Healthy Food Ideas for Your Holiday Season Gathering

We’ve got you covered with healthy food ideas for your holiday season inside this blog! It's easy to indulge during this busy holiday season. It's a time for merriment and parties, and lots and lots of food. But it is certainly possible to keep things in check and keep your diet on the healthy side as you enjoy the festivities. What we often find is that this helps you head into the new year feeling great about yourself instead of carrying around any extra guilt that simply isn’t serving you. What else makes you guilty? Feeling like you need to have this Pinterest worthy morning routine and evening routine. We think it’s time to let that go. Learn why we have said goodbye to morning routines here. If you want to make sure that your holiday season gathering is going to be a healthier one than normal, free of guilt around food and routines, while still keeping your guests satisfied, here are a few ideas.

Use refined sugar alternatives to make sweets

As you likely know by now, at Dunnebells we are not here to deprive you of your favourite foods and snacks. What we are here to help you with are some ideas on easy swaps you can make to your baking sweets to bump up the nutritional quality! Swapping sugar for other replacements can be an easy way to keep yourself healthy. Some of our favourite swaps include dates and fruit purees. We bet your guests won’t even know the difference!

Prepare Your Own Healthy Dips

Dips are a mainstay at parties and gathering around Christmas, and, sadly, some of them are loaded with artificial colours, additives and artificial flavourings that your body doesn’t want or need. By making your own food and preparing your own healthy dips at home, you can avoid these problems. It's very easy to make different types of hummus, so give it a go this season!

Use Spiced Snack Mixes Rather Than Salted Ones

Snack mixes are often served at parties and gatherings during the holiday season, and although there’s nothing inherently wrong with them, they do tend to be very high in salt content. That’s why you could consider switching to something like an Indian spiced snack mix rather than one of the regular salty options. It's a simple change but it offers genuine health benefits. After all, keeping an eye on our sodium intake is never a bad idea.

Serve Fruit and Cheese

If you’re looking for dessert options that are not full of sugar and carbs and other additives, you might want to try something completely different like this fruit tray Christmas dessert. It's very festive, but it also incorporates more natural elements and isn’t so heavy on chocolate, cream, and refined sugars. You can get creative with your dessert and your guests will love the change!

Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate

We’ve said it before but we will say it again, we are not here to look at what we can take away from you when it comes to your nutrition, but why not look at what we can add in? Strawberries!! Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese and also contain decent amounts of folate (vitamin B9) and potassium! Dip them in melted chocolate and it is such a simple but tasty dessert. There’s something that works wonderfully well when you company the sweet fruitiness of the strawberry with the richness of the chocolate. You can use dark, milk or white chocolate. Whatever you prefer.

HEALTHY FOOD IDEAS FOR HOLIDAY GATHERINGS

As you can see, there are plenty of ways in which you can make your holiday season gathering healthier than it might ordinarily be. Heading into the new year feeling like the best version of yourself yet! There are all kinds of different healthy foods you can incorporate into the party, and there’s nothing wrong with foods that are not so nutrient-dense. It is the holiday season after all. Enjoy!

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