Healthy Holiday Food Swaps

Happy holidays! Wherever you come from or wherever you're going home to this season, here's how to serve up fare that is both festive and light. Here are some time-honored dishes you love that can be made with less fat and fewer calories -- without sacrificing taste.

Traditional treat: What's a holiday office cocktail party
without savory finger foods, creamy dips, and fried canapés?
Leaner eat: Bypass the chips and other fried pound-packers and choose a small handful of nuts, reduced-fat cheese and fresh fruit, or chilled shrimp. Bring a hummus dip with a holiday-themed veggie platter: red or green pepper, zucchini, and jicama strips.

Traditional treat: Dark turkey meat covered in gravy 
Leaner eat: Choose lower-fat white meat without the skin and enjoy it with just a drizzle of gravy made with defatted pan juices, dry white wine, and low-sodium chicken broth.

Traditional treat: A "must" at most Americans' holiday table is a big mound of mashed potatoes drowning in butter and salt.
Leaner eat: Enjoy vitamin-rich mashed sweet potatoes or baked sweet potato rounds or fries. Spritz the strips with cooking spray, add a dash of cinnamon, and bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

Traditional treat: Corn bread stuffing cooked inside a turkey
is a mainstay of the meal for many and usually loaded with a variety of meats, nuts, and veggies, with plenty of butter, of course.
Leaner eat: Try wild rice as stuffing instead, and bake it separately in a covered casserole. Cooked inside the turkey, the stuffing absorbs too much fat from the meat.

Traditional treat: Sweet, rich, and fattening pecan pie is a
holiday highlight. While the antioxidant-packed nuts are good for you, in moderation, the corn syrup, butter, and sugar can pad your hips with up to 800 calories per slice.
Leaner eat: Opt for a small slice of pie minus the crust, and make it pumpkin, which is lower in fat and calories and also provides a good dose of beta-carotene. Or try a couple of strawberries dipped in chocolate.

Traditional treat: Potatoes, onions, eggs, and matzo flour are formed into a batter and fried in oil to produce these crispy latkes, or potato pancakes.
Leaner eat: Use extra-virgin olive oil instead of higher-fat kinds such as corn oil, and toss out the egg yolks. When cooking with olive oil, you can't take the temperature past 350 degrees, so add a bit of canola oil because it can handle the heat. The bonus: The pancakes are even crispier. Yolks make dough tender, whereas the egg whites create a crispy, crunchy
crust.

Traditional treat: Typically eaten on Christmas Eve or
Christmas Day, pork roast is a moderate-fat meat. But goose, another Christmas Day treat, stuffed with apples and dried fruit, tends to be high in both fat and cholesterol.
Leaner eat: Enjoy your roast, but limit your portion of meat to 6 ounces or less, with a few small spoonfuls of the flavorful stuffing -- and you'll save fat, calories, and cholesterol.

Remember to keep your perspective!

Even if you slip up once or twice, it's not the end-of-the-world, or the end of your ability to make wise eating choices again. Balance low- and higher-calorie foods, set your own traditions with healthier recipes, take short walking breaks for yourself, and you'll have fun this season.