8 Rules Of Christmas: Healthy Holiday Eating Tips

First of all, before anything else is said, let's agree on a couple of things.

Sharing good times with friends and family is part of what the holiday season is all about. When these groups get together, it is often in the presence of delicious, scrumptious food. This food tends to be available for snacking all day. Personally, I would immediately call the Vatican and nominate anyone for sainthood who could truly enjoy all the festivities and be awash in the total ambiance of all the season inspires while ignoring the lavish plates of goodies while walking around munching on a stick of celery.

Oh yeah! You're going to sample Aunt Millie's mincemeat pie, Uncle Bob's specially prepared fried turkey, and probably a glass of Alka-Seltzer or something similar.

Unfortunately, I am here to remind you of a few things; you are on a diet, you want to lose weight, all that stuff that is so tempting is fattening, and this is the hardest time of the year to be good. So, let's just pick up on a few rules to help you get through the season.

8 Rules For Healthy Holiday Eating:

Before we get started, I want you to get comfortable, so put some turkey on your plate, get some of that great dressing (don't forget the cranberry sauce), fight Cousin Ed for some of that green bean casserole my niece, Sharon, makes so well, and tell Grandma to save a piece of pie for you. Have a seat, relax, enjoy your meal (while balancing a soggy paper plate on your knee) and I will give you the rules to help you survive the season.

1. Forgive yourself in advance and give yourself permission to have a good time:

Look, this stuff isn't poison! You didn't take 10 years off your life just because you ate more than you should have...and then went back for seconds. You are only human, and you are here to have a good time! One of the reasons you want to lose weight, or keep it down, is so that you can enjoy life, and this is one of the most enjoyable times of the year. So, as they say, live a little. Whatever happens over the next few days will not kill you, and whatever damage you do manage to do can be rectified.

2. It's just a couple of days:

Okay, for some families, it may be a couple of weeks...twice...Thanksgiving and Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanza. Whatever it is for you, it is finite, it WILL end, and it is mainly limited to a certain time of the year. Who you are in terms of health, fitness, and weight loss is determined by the overall accomplishments of the year, not by a few weeks in the fall.

3. Stay with your program:

You will definitely minimize the effects of all the dinners, cookies, and snacks if you can still get in your walks, aerobics, weight training, or whatever else you have been doing. During the holiday season, it can be difficult to get everything done the same as in the rest of the year, but two days of exercise Thanksgiving week, while not as good as three or five, is still better than none. Simply knowing you have not abandoned your plan will help you get over any depression you might have because of your holiday eating, and will help reduce any negative effects from all the delicious, gooey calories you have "accidentally" consumed. If you cannot stay on a formal program, squeeze in a walk, even if it is a high-speed shopping trip through the mall. By the way, this is the reason I love yoga. When everything's done, I can retire to my bedroom and not only get the physical benefits of the yoga session, but I relieve some of the stress I may have built up during the day. That helps with the eating too.

4. Remain in touch with reality:

You will hear people speak of "mindful eating". Be aware of what you are doing. Have you ever heard someone say, "That is so good, I just have to have some more."? Of course, YOU and I never say things like that! Well, the truth is that you DON'T have to have some more, and, if you do, it doesn't need to be right now. Just because the food is there right now doesn't mean it has to be eaten right now. You know what's good for you and what isn't. One piece of pie today is not going to kill you or destroy your weight loss resolution, but do you have to have that pie? Isn't there a healthier treat you could have, or could you just wait until the meal has settled, or after you take a walk to rev up your metabolism and burn off some of what you already ate? Why not take a piece home with you and have it as a treat for later...when you aren't as full as a tick?

5. Food is not love:

Many people tend to equate food and eating with love. You cannot change the others, but you can change your own attitude. Refusing seconds of Grandma's turkey does not mean you don't love her. If she is hurt because you normally stuff yourself and this year you're not doing her food "justice", just say that you are full right now but will have more later. Take control of YOUR life. Others will have to take control of their own.

6. If you are the cook:

Choose healthy dishes prepared in a healthy manner. If you have found a new diet-friendly food that you enjoy, share that with others. This will give you one more healthy dish on the groaning board to select your own meal from.

7. Alcohol:

If you enjoy wine, beer, egg nog like my Uncle Wilbur liked, or other drinks containing alcohol, just slow down and cut back. Try slipping in a glass of water between drinks. Drinks containing alcohol are sneaky calories. They do nothing for you nutritionally, but they do have a lot of calories. A few drinks with friends can give you more calories than a Big Mac...and you probably have these drinks while snacking or eating a meal! Oh well! At least if you are a beer drinker, you can try some light beers. It will give you an excuse to sample.

8. Be happy to be where you are, doing what you are doing, with the people you love:

If you fall head over heels off the diet wagon, have fun. What you do throughout the year will have more effect on your weight and health than what happens between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

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How long to cook green bean casserole; get expert tips on a classic American casserole recipe in this free cooking video. Expert: Jennifer Cail Bio: Jennifer Cail has been cooking and baking since she could reach the stove at the age of 4. She has been studying pastry-making almost as long, going so far as to meet the White House pastry chef. Filmmaker: randy primm

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PETA Banned Thanksgiving Ad "Grace"

NBC passed on airing a PETA commercial on turkey cruelty during its Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the animal cruelty activist groups says. The commercial shows a girl saying grace before her families Thanksgiving feast. During her prayer, she tells her family -- as PETA describes it -- "exactly like it is for turkeys who are killed for holiday meals." PETA says that NBC first asked for more information to substantiate the claims. The groups says it provided the network with a New York Times article on the abuses turkeys face, but the article provided was actually an op-ed piece from 2003 by Patrick Martins, the director of Slow Food USA NBC ultimately rejected the ad, PETA says: Thanksgiving can be the scariest time of year if you're a turkey. More than 45 million of these fascinating birds are killed to disgrace Thanksgiving tables each year. In hopes of empowering kids everywhere to speak out as their families adorn their Thanksgiving tables with dead birds, PETA offers its Thanskgiving ad, 'Grace.' In the ad, you hear from one straightforward little girl as she tells it exactly like it is for turkeys who are killed for holiday meals when asked to say grace around her family's dinner table. Despite the fact that it contains nothing graphic, NBC has rejected the ad, which was submitted to air during the iconic Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When not forced to live on filthy factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for ...

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Outback Restaurant Recipes

Have you ever had a delicious meal at an Outback Restaurant, and when you got home you wanted some more? The way the steak is cooked just right, and the way the Blooming Onion dish is represented...why it just makes you want some more! This article will explore cooking some Outback Restaurant Recipes at home.

The average American family eats out 3-4 times a week. Depending on how many family members you have, and on how far you have to travel (guess how much gas costs these days!), this can add up to a hefty penny. I agree, there is a certain taste to a restaurant meal, but does it justify the cost?

Outback restaurant recipes and recipes from other famous restaurants are closely guarded secrets. But, today, lots of cooks have sort of "cloned" and copied their dishes. These people love to cook and recreate the delicious taste. These recipes are then tested and re-tested in cooking forums where thousands (sometimes over 30,000) people cook these copy cat recipes and give their opinions. It is then tweaked just so, that you won't be able to tell the difference!

Lots of people go crazy over the food (& décor) at Outback Restaurants. While it's not feasible to recreate the Australian décor in your house, you definitely can create their delicious meals in your own home. Why not cook some Outback Restaurant recipes? Bring the restaurant to your own kitchen.

Cooking Outback restaurant recipes might be a challenge at first. But with step by step instructions it will become a joy. (And I'm not even talking about eating it!) You will save money, save gas, get a delicious meal and get tons of compliments!

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White Pepper Versus Black Pepper in Recipes

Some recipes tell you to "add salt and pepper to season" but does that mean black pepper or white pepper, or are they pretty much identical anyway? Actually, there is a difference in flavor and some dishes suit black pepper best while others suit white pepper.

If you are making a light-colored dish, the recipe might tell you to use white pepper solely because if you use black pepper you will see the black flecks in the finished dish, so it is for aesthetic reasons. Black pepper tends to be stronger in flavor than white is but other chefs never use white pepper because they do not like the flavor.

When it comes to making your own food recipes, you should use whichever one you prefer. Some people have a mill with white, red, green, and black peppercorns in it and they grind a combination of all of those on their food for a more complex and interesting flavor.

Facts About Peppercorns

The berries of the pepper plant are called peppercorns and these plants are native to southern Asia. This plant was the main spice the European explorers were looking for when they discovered the New World. It still accounts for one fourth of the spice trade in the world.

Did you know that white and black pepper come from the same plant? The white variety is allowed to fully ripen on the vine, as opposed to the black peppercorns, which is why it costs a bit more. The skins are peeled off and the inside of the peppercorn is white. White peppercorns have an earthy flavor whereas black peppercorns simply give heat to a dish.

The white ones are popular in Mexican, Indian, and Asian dishes, perhaps because a lot of these recipes are spicy and earthy already and the white pepper complements the overall flavor of the dish. If you want to use white pepper, it is best to buy whole peppercorns because the flavor is longer lasting. Peppercorns start to lose their potency when you grind them, which is why freshly ground pepper is usually recommended.

Recipe for Arabian Mutton and Rice

Arabian food is one of the richest and healthiest cuisines in the world. A lot of dishes are made with healthy olive oil. Garlic is often used in Arabian dishes too, as well as white pepper for flavor and heat. The following recipe is very tasty and serves four people.

What you will need:

2 cups rice
1 lb chopped mutton
1 minced carrot
1 chopped cabbage
2 pieces ginger
1 sliced red bell pepper
Juice from 1 lemon
1 minced tomato
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Water, as needed

How to make it:

Wash the rice and let it soak for ten minutes. Grind the garlic and ginger to a paste, then add the minced tomatoes and stir well. Add the lemon juice, white pepper, olive oil, and salt. Stir this mixture with the mutton and let it marinate for forty five minutes.

Add the bell pepper, cabbage, and carrot and cook the mixture in water until you get a thick gravy. Add the rice and enough water to cook it. When the rice is tender, add the mutton and cook the recipe for ten minutes or until the meat is done. Serve immediately.

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Holiday Broccoli Casserole

I took a classic recipe from our Thanksgiving table and updated it! Our family never ate the green bean casserole, we ate broccoli casserole. My updated version eliminates the canned soup in favor of a homemade roux made with Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Another change I made to take the casserole out of this world is switching the french fried onions for caramelized red onions instead! Don't wait until the Holidays to try this wonderful casserole!

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Russian Recipes and Cuisine

Russia is a vast multi-ethnic country with a rich farming tradition, and has a tremendous amount to offer in the culinary arts. Many Russian dishes are derived from traditional peasant food eaten in the country's huge rural expanses.

Crops of rye, wheat, millet and barley provide the ingredients for breads, cereals, pancakes, kvass (a bread drink), and of course beer and vodka. Other common ingredients include a variety of vegetables as well as fish, poultry and game, as well as mushrooms, berries, and honey. Additionally, the influence of Russia's historic neighbours such as Persia and the Ottoman Empire can still be seen in some Russian dishes.

From the time of Catherine the Great (who reigned from 1762 to 1796), Russian nobility imported products and household staff from Austria, Germany and most especially France. The result was a plethora of new dishes, infact a whole new Franco-Russian cuisine, that includes some of the most famous "Russian" dishes: beef stroganoff, sharlotka (charlotte russe) and veal Prince Orloff.

Some highlights of Russian cuisine include:

- Okroshka - A traditional cold soup made from Kvas (bread drink). Okroshka can be prepared in meat, fish or vegetable varieties. A combination of neutral tasting vegetables (such as potatoes, turnips, rutabagas (yellow turnips), carrots or cucumbers) and spicy vegetables (mainly green onion, plus celery,chervil, dill, parsley or tarragon) are used in making the soup. Spices such as black pepper, mustard or pickled cucumber may also be added.

- Teur - A variation of okroshka, but using bread instead of vegetables.

- Soljanka - A thick spicy and sour soup. There are three main varieties: meat, fish or mushroom. All variants also contain pickled cucumbers, and usually cabbage, cream, dill and salty mushrooms.

- Borshch - The Russian variant of Borscht. A vegetable soup made with beets, but meat, cabbage and potatoes may be added.

- Shchi - A traditional cabbage soup. There are many varieties, for example the poor typically made the soup just from cabbage or onions, but richer variants might add meat, carrots, parsley, spice herbs and sour ingredients (the latter might include smetana (sour cream), apples or pickle water).

- Studen (Kholodets) - Jellied pork or veal, with spices and a small amount of vegetables. The food is prepared by boiling the meat for an extended period of time, and then chilling the dish. The dish may be eaten cold, in which case it is served with grinded garlic with smetana (sour cream), horse radish or mustard, or may be used as a garnish for other dishes.

- Shashlyk - The Russian form of shish kebab. Shashlyk features alternating slices of meat and onions.

- Katlyeti - Small pan-fried meatloaves made from pork or beef.

- Pelmeni - A thin dough (made with flour add eggs) filled with minced meat (beef, lamb, pork, or a mixture of all three, may be used). Spices such as garlic, onions and pepper are mixed into the filling. Pelmeni are cooked by boiling (although sometimes they are fried after boiling), and then served with butter or sour cream.

- Pirozhki - A stuff bun or pie that is filled with a cooked filling. Traditional fillings include fish sautéed with onions and mixed with chopped hard-boiled eggs, chopped boiled meat with onions and eggs, or mashed potatoes with eggs and sour cream.

- Blini - Thin pancakes made from wheat or buckwheat, and usually topped with either sour cream or caviar.

- Beef Stoganoff - Another dish which probably has Franco-Russian roots, however the exact details of its exact origins have been lost - it may perhaps have been named after the Stroganov family. The dish consists of sautéed pieces of beef served in a sauce with sour cream.

- Veal Prince Orloff - A Franco-Russian dish created by Urbain Dubois, to Prince Orloff, the Russian ambassador to France. Veal Orloff is a braised loin of veal, cut thinly into slices, with layers of pureed mushrooms and onions between each slice, then topped with bechamel sauce (white sauce) and cheese, and browned in the oven.

- Charlotte Russe - A cold dessert created by French chef Marie Antoine Carême who was employed by Czar Alexander I. It is a mould, lined with lady fingers (small sweet light sponge cakes) and filled with Bavarian creme (a custard made with flour, thickened with gelatin and flavored with liquer).

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The Great Green Bean Hyperventilation

Future favorite meal: green bean casserole. The bean doesn't fall far from the pod.

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