Keeping Trim from Now Through New Year’s

I found two helpful articles to encourage you to stay on the road of healthful eating and physical activity during this holiday season. If you’re like me, you’re looking at your calendar over the next few months and worrying about what the scale will say on January 2nd!

The first article has tips from a Registered Dietitian on avoiding temptation during this holiday season. She has some really great advice, so be sure to check it out!

The other article I found is a success story about a guy who had weight loss success after seeing a registered dietitian and then following a healthful eating plan. I like success stories - they keep me focused on my mission!

“O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” - Psalm 34:8

One of the most common questions I get asked as a dietitian is “What should I order at the fast-food restaurant.” While there aren’t many healthy options at fast food establishments, eating healthy isn’t that hard and doesn’t have to be too expensive.

My recommendations for healthy fast foods are: Grilled Chicken & Salad. Watch out, however for these common pitfalls:

- With restaurants trying to cater to the health conscious crowd, sometimes they are not careful about the number of calories they load in a salad they try to make look healthy. Cheese, bacon, ham, chips, dressing, and other toppings all add calories, often creating a salad with much more caloric density than a hamburger.

- If there is a grilled chicken sandwich on the menu, choose this option with light or no mayonnaise. Sometimes I’ll even get the sandwich, take the chicken out and enjoy the chicken on top of a salad, if there is no grilled chicken salad available (this lets you have hot chicken on your salad, too!).

- Watch the sauces and dressings, asking for reduced-fat or fat-free dressing whenever possible.

Check out this helpful article I found about eating out healthfully while on a budget

A very dear friend of mine, Mrs. Jo Lynn Burns, sent me this recipe along with a couple of others for the “Holiday Specials” newsletter. While I plan to use her recipe for Sausage Logs in this Friday’s edition of the Cooking with Ellen Holiday Specials E-Newsletter, I thought I would go ahead and use her Strawberry Salad recipe for this week’s newsletter as an example of how a few quick substitutions can make a recipe just a little better.

We enjoyed this Strawberry Salad with the Burns one year on Christmas day. In December 1999, my family bought some land in Cedar Bluff, Mississippi, close to where the Burns were living at the time. We spent the entire month of December (with the help of many dear friends) constructing a small dwelling for us to live in while we built the house we live in today. Christmas day was spent at the new land, constructing, plumbing, and working, so that we could get our stuff moved in before December 31st. That night, the Burns had us over for dinner, serving us a delicious meal, including this special salad.

2 boxes sugar-free strawberry Jell-O
1 small can crushed pineapple
2 1/2 cups hot water
1 small box frozen strawberries
1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream
Chopped pecans

Dissolve Jell-O in water, stir in strawberries until thawed. Add pineapple and nuts. Chill half of mixture until set. Spread sour cream over, then pour remaining mixture on top and chill.

Note: If you don’t want to make the “lighter” version of this recipe, just use regular Jell-O and sour cream, although normally I can’t even tell a difference when I use the sugar-free and low-fat versions of these ingredients.

~ To help get rid of annoying kitchen smells, or just to give your kitchen a fresh new aroma, place a pot of boiling water on the stove. Add to it some vanilla (a teaspoon or two) and some lime slices. Bring to a simmer - Tip from: Amanda Criss, Slate Spring, Mississippi

~ Party Idea: Have guests write their name on a quart-size resealable freezer bag with permanent marker. Crack two eggs into the bag (not more than two) and shake to
combine them. Put out a variety of ingredients such as
cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, etc. Let each guest add ingredients of choice to their bag and
shake. Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up. Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13
minutes. You can usually cook six to eight in a large pot. Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily. This is
nice to serve with fresh fruit and coffeecake. Enjoy!
Note: I haven’t tried this but it really sounds like fun!