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!

What More sweet Treats?!

I tend to use carob more than chocolate for children's recipes as quite often with the sugar and caffeine found in chocolate they can become very hyper. I am not saying that chocolate should be banned completely - just be aware of the effects. Try it for yourself and see! 

Why make life more stressful for yourself this Christmas? And why not give them an alternative which is healthier for them in the long run?

For these carob chunks all you need is 1-2 large bars of carob (naturally sweetened with no added sugar), some chopped nuts and dried fruit such as raisins, rice syrup, orange rind and cinnamon.

• Break the carob bar/s into chunks and place in a glass dish. Place this dish in a saucepan with simmering hot water and continue to simmer until the carob has completely melted.
• Caramelise the nuts in a pan with the syrup, cinnamon and orange rind (1 minute in the pan is plenty) set aside to cool and harden.
• Lightly grease a dish with a small amount of olive oil, pour in the carob and then start placing the caramelised nuts and dried fruit on top. Gently press ensuring that they are all pressed into the carob.
• Leave to cool (cools best in the fridge) and then remove from the dish and cut into chunks.
• If you have difficulty removing the carob from the dish you can use grease proof paper before hand or turn the dish upside down (with a plate underneath to catch the carob) and gently pour a little hot water onto the base of the dish - this will melt a little of the carob helping it to slide out easily.

Children with supervision can help chopping the nuts with a child safe knife and gently pressing the nuts into the carob.

Perfect Christmas treat for all the family. Even the fussy ones!

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!

A spoonful of sugar...

Refined sugar has become one of the most widely used substances in the modern day diet. It is added to virtually everything from the usual cakes, chocolates, sweets, fizzy drinks as well as being hidden in many other products such as bread, baked beans, sauces, crisps etc - yes even savoury foods contain sugar!

Have a little read of labels when you are next in the supermarket -

more than half of breakfast cereals contain between 25%-70% sugar (especially children's brands!) Don't be fooled by the added vitamins and minerals that make the cereal seem healthy!

(There are plenty of good sugar free, natural cereals available)

So what is wrong with sugar anyway? As with anything, we all have free will, however being aware of the affects that each food gives us we can then choose what is best for us in in the moment as well as long term. Once we know and notice how a particular food can harm our health, most tend to opt for a healthier alternative.

If you find you or your children are craving the sugary stuff, try increasing the natural sweetness within main meals. Use more root and round veg roasted in the oven, mashed, in creamy soups, nourishing stews - sweet potatoes, pumpkin and carrot are perfect for this. Avoiding excessive consumption of salty foods such as meat, cheese, crisps and added raw salt will help to reduce this sugar craving too.

A few points about refined sugar...

• The extreme refinement and concentration of sugar is difficult for the body to cope with.
• It is known as empty calories with no nutritional value.
• Excessive consumption can give a roller coaster feeling which can also affect emotions, giving a quick sugar rush (when kids become hyper) with a big low afterwards (when children become tired and cranky) and this doesn't just affect children!
• Sugar consumption creates acidic blood. Regulars to this blog will know that we need a slightly alkaline pH level of the blood to function properly, if the blood is too acidic the body rebalances itself by using minerals from the bones to balance the blood - not good if you want healthy bones!
• It is harmful to teeth, which can lead to rotting, the need for fillings and other problems.
• After consuming 100g the body's pulse and blood pressure increases just after 15minutes.
• Sugar can become addictive.
• It tires the Liver, Spleen and Pancreas that all help to keep blood sugar levels stable within the body.
• Excessive consumption can produce diabetes and obesity.
• It can reduce the body's natural defence's and feed bacteria.
• With the extreme energy highs and lows that come with sugar, this can increase the chances of depression, anxiety, and concentration levels - not good for school children!

...and the list goes on.

With so many artificial sweeteners (which are just as harmful), syrups, honey, raw cane sugar, fructose etc things can get a little confusing when looking for an alternative.

So what do I recommend as an alternative? Sweet and simple, syrups made from whole grains...corn and barley malt, rice syrup etc 100% natural and delicious and because they derive from whole grains they will not give the same extreme highs and lows as sugar can.

Try it out, see the difference when you and your family consume sugar vs rice syrup.


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