Tag: healthy ingredients

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5 Ways to Bake Healthy Christmas Cookies

Do you ever wish there were healthy Christmas cookies? I don’t know about you, but Christmas time is pretty much cookie time! I’m a total cookie monster and all those delicious varieties of cookies can add up to a lot of sugar and calories. So how do you enjoy your cookies and eat healthier, too?

The obvious idea is to eat fewer cookies. But that isn’t always practical, am I right? Another idea is to make healthy Christmas cookies. So, here are some ideas to make the cookies that you bake healthier, whether they become gluten-free, low-carb, or lower in fat and calories.

Healthy Christmas Cookies

Healthy Christmas Cookies Idea #1: Switch to Dark Chocolate

dark chocolateQuite a few Christmas cookies contain chocolate, but that doesn’t mean you need to do without these yummy cookies when you are trying to be healthier. A better way to make healthy Christmas cookies with chocolate is to make the switch to dark chocolate.

Dark chocolate has slightly less fat and calories than milk chocolate. But more important, dark chocolate is good for you. It is filled with antioxidants, and sometimes even doctor-recommended. Add dark chocolate chips to your favorite Christmas cookies to make them a little healthier.

Healthy Christmas Cookies Idea #2: Roll Flatter Sugar Cookie Dough

A super easy way to cut the overall fat and calories per cookie with traditional sugar cut-out cookies is to roll the dough flatter. You are going to reduce the portion sizes but still, have some amazing sugar cookies. It is a simple way to get some cookies that will cut the nutritional facts in half, but by using the exact same sugar recipe your family is used to. It also lets you have more dough to make even more cookies than you are used to making. Of course, this doesn’t give you license to eat more of them. That will defeat your point!

Healthy Christmas Cookies Idea #3: Use Healthy Oils

coconut oilAnother thing that Christmas cookies often have in common is using a lot of fats, such as butter. However, you can easily make them heart healthy by cutting out those fats and instead switching to healthier oils.

Get rid of all the butter, shortening, and vegetable oil in the recipe, and opt for coconut oil or olive oil instead. There are even some substitutions that allow you to use pureed fruit to replace the fats and make them even healthier.

Tips for replacing butter for healthier oils:

  • Coconut oil — This is pretty much an even exchange, just be sure the coconut oil is the same consistency as the recipe needed for the butter. Cookies made with coconut oil tend to be crunchier.
  • Olive oil — For every Tablespoon of melted butter, use 2-1/2 teaspoons of olive oil. Remember to use a milder flavored oil and don’t try substituting in recipes that require you to cream the butter and sugar. Coconut oil would be a better option in that case.

Healthy Christmas Cookies Idea #4: Try Adding Some Dates

If you feel that your holiday cookies need to be sweeter, but you want to reduce the amount of sugar being used, you can replace the sweetness with dates. Dates are a type of fruit that tastes a bit nutty, but in general, has a mild flavor. They contain a lot of sweetness, so when you puree them and add them to your cookie recipes, it makes a big difference without adding to the fat or calories of the cookies recipes.

Healthy Christmas Cookies Idea #5: Increase the fiber

oatsIf your recipe calls for all-purpose flour, you can replace up to half of it with whole wheat flour. The resulting cookie may have a courser texture and then there may be less volume of dough, but you’ll increase the fiber of the cookie. Other ways to increase the fiber in your cookies include:

  • Add flaxseed meal to the dry ingredients. A single tablespoon can add 3 grams of fiber to your recipe.
  • Add ground high-fiber cereals to your recipes, such as oats, wheat germ, and wheat bran.
  • For moister cookies, replace some of the fat with applesauce.
  • Add grated apples or zucchini
  • Add nuts or seeds. In addition to increasing the fiber, they add texture and crunch.
  • Replace some of the fat with pureed beans, such as garbanzos or white beans


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[one_third] Healthy Eating Worksheet [/one_third]
[two_third_last]

Take Charge of Your Health!

Changing your eating habits can be tough. But it doesn’t have to be if you take a little time to think it out and create a plan.

This Healthy Eating Worksheet will walk you through the process of creating a healthy eating plan. All you need to do is print it out, set aside some time to complete it, and then fill it out. Then you can create your plan, knowing that you have addressed potential obstacles and came up with some creative ways to handle them.

Download Now [/two_third_last]

Categories
Healthy Living

A Healthy Ingredient for Almost Any Dish

Looking for a way to pump up the nutritional value of your meal? Add in a healthy ingredient! Cooking healthy and great-tasting meals from scratch doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and once you’ve committed a good recipe to memory, there’s usually a temptation, at least for most people, to make the same dish over and over again. We all want to show off our skills at something we know we’re good at, but getting stuck in a pattern like this is not only boring but could wind up being rather unhealthy, as well. To help keep your diet both varied and healthy, here are some tasty ingredients that you can add to almost any dish.

Healthy Ingredient 1: Lima Beans

healthy ingredient lima beans, with pasta

I’ll admit I’ve been a lima bean hater in the past, but when added sparingly to the right dishes, they can add unique flavor and texture to a dish. If you like to eat a lot of starch-heavy foods such as pasta and potatoes, then why not plan to re-discover the grossly underrated lima bean? These nondescript little beans are bursting with nutrients, such as fiber and protein. You don’t have to get a lot of them in to hit your daily recommended amount of iron, either. Perhaps the best thing about lima beans is how versatile they are. There are some favorites you’ve probably heard of before, but you can really add lima beans to almost any savory dish that you can think of. Any number of soups, salads, and stir-fries can be accented with a handful of these great little beans. Furthermore, the fact that lima beans come canned, frozen and dried means that you can keep your kitchen stocked up on them and only take them out as and when needed.

Healthy Ingredient 2: Kale

healthy ingredient - kale, with pomegranate
Source: Flickr

Kale is a true nutritional powerhouse, and also one of the most versatile greens you can bring into your kitchen. It’s packed with vitamins A, C and K, not to mention heaps of iron and calcium. It’s also completely void of fat, despite being high in fiber for a leafy green. As kale has become increasingly popular with a health-conscious, eco-friendly generation, more sustainable agricultural firms such as Boggiatto Produce are making kale a big part of their operation. Kale makes a fantastic accent to various meat stews, rice dishes, salads, pastas, and so on. Recently, I had the pleasure of trying a potato, sausage and kale soup at The Olive Garden that is just fantastic! Kale’s water-dwelling relatives, kelp and seaweed, are also very nutritious, and for years they’ve been been staples in too many Asian dishes to list here!

Healthy Ingredient 3: Radicchio

healthy ingredient - Radicchio

Radicchio, if you haven’t heard of it before, is a purple Italian lettuce that can be added to more or less any lettuce dish to add a sharp, distinctive kick, not to mention a number of health benefits. Radicchio is bursting with inulin, which helps to control your blood sugar levels, and it’s also a fantastic source of vitamin K, which is essential for bone health. It’s also worth noting that radicchio contains four times the antioxidants that romaine lettuce has. Anthocyanin is the ingredient that makes this lettuce purple. This nutrient can help to lower a person’s blood pressure, slow down the process of age-related memory loss, and deliver a range of other health benefits.

Healthy Ingredient 4: Bitter Melon

healthy ingredient - bitter melon
Source: Pixabay

Bitter melon may be pushing the boat out somewhat for you, but this is another highly flexible and healthy food that you can add to range of different dishes. Although bitter melon may look and cook a lot like a zucchini, it has a much stronger flavor, and you can’t really use it as freely as you would its more bland-tasting cousin. Getting some bitter melon in every now and then can be absolutely fantastic for your blood sugar levels, and the case for these amongst diabetics is looking better and better all the time. They can also be a very healthy way to keep a cap on your appetite if you’re looking to lose weight. This is because bitter melon has an incredibly low glycemic index, meaning that when you eat some you’ll feel much fuller for much longer.

Healthy Ingredient 5: Lupini Beans

healthy ingredient - lupini beans
By Calapito – Own work, Public Domain

If you like chickpeas, which seem to be in pretty much every healthy living recipe these days, then try swapping them out for some lupini beans every once in a while. Their similar taste means that you’re not going to have a massive shock biting into a mouthful, and they’re also bursting with fiber, protein and healthy carbs. They’re also naturally much crunchier than chickpeas, and you may find them more satisfying in salads or just as a snack in between meals. There are also a number of curries, pastas and noodle dishes that lupini beans are delicious in.

If you’re looking to play around with your cooking, but you’re afraid of it getting out of hand, give some of these healthy and delicious ingredients a try.

[divider]

[one_third] Healthy Eating Worksheet [/one_third]
[two_third_last]

Take Charge of Your Health!

Changing your eating habits can be tough. But it doesn’t have to be if you take a little time to think it out and create a plan.

This Healthy Eating Worksheet will walk you through the process of creating a healthy eating plan. All you need to do is print it out, set aside some time to complete it, and then fill it out. Then you can create your plan, knowing that you have addressed potential obstacles and came up with some creative ways to handle them.

Download Now [/two_third_last]

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