"Greeting cards have all been sent, the Christmas rush is through," as Karen Carpenter sings in "Merry Christmas, Darling", and it's true - the holiday season is coming to a close. Hopefully you survived the Christmas season without any dips in your diet, particularly if you are following a diet for medical purposes. With Christmas Dinner over, and Boxing Day treats out of the way, there's typically one last hurdle to make before you can get back to your regular eating habits: New Year's Eve. And this one may be the worst of all.
Many events start early and run long, lots of which run off of finger foods that can be left out for long periods and get increasingly fatty as the night goes on. My family breaks out all the Christmas baking (shortbread, butter tarts, Nuts & Bolts), has a cheese, sausage and cracker spread (1 slice of sausage = 1 cube of cheese = 5 regular crackers = automatic gallbladder attack for many people), and busts out the frozen appetizer trays from M&Ms featuring things like spring rolls, chicken wings, potstickers and tiny pieces of breaded pork and chicken. Many people also order in on New Year's Eve, be it pizza or chinese food, and chips are a staple at such parties.
What to do, what to do?
One of the easiest solutions to making sure you can eat the food being served at a party, is to step up and offer to help provide some of the food yourself. If you are planning the menu then you can at least plan on a couple things that you can eat safely. And just because you need to eat low-fat doesn't mean you have to completely redefine your standard New Year's Eve menu - you just may need to tweek it a bit!
Let's look at the fatty appetizer trend. While veggie trays are a long-standing staple on any finger-food spread, so are the high-fat dips that go with them. Sour cream, mayonnaise, oil and cheese are the typical bases for party dips, but don't forget about the wonderful gift that is fat-free sour cream. While it may lack the richness that full-fat sour cream does, it still rewards you with the tanginess of the original and can be used to amp up many dishes. Uncle Dan's Ranch Seasoning packets can mix into fat-free sour cream for a great alternative to a pre-mixed ranch dressing. You can also find low-fat or even fat-free cream cheese products. Philadelphia makes a low-fat spreadable Herb and Garlic cream cheese that tastes great. Be warned, the texture is a bit funny, but the taste goes a long way, so throw in a tablespoon of the cream cheese with a cup of fat-free sour cream and whisk until smooth to get a garlicky dip. If spreading, spread thin and you'll hardly notice the grainy texture (it's not their fault, that's just what happens when you have nearly fat-free cream products!) Another great dip option is hummus. The chickpea-based spread has become a hot item over the past few years which means there are lots of different varieties you can find in stores and thousands of recipes you can find online. Be warned, some varieties may add lots of oil and be full of cheeses. Look for high-flavor, low-fat varieties like Roasted Garlic or Red Pepper. If you would rather use hummus with a bread pairing, opt for low-fat tortillas, flat bread or pitas. For chips, toast pita or tortilla wedges yourself in your oven to make sure no oil is added in the cooking process. Be warned, regular pitas or tortillas can be quite fatty. Check the label. If you can't find any in stores yourselves, consider baking your own pitas to control fat quantities. Use this recipe from King Arthur Flour, but substitute 1 tbsp of the oil with 1 tbsp skim milk. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/golden-pita-bread-recipe
And, if we are going into chip territory, bust out your salsa! Salsas are a great fat-free topping!
Veggies can be served more ways than just chopped into sticks however. Try skewering them and brushing them with a homemade Sweet Thai Chili Sauce (http://www.bernardin.ca/pages/recipe_page/51.php?pid=545) before grilling them. Or julienne a variety of veggies, roll them in rice paper and serve them with the chili sauce for yummy spring rolls that aren't fried!
Lots of people tend to do asian inspired dining at New Year's. While it may be nearly impossible to order anything low-fat from a typical western-chinese food restaurant, there are some asian restaurant dishes that you can safely order. Look for Pho dishes with chicken or shrimp. Sushi can be a great low-fat option if you avoid fatty fish varieties, mayonnaise, roe, tempura and avocado.
If you typically make your own chinese food, fried rice with minimal oil and only egg whites is still a great dish (I'll actually post that recipe today since I've experimented with it alot and have some notes on it). Many of the sauces you can find are low-fat, and while chinese restaurants typically deep-fry meats before they sauce them, you don't have to serve your meats breaded and fried.
Lemon Chicken Sauce: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/284/Chinese_Lemon_Chicken38791.shtml
Sweet and sour sauce: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-and-sour-sauce-i/
Ginger sauce: http://houseandhome.com/food/recipes/ginger-beef-recipe (just the sauce recipe, not the meat portion of the recipe)
Making your own sushi rolls is quite fun too, fyi! And adding strips of mango to your rolls will make sure you won't miss the avocado!
Make sure you have fruit on hand for a dessert option for yourself, and if you need more, an angel food cake or fat-free pudding is always a safe go-to
Happy New Year's and I hope you have fun eating low-fat!
Chicken Fried Rice:
In a hot, non-stick wok, cook up small cubes of chicken. If you need to add oil to prevent sticking, use an oil mister or canned cooking spray.
At the same time, cook 1 1/2 cups (dry) of jasmine rice. (make sure you rinse the rice before you cook it for best results).
When chicken is cooked, add julienned pieces of carrot, celery and/or red pepper. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Turn up heat to med-high.
Move chicken and vegetables to one side of wok, and in other side add 1/2 c. beaten egg whites. Scramble.
When egg is fully cooked, add cooked rice, 2 green onions sliced on the bias and 1/2 c. frozen peas. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce and 2 tbsp oyster sauce. Stir fry and make sure sauces are fully mixed in.
If you're not an oyster sauce fan, it isn't necessary, just add a bit more soy sauce, but it does make the dish in my opinion!
Mrs. VanderLeek
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