A 2008 Holiday Menu Challenge

(In a hurry & just looking for the Imbolc recipes? Scroll down or click me)

Celebrating holidays with food seems to be a HUGE trigger for me to overeat, not just on that day, but unfortunately for several days after. As many who have read this blog know, my family and I honor a series of seasonal holy days known collectively as “the wheel of the year”. Essentially that’s 8 holidays that weave their way thru the calendar year – and that’s also 8 opportunities to go WAY overboard with celebratory foods.

But of course any holiday/celebratory tradition could pose difficulties when it comes to staying on a healthy eating program. Let’s face it, I can call it Ostara, you can call it Easter, but either way for many of us the chocolate bunnies are hopping into our mouths faster than you can say Peter Cottontail!

Yet food is still an important facet of any holiday that I don't want to deprive myself or my family of -- although finding other traditions to focus on is a strategy I also intend to employ.

But either way, this year I decided to create a challenge for myself and I’m sharing it here. For each of the 8 holidays, (plus a few other observances tossed in for good measure), I am going to do a completely WeightWatchers Core Plan menu from start to finish, including dessert -- and use not more than my 5 daily points towards the meal. Even if you do Flex and not Core you will find this helpful since those same recipes will likely be low in points, too. Oh, and lots of holidays from various traditions tend to be essentially interchangeable when it comes to food, so hopefully you’ll find something of use no matter what you celebrate.

I want to prove to myself that I can enjoy these special occasions with distinctive foods yet not hit a speed bump in terms of my weight loss/health. Of course there are other ways to do this. Saving up points, earning more AP’s (activity points), etc – but that hasn’t always worked for me, and besides, I thought this would be an interesting experiment.

So, the first major holiday I’m doing is Imbolc/Candlemas (2/1 or 2/2 depending on tradition). For some of you this same meal could make nice St Patrick’s Day fare. Here’s the menu, just click on the dish & you'll go to the recipe, or scroll down to see them all in succession:

Cottage Pie (aka Shepherds Pie) – Core (3pts)
Smokey Cabbage & Onions – Core (0pts)
Roasted Applesauce (1pt)
Crispy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies (3pts)

And here's to the first of what I hope to be a years worth of happy healthy holidays!

(PS: with the exception of the applesauce, these are WeightWatchers recipes I’ve tweaked to make either vegan or more aptly core.)

Cottage Pie (aka Shepherd's Pie)

Imbolc traditions have a Celtic flair in our house as elsewhere, and this first recipe from my Imbolc holiday menu is a tater-topped pie that fits both the cultural flavor as well as symbolically reflecting what is occurring within Mother Nature – for buried beneath a bed of luscious, fluffy white potatoes is a warm and hearty stew, mirroring the still dormant seeds buried deep in the snow-covered earth just waiting to sprout.



Cottage Pie
CORE
POINTS® Value: 3
Servings: 8

12 oz Lightlife Smart Ground Original Vegetarian Meat Substitute
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp black pepper, or more to taste
1/8 tsp table salt, or more to taste
1/2 cup onion(s), chopped
2 cup zucchini, or yellow summer squash, sliced
14 1/2 oz canned tomatoes, undrained
1 ½ cups canned black beans, drained & rinsed
6 oz canned tomato paste
cooking spray or oil mister
1/4 cup vegetable broth, or more, as needed
1/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Plain Soymilk
8 medium uncooked red potato(es), peeled and quartered
6 oz Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack flavor Vegan gourmet cheese alternative

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Place potatoes in a large pot and fill with just enough water to cover, boil until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain potatoes and place back in pot. Add soy milk, 1/4 cup of FYH cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Mash until fluffy, adding veggie broth if needed; set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet misted w/grapeseed oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and zucchini or squash and cook till vegetables are tender crisp, deglazing with veggie broth as needed. Next add Smartground and saute for a minute or two till beginning to color. Finally add undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, allspice and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper; bring to a boil.

Coat an 8 1/2- X 11-inch baking dish with cooking spray; fill with veggie & Smartground mixture. Spread potatoes on top, covering it completely. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of soy cheese and bake until potato mixture is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before dividing into 8 portions.

Smoky Cabbage & Onions

Of course any decent Irish meal would include both potatoes and cabbage, at least according to my late grandmother, so this second dish in my Imbolc holiday menu line up fits the bill. No recipe really needed for this, – it’s a most humble side dish that goes particularly well with the cottage pie: take about 8 cups of shredded cabbage and a large thinly sliced onion & sauté in a large skillet misted w/grapeseed oil, using veggie broth to deglaze as needed. When the cabbage is wilted and the onion nice & tender, add a bit of liquid smoke to finish the dish, or you could use some extra points for some nice veggie bacon crumbled atop.

This would serve about 8, is Core, and has 0 points.

Roasted Applesauce

With the hearty goodness of cottage pie & the smokiness of the cabbage & onions from my Imbolc feast, I thought something a bit more on the sweet side would make a nice dish to round out the whole meal. Applesauce came to mind – and the one from “Vegan with a Vengeance” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is FABULOUS. This accounts for 1 of the 5 daily pts, incidentally, but it’s well worth it. Still, you could forget the sweeteners called for and try just adding Stevia for a totally Core recipe. Oh, and in terms of the holiday, of course apples were a big part of the sacred mythology of the Celts…what comes to mind immediately is the legendary Isle of Avalon.

Roasted Applesauce

POINTS® Value: 1

Servings: 6-8

3lbs McIntosh or Granny Smith apples (about 9)

juice of 1 lemon

4 tsp canola oil

¼ cup real maple syrup

2 TBS sugar

1 tsp sinnamon

½ tsp lemon zest

pinch allspice

¼ tsp salt

preheat oven to 450.

Peel, core & slice the apples into 1 inch chunks. Sprinkle w/the lemon juice. Set aside.

Combine the oil, maple syrup, sugar, cinnamon & lemon zest in a glass baking dish and wisk together. Add the apples and toss to coat.

Roast until the apples are quite tender, about 25min or so, stirring once after about 15min. Either in the roasting pan or transfered to a large bowl, mash the applesauce to your desired texture. Can be served warm, room temp or chilled.

Crispy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Last, but certainly not least on my Imbolc holiday menu is dessert. Oats have been a staple food of the British Isles & Ireland since ancient time, made into porridge or small griddle-cakes sometimes called bannocks. What better way to end our contemporary Celtic-y meal than with a homey batch of cookies celebrating this favored Gaelic grain. I’m planning to serve these with some Stevia sweetened hot cocoa for a sweet ending to this midwinter festival of light & hope.


Crispy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
POINTS® Value: 3
Servings: 12 (@ 2 cookies ea)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp table salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
1 1/2 tsp ground flax seed meal, mixed w/1.5 TBS of water, set aside
4 Tbsp Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread Margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-grain wheat flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar, margarine, granulated sugar, vanilla, flax & water mixture until well blended, about 2 minutes. Stir in the applesauce. Add the dry ingredients except the oats & cranberries and stir until evenly combined. Finally, add in the oats and cranberries and stir till just blended. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoons onto the baking sheets, 3 inches apart, making 24 cookies; with the back of a spoon, spread each to a 2' diameter. Bake until the edges are browned, 13-15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets 2 minutes, then remove with a spatula to wire racks to cool completely.