Raw Food and the Holidays
Staying focused on raw food during the holidays can be challenging. Thanksgiving is only a day away and in my world, it signals the start of the holiday season. Parties, entertaining, and food, food, food! It is the time of year that we tend to throw our healthy eating habits to the wind and declare a ban on broccoli. Holidays mean food, but they don’t mean you have to completely abandon the progress you have been making towards healthy eating and incorporating raw food into your diet.
We have a little time left to make an eating game plan. A little advanced planning can help you make better choices and not descend in to holiday eating hell. I will give you some of my best suggestions to keep you on the straight and narrow! Or curvy and fun, but healthy.
Offer to Bring a Raw Food Dish People are quite interested in raw food these days. What better way to show people how good healthy food can be than to offer to bring a dish. Make something simple but company worthy. There are quite a few recipes here that would travel easily and not be too time consuming to make. Try the cheesecake, or the cinnamon ginger truffles. They are easy and will be sure to please.
Eat Before You Go One of my best tricks is to eat something very healthy before I go to the party. Even drinking a green drink will give you great clean energy and fill you up a bit so you won’t be as tempted to indulge in the not-so-healthy stuff. I find that if I get clean, green food in my stomach, it helps me tremendously.
Scout Out the Good Stuff Before you just get in line for that buffet, take a minute to see what is on the table and make a game plan. Look for the healthiest foods and load your plate up with those. Make sure you eat the good stuff before you even think about anything else. Many tables will have a lot of veggies, fruits and nuts on them. Easy and raw.
Really, what is required is just a little advanced planning and being present when you make your choices. If you make your plan before hand, it will be much easier to stick to the healthy foods.
I will be focusing on raw food recipes that feature holiday food through the end of the year. I already have friends asking me to make raw versions of their favorite foods. This should be fun!
Eva wrote on October 10, 2010
My daughter and I were talkling last night – she asked what we were going to do today – I said, well it’s Thanksgiving dinner so I will be busy in the kitchen! She laughed and said, “but you’re not making a real turkey so you will have lots of time!” It was much funnier when she said it – my kids are almost 100% vegan, and enjoy my raw baking – and some dishes I make.
After her comment we talked about Turkeys and said that that cooking a Turkey was a Thanksgiving tradition – I explained, no let them run free – harvesting the food from the fields is really what it is about and celebrating with friends and family.
One last thing, I am so lucky to have a wonderful Organic Farmers market down the road – you should see the winter squash and pumpkins I got – fantastic!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone – I am so thankful for Susan’s recipes!!!!
Enjoy!!!
Eva
El wrote on November 25, 2009
Good tips. How on earth did you get that fantastic turkey shot? It looks like a painting. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Susan wrote on November 25, 2009
Honestly, they were running through the back yard, I grabbed the camera with the telephoto and shot. Really dark out so used a high asa…it was the only shot that was even close…..sometimes we just get lucky!
Joie wrote on November 25, 2009
It shocked me to see live turkeys as a part of the headline “raw eating” for the holidays. My warped sense of humor (what little sense I have left) took over, saying that is taking eating naturally a step too far – now stalking and catching – wondering if we were to cook it or truly eat them raw. (no hate mail please – just a bit of levity during the pre-holiday pressure!)
Susan wrote on November 25, 2009
As a vegetarian, the closest I get to turkeys is photographing these guys running though my back yard. I was thinking that this is where turkeys should be for Thanksgiving, running wild, enjoying life. Interesting reaction to that picture…I think there is therapy for that 🙂
Pam wrote on November 25, 2009
Thank you Susan!
Enjoy!
Nadia wrote on November 24, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
I never feel tempted to step out of my mostly- raw, vegan diet (because of my spiritual beliefs on eating animal products.) But thanks for the holiday recipes! I’m going to make the cheesecake soon!
Pam wrote on November 24, 2009
Great post and I am making your cheesecake for T-day….looks so amazing!
I love your photo’s……could you please tell me what your camera is?
Many thanks in advance and Happy T-Day to you and your’s!
Enjoy~!
Susan wrote on November 24, 2009
It is an older Nikon D70. Not very special…not very fancy. 🙂
Goody wrote on November 24, 2009
Curvy & Fun all the way for me!
Looking forward to more recipes!