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.)