
PUMPKIN MOUSSE:
1 cup vanilla yogurt + 1/8 cup canned pumpkin plus 2-3 Tbsp. whipped cream = 120 calorie dessert.
When your trick o treater's return from their Halloween night showing off their bounty of candy ...you might feel overwhelmed with the amount of sugar lingering in the house. The following are tips to help manage getting tricked by all of the treats.
CANDY YOU BUY:
First of all, a good idea is to avoid buying your favorite candies to hand out to Halloween guests, instead, select treats you could have in your house and not be tempted by.
Although your house might get a bad reputation...handing out something other than candy is also an option. Parents of children with food allergies (i.e.: nuts) will appreciate it as well. Ideas: boxed raisins, bagged pretzels, sugar-free chewing gum or non-candy items like fun tattoos or stickers.
CANDY YOUR TRICK O TREATERS BRING HOME:
Use the Love It Or Leave strategy and have your kids keep their favorites and get rid of the rest. The "non-favorites" could go into a family community candy bowl (where it gets secretly smaller at night when the kids go to bed- because the trash can enjoyed it...not you.)
Donate: Perhaps the kids get a lesson on giving by making goody bags for your postman, giving it to a local food bank or sending the non-chocolate candy to our US soldiers by visiting soldiersangels.org.
Teach them how to SAVOR and ENJOY: Halloween candy can also be an opportunity to teach our children how to SAVOR and ENJOY food, and to be mindful when we eat.
Give Treats some Company: Another idea is "use up" candy by adding it to healthy foods, i.e.: adding M&Ms to trail mix or sprinkle crushed candy into whole wheat muffin batter.
Finally, Halloween and candy go hand in hand, and a one day sugar rush is a normal passage of this festive holiday!
Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup Recipe
2 14-oz. canned pumpkins
1 14 oz. can vegetable or chicken broth
1-2 Tbsp. peanut butter
3 Tbsps. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 tsp. (or more) red Thai curry paste water
2 tsp. fine grain sea salt (or to taste)
Add pumpkin and peanut butter to a large pot and warm over medium high heat. Add the coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a simmer. Now add vegetable broth a half cup at a time pureeing between additions until the soup is the consistency you prefer. Bring up to a simmer again and add the salt (and more curry paste if you like.
Serves six.
If you follow these guidelines your everyday foods will be much improved