Healthy Christmas Treats

Christmas can be a wonderful time of year, celebrations with the family for whatever the season may mean to you, delicious food, snug evenings in around the fire place playing games as well as a little bit of magic for the little ones too.

Christmas can however cause a lot of unnecessary stress especially when doing the supermarket runs. We seem to be bombarded with junk food and sugary treats at every aisle, mainly aimed at children. Not only do these foods on a regular basis harm the health of growing children, they can also increase stress levels as the body fights the toxins, saturated fats and refined sugars.

This is not to say we cant enjoy some chocolate, sweets or other festive goodies out there. However just notice the wide range of variety of more wholesome brands available. If you are counting the pennies, wonderful homemade treats can be great fun to make involving the children too.

A few healthier Christmas snack options (some of which can also be used as stocking fillers)...

• Tangerines, Satsumas, Mandarins...what a better way to bring in one of their 5 a day!
• Homemade carob treats (simply melt a bar, mix with dried fruit and nuts and leave to cool before cutting into chunks). This can be wrapped in little bags as a tasty stocking filler.

• The same mixture can be made with added orange rind and rolled into a ball shape when cool enough to handle. Wrap in foil and add to stockings as a tasty chocolate snowball.
• Use the previous carob mixture and mix with a little desiccated coconut, rolling into small truffle shape balls and coating with more coconut. Mini snowballs!
• Check out your local health food shop for tasty sweets free from sugar, gelatin, artificial colours and preservatives...and yes they taste great!
• Melt a carob bar into a lovely rich thick sauce and allow kids to dip their tangerine segments  or nuts into the sauce.
• Dried fruit and nuts in mini bags.
• Mini packets of raisins.
• Fruit leathers, fruit snack bars.
• Homemade popcorn with a few drops of umeboshi seasoning...kids will love this!
• Vegetable sticks and tortilla chips with dips (avocado, hummus, beetroot...)
• Kids non alcoholic mulled wine: red grape juice, orange juice and a few mulled wine spices.
• Roasted chestnuts in the oven.
• Sweet potato wedges
• Sweet potato and apple cake. The touch of cinnamon makes this cake a perfect festive treat.

Superfood - Sweet Potato

Sweet Potatoes are wonderful for the autumn. Not only for their wonderful warm, orange colour and natural sweetness but also for their ´superfood´ qualities.

It has been noted that they contain huge amounts of Beta Carotene that the body converts into vitamin A, essential for healthy eyes, strong immune system as well as acting as a powerful antioxidant. Good stuff!

They are especially great for children as they are naturally sweet, helping to nourish the spleen and pancreas, relaxing the body and helping to reduce cravings for sweets and candy in between meals.

Try out the sweet vegetable bake recipe here

Enjoy!

Mmm Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes offer great natural sweetness which children of all ages love. Not only do they taste great, they help nourish the spleen and pancreas, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels.

 

Check out the delicious sweet potato recipes on this blog (more to follow)...

Sweet Potato Wedges

Sweet Potato Treats

Sweet Potato and Apple Cake

Sweet Vegetable Bake

Oven Baked and Delicious

Other sweet potato recipe ideas include sweet potato and red lentil soup, sweet potato and beetroot soup, mashed sweet potato with orange rind, mashed sweet potato with suede, and jacket sweet potato with various fillings.

Sweet Potato and Apple Cake

This is my adapted version of a recipe from a large Health Food store. It is very easy to make this rich, moist and delicious cake...and there is no added sugar, gluten, wheat, or dairy.

Get children involved - they will love making this!

Check out the recipe section of this blog for the recipe. YUM!

Sweet Vegetable Bake

Ok so this is not for dessert but as part of the main meal, however by bringing into the meal sweet vegetables such as carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin you can reduce chocolate and sweet cravings afterwards.

Naturally sweet vegetables are great for nourishing the spleen and pancreas, and help children to relax after a long day at school - as well as the parents after a long days work!

• First of all finely slice plenty of onions (5-6) and saute with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt for about 20-25 minutes until very soft and sweet. 
• Whilst this is cooking, peel and finely slice carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips and pumpkin and start to fill a greased oven proof dish with a layer of vegetables.
• Scoop on top a little of the onion mix and then place more vegetables on top.
• Continue in this way, as if you were making a lasagne. If you wish to brush the layers of vegetables with a soya sauce, toasted sesame oil dressing as you go along you may.
• Bake in the oven until soft inside and golden and crispy on top.

Children will love this!

Sweet Potato Treats

Have some fun in the kitchen this Christmas with your little ones and made some sweet potato treats for the whole family to enjoy. This is an alternative to the traditional Spanish sweets called 'Panellets' usually made with potato flour and sugar.

In this recipe all you need is the flesh of some oven baked sweet potatoes that have been baked in a low-medium oven until soft inside (the drier the consistency the better), orange rind, and ground almond powder.  Mix together and create little ball shapes and roll into some toasted pine nuts or other nuts. (If you find they are not sweet enough for your liking you can add a little rice syrup to the mixture).

You can also create different flavours by adding some carob powder and rolling the balls in desiccated coconut.

Have fun!

Chips?!

Who doesn't love sitting by the seaside with some freshly prepared fish and chips from the local chippy - I do for sure...every once and a while. However when fast food becomes a weekly, daily habit it can cause many health problems as well as offering not much nutritional value to keep ourselves and our children going in this ever hectic world of ours. 

Chips are popular with children especially, being (for many years) a staple in school lunches. Thanks to Jamie Oliver and other like minded people/organisations this is starting to change.

So heres an alternative, try cutting sweet potatoes into chunky chip shapes and roasting them in the oven. Just a little olive oil, tiny sprinkle of sea salt and bake until golden and crispy. Delicious and it also counts as one of your kids 5 a day...

Oven Baked And Delicious

Baked Pumpkin, Squash and Sweet Potato have to be one of my favourites and they are also a huge hit with children. The natural sweetness and crispy texture will be a winner for sure.

Simply remove the seeds from the pumpkin and cut into slices (about 2cm thick) and the sweet potato into similar sized slices or wedges and drizzle the following dressing all over for an extra mmm factor...

1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of apple juice concentrate and a dash of soya sauce

...bake in a medium oven until edges are crispy and the vegetables are soft and delicious in the middle.

Perfect as a vegetable side dish for many different meals, leftovers (not that there will be many left!) can even be added to soups, stews, cold salads etc etc.

Enjoy and do let me know how your children respond!