Natural Wellness Inside and Out At Your Fingertips

Guilt Free Thanksgiving Dinner
Thanksgiving dinner can be very sinful. We make excuses and even associate our new year’s resolution with our Thanksgiving dinner by telling ourselves we will make it up by dieting and exercising. From the traditional turkey to its’ stuffing, from rich buttery biscuits to pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream, just to name the basics are the kind of food that makes you soo full, it tranquillizes you to sleep.
Here are some ideas to think about to create a healthier dinner menu, by substituting certain ingredients or overall entrees. These ideas are adjustable to suit your taste and are easy to make that it can also be done any day, not just during a holiday. Here are some ideas for soup, salad, and beverage.
It’s healthier to fill up on fruits and vegetables rather on bread, rice, or starchy and foods that are high in carbohydrates. Consider substituting bread or dinner rolls for more fresh salad, or high fiber multigrain or whole wheat bread.
Instead of drinking artificially flavored juiced that are high in sugar, try making your own fresh juice, spa water or green tea. Avoid soda, instead, for a light crisp drink, use plain carbonated water and add in the flavors by mixing in pineapple juice, ginger, honey, lemon, or lime. Instead of ice cream serve sherbet, yogurt or cottage cheese. Make fruit salad out of fresh fruit instead of canned fruit that’s full of unhealthy sugars; skip out on high fructose ready made fruit cocktail. Make some cranberry soda out of fresh pureed cranberries and carbonated water. Make pumpkin, apple, strawberry, pineapple, cherry pie using fresh fruits instead of the canned version; you can even play around with the fruit by combining or layering them.
Aside from this, also remember that substituting diet Coke for regular Coke does not cancel out the unhealthy and fatty foods. Although, it is a funny analogy; no, diet soda pop does not wash away the fat and calories. Just try to eliminate soda all together.
For soup create a low sodium soup by making it yourself. Purchase 2 pounds of beef shank, 2 tomatoes sliced in big pieces, and let it simmer in a big pot in about 6-8 cups of water overnight. Season it with 1 tsp freshly ground pepper, 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon, and add it to your beef broth. Add water and adjust the ingredients to suit your taste. Instead of beef you can also substitute it for clams, chicken, turkey, fish heads, or combine. For an extra kick add thin slices of ginger or chopped garlic. Or you can even add herbs such as oregano, thyme, rosemary or sage.
For salad steam 2 tomatoes, a bundle of asparagus. Lay the asparagus on a plate put the boiled tomatoes on top. Squeeze some lemon over it as the dressing, garnish with cilantro. Or in a salad bowl mix some romaine lettuce, baby spinach, 1 cup shredded carrots, 1 cup chopped bell pepper, 1 cup olives, 1 cup chopped celery. For the dressing add ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp squeezed lemon juice.