Having Ourselves a Clean Little Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas this year is so different. Last night for Christmas Eve, I cleaned up a recipe that is a regular of ours. I made 7 layer dip. (I'm counting the veggies as 2 layers!)

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7 Layer Dip

Layer these ingredients in the following order

Fat free re-fried beans

Drained plain yogurt

HM guacamole

Diced peppers

Diced tomatoes

Mrs. Dash

Shredded cheddar

I serve these with baked multi-grain tortilla chips. The leftovers (when we have them) are wonderful fillings for wraps!

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So that was dinner on Christmas Eve - we had this before church. After church we came home and had cheese and crackers, veggies and cookies. Yes, cookies. I'm a clean eater - not a saint!

I paid for it a bit this morning with what I like to call a "food hangover" - woke up with a nasty headache and feeling of general laziness. I'm going to enjoy today but I'm not going overboard. I like feeling good!

This year, like I wrote yesterday, I am streamlining a little. So last night I prepped my breakfast. Our Christmas morning breakfast was Pumpkin Bread with Yogurt Cheese Icing and fruit salad. I mixed the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients separately last night for the pumpkin bread so that this morning I only had to stir them together and bake. The Pumpkin Bread recipe was clean. I got if from Tosca Reno's The Eat-Clean Diet for Family and Kids. http://www.eatcleandiet.com/about_the_diet/the_books.aspx#The+Eat-Clean+Diet+for+Family+and+Kids I love the recipes in that book because they are not so exotic and "health-foody" that my kids refuse to eat them.

I had to modify the Pumpkin bread because DD9 is allergic to eggs, but it turned out very nicely. It made 2 loaves so I put one immediately in the freezer for a treat on a school morning. The fruit salad contained Blueberries, Blackberries, Cantaloupe and Banana. The kids had seconds of everything. One thing that pleased me: The icing is not specifically clean, as it contains confectioner's sugar. They thought it was too sweet. I felt like that was a major breakthrough - their taste is changing too!

For Christmas dinner (which is actually lunch in our house) we are having Greek food, instead of the traditional turkey, stuffing and casseroles. (We refer to this as our "Tradition of Non-Tradition). See the photo above! Here's the menu

Turkey Breast roasted with Lemon, Garlic and Oregano

Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with feta cheese and tzatziki sauce drizzle

Greek Style Pita triangles brushed with olive oil and roasted garlic

Greek Salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, and red onion (we share a universal hatred of olives)

I'm not sure if I will have the pita bread - that is more for the kids. For dessert, if wanted, we have an abundance of cookies and fudge floating around, and I have one perfect, fabulous dark chocolate truffle to savor.

I feel very blessed this year to be on the road to health. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, and in years past, when I have been "dieting" I either felt horribly guilty or horribly deprived. Life is good when you eat clean.

Merry Christmas - remember - NO GUILT! Whatever you have done, not done or eaten yesterday and today, what makes you a clean eater is eating clean again tomorrow!