Pamela's Healthy Pantry

This month has flown by. How have you done? Has healthy eating been on your mind? How about on your plate? I have found that there is often a disconnect between the healthy food choices that are on my mind and the actual food that ends up on my plate, and my hips. Especially during a time of year that seems to be engulfed by chocolaty, buttery, sugary treats.

I have tried looking at those things as if they were poison. It doesn't work. I simply tell myself I can have a taste, or just one, or will start over tomorrow. Sound familiar?

As I was Christmas shopping last week I noticed a display of Snow White DVDs. She was the ultimate one bite girl. One bite of that apple and she was down. It was poison, not by nature, but by alteration.

Yep, I am about to go there...alteration, like processed foods...chemicals added. Who knew that a cartoon could provide such a great illustration for healthy eating?

As we go into yet another week of celebrated gluttony keep Snow White's apple in mind when you make food choices. The less altered the natural food, the healthier it will be.

A baked sweet potato is a wonderful side dish, sans the butter and brown sugar. Sprinkle a little freshly ground cinnamon on top and enjoy the natural sweetness. You will add tons of nutrition to your body for around 150 calories, depending on the size of the sweet potato.

Baked apples with Truvia and Cinnamon area wonderful desert. No crust needed. For that matter pumpkin pie can be a healthy choice if you replace the sugar with Truvia and part of the egg yolks with additional whites. Yes, I know, I am modifying the process for foods we love.

A lovely platter of raw vegetables with a yogurt dill dip allows noshing throughout an evening event with no guilt. If you love the crunch of crackers, choose a whole grain variety, but read the labels because not all of them are 100% whole grain.
A great spread to serve with the crackers is simply an 8 ounce package of fat free cream cheese, a couple of tablespoons of skim milk and about 1/2 cup of fresh salsa. Mix it up and serve it as an appetizer are party snack.

The key is modification and moderation. Modify the recipes we love so that they love us back and eat them in moderation. Making a fat free dip recipe, then eating the whole batch, really doesn't help our waistline or our health.

Watch for my recipes for skinny egg nog, mini quiche and onion bundles later this week.

Healthy Eating to you!
Pamela