This year, you can throw a Christmas party that tries to toe the line, kick the Christmas cookie, but still keep the Christmas cheer. Here are a few suggestions for your No Regrets Christmas Party.
Christmas is a time for spreading holiday cheer and doing lots of holiday eating. In fact, the New Year's resolution more than likely has its roots, not because the New Year is a fresh start, but rather that everyone pigged out from Thanksgiving to Christmas. While a little Christmas overindulging is bound to happen at one Christmas party or another, you can beat Christmas calories.
This year, you can throw a Christmas party that tries to toe the line, kick the Christmas cookie, but still keep the Christmas cheer. Here are a few suggestions for your No Regrets Christmas Party.
1. Choose Your Liquor Wisely
Beer is often worse than soda when it comes to calories and some wines are not fantastic, either. Liquor has the best chance of being lower in calories as long as it is not turned into cocktails with sugary mixers and fruit juices. This year, try enjoying diet soda and spiced rum as your drink of choice. Just be careful, especially if you are not used to drinking hard drinks and even more so if you have to drive.
2. Limit Variety
This may sound like strange advice, but when you are planning your menu, limit the variety of your food because the more variety you have, the more you will eat. For instance, if you have a cheese course with 10 different cheeses, chances are you will have one or two bites of each type of cheese. If you only have three types of cheese, then you will still have one or two bites of each cheese, but you will have reduced how much you are eating by 70 percent.
3. Variety Limitations Don't Apply to Vegetables
A vegetable tray is the outcast of any normal party, but if you are trying to watch what you eat, it can be your best friend. Therefore, if you are going to do the veggie tray, do it with style and panache. Forget broccoli and cauliflower (which are just begging to be dunked in Ranch) and go for carrots, tomatoes, jicama, edamame, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, blanched asparagus, etc. Serve the vegetables with a hummus dip and eat it in moderation.
4. Raw, Steam, Boil, Bake, Sauté in That Order
Often the foods we eat would be perfectly healthy if they had been cooked differently. The nutritional value of anything is zapped to nothing the second it takes a bath in bubbling vegetable oil. Therefore, if you can, serve your food raw (though if you do, keep it cold to prevent food borne illness). After that, try to serve foods that have been steamed or boiled (like shrimp or chicken poached in wine). If you cannot make a menu with foods using those techniques, serve foods that have been baked or roasted in the oven in as little oil as possible. Lastly, you can sauté as long as that food can be sautéed in heart healthy oil—no butter! Also, notice fried foods are not even listed; don't serve them and no one will miss them.
5. And For Dessert...Fruit
Seriously, serve no baked goods at your No Regrets Party. Instead, serve fresh fruit, mascarpone, honey, and sweetened wine for your desert; it will be light, refreshing, and different. Don't worry about disappointing anyone, guests who were expecting Christmas cookies probably have some at home anyway!
