How did you go with christmas? Did you eat all the food! What did you eat?
We pretty much stuck to our LCHF lifestyle and shared it with my parents who came for the day.
It is the second christmas we have done this way and it is much easier than people think.
I have found over the past two years that the best thing when it comes to food is to keep it simple. A hard less to learn as I waste heaps of money on recipe books I flip though, ooh and aah then never use. If I were one for new year resolutions I think I would have to make one pledging never to buy another recipe book LOL
The holiday season is renown for entertaining and it doesn't have to be difficult or high carb.
I have shared some of my tips for the season below and hope you find them helpful
1. The thing with most foods is that they are unnecessarily sweetened. Seriously, you can go without many sweeteners in things.
Make a custard from scratch and use high fat ingredients it really doesn't need sugar, I use Quirky Jo's custard recipe and never put in the sugar and it is awesome! As with most grain free cake recipes too. This is my current fave from Traditional Cooking School but OMG! 3/4 of honey! They've gotta be kidding right! What I do is instead of using the honey I use stevia sweetened (avalanche) hot choc mix as the cocoa portion of the recipe and stevia sweetened choc chips. This keeps the cake sweet enough without being totally over the top.
2. Go for savoury over sweet. This is especially good if you are entertaining people who aren't into eating how you do. Assuming they aren't vegan then go to town with the cheese platter. Make some dips (don't buy expensive full of crappy seed oil dips), mash a couple of avocados with some chilli, garlic, lemon juice and seasoning, or whisk some herbs into cream cheese. Seed crackers are awesome or make some seed bread for cheese and dips. Both tasty and LCHF/paleo. Remember filling up on high fat will leave you satisfied for a lot longer than filling up on carbs.
3. Planning ahead is the third tip. If you are caught short you will be able to stick to what you believe in and stay healthy. I find if I am short of time then I am more likely to bad poorer choices food wise so I like to know that I have stuff I want to eat available. I have a well stocked pantry with nuts, seeds etc, I stock my freezer with good quality meats. And look for mark downs at the supermarket, cheese lasts quite a while, cream and butter can both be frozen too. If you are in Launceston I recommend Casalinga or Conmurra Meats. The latter deliver weekly to your door, grow and butcher their own grassfed meat and is really well priced. At Davies Grand Central you can find a great range of LCHF products too. Last year I wrote the Launceston Shopping Guide for LCHF
4. Go seasonal. Berries. Need I say more really LOL Tis the season and all that. I love summer berries. We don't do much in the way of fruit (read:don't eat it really) for 10 months of the year but come summer we love berries. The kids will occasionally have mango, watermelon and cherries too but I tend to stick to berries and occasional cherries. We are blessed with some great local PYO (pick your own) farms or you can pop down to Laun Harvest Market and grab some. We were very lucky to win a berry box from Paleo Providore that was delivered two days before christmas so we chowed on berries for christmas. I also freeze berries for smoothies, cool treats and cakes.
At the end of the day it is about enough the company of others.
It doesn't have to be a banquet, a few good foods that are filling is the way to go rather than masses of rubbish. And, don't beat yourself up if you have something not on a list.
This is a way of life, it isn't a competition or a test so you can't fail or cheat.
