Trim Down on The Trimmings

The holidays are filled with amazing foods! We enjoy all the holiday meals and all the “trimmings”. Do you know what the trimmings are? I have heard that phrase all my life and only in recent years did I think about it. What are these trimmings we speak of so fondly? Where do they go for the rest of the year?

The “trimmings” are all the side dishes that are included during the holidays. The decadent side dished that come out during Thanksgiving and Christmas that stay away during most dinners throughout the year. So many of us don’t or won’t eat turkey during the holidays with out gravy and a heap of cranberry sauce. Plus, there’s the stuffing to go along with the meal as well a basket of dinner buns. I have not been to a family gathering over the holidays where there haven’t been appetizers before the meal, dinner with all the “trimmings” and then a BIG holiday buffet of dessert.

Can we cut down on the trimmings? Do we need to slather our meal in gravy? I’m not suggesting you skip it, but maybe have a taste, or a drizzle. I thought one Christmas that I would buy a beautiful ham instead of a turkey to not have to make the gravy and cranberry sauce. Little did I know that while my back was turned my guests were preparing a "white gravy" for the ham!! I didn’t even know there was such a thing!!

A dinner bun AND some stuffing?  Are they not the same thing?  Bread spiced, soaked with meat juice and baked in a bird or bread slathered in butter.  Could we choose just once this year? Do we need to eat all that in one sitting?

Is your cranberry sauce homemade from real cranberries or is it from a can?  One serving of a popular brand of canned cranberry sauce contains 110 calories, 25 grams of carbohydrates and 21 grams of sugar. The main ingredients are obviously cranberries, high fructose corn syrup and more corn syrup.  This one I would skip unless you make it yourself and control the amount of sugar that’s put in. 

One of my FAVORITE holiday dishes is maple glazed carrots. I know they are going to be there every Christmas dinner and LOVE them. This year my mother in law (she makes them the best!) is away for the Holidays so I have decided to skip them. If she was here it wouldn’t be that easy, but I feel that if I attempted to reproduce her delicious dish I wouldn’t do it justice!  I’m not convinced I’m coming out a head, so I will ask her to make them at another dinner this year instead so that I don't feel like I'm deprived! (as discussed in my blog on day 11)

I want to hear from you today about your FAVORITE holiday trimmings.  Which ones are you willing to cut back on and which would you miss dearly if they weren’t there.  I’m still not sure where all these trimmings go the rest of the year but maybe it’s for the best!  Thanks for reading and for following this holiday health challenge!!  See you tomorrow!!