Simple (and Relatively Healthy) Recipes for the Holidays

With only a couple weeks until Christmas, I am looking at recipes and trying to figure out what delicious contributions I can make to my family's holiday meals. In the process I realized that I have a few recipes I could share with you might make your search a little easier!

Cocktail

Holiday Floats

Last month I shared a couple signature drinks I have made for previous Thanksgivings. This year I created "Thanksgiving Floats" which are easily rebranded "Holiday Floats". I used Martha Stewart's Everyday Food recipe for Cranberry & Apple Cider Sorbet for these floats. I followed the recipe as it was written with the exception of doubling the recipe. This meant it froze on a different timeline and even though I forgot about it in the freezer and mashed it late, it turned out wonderfully once I put it in the food processor. The flavor is quite strong but really mellows out once made into a float.

The assembly is quite simple. In addition to the sorbet you will need sparkling wine - I personally like Prosecco as it's not too dry or too sweet. Despite what my directions say in the photos below, I think the best way to assemble the floats is as follows:

1. Pour a small amount of sparkling wine in each glass. Allow the foam to subside.

2. Put 1 or 2 (depending on taste) small scoops of sorbet in the glass. I used a melon baller to get the right sized scoop for a champagne flute.

3. Slowly and carefully top with sparkling wine. The combination of the bubbly drink and the cold sorbet really causes it to foam up!

In order to keep the sorbet frozen, I took an ice bucket, filled it with ice, and then placed the bowl of sorbet on top. If you are hosting a party and want this drink to be self-serve, I would recommend doing something similar.

Appetizers

Tortellini Caprese Skewers

1 package whole wheat cheese tortellini
cherry tomatoes (I used Sweet 100s from my garden)
basil, cut or torn into skewer size pieces
Trader Joe's Balsamic Glaze
olive oil
coarse sea salt

1. Cook tortellini according to package instructions. Cool. If you don't have time to allow the tortellini to cool on their own, you can prepare an ice bath (ice & water) and plunge them for a quick cool down.

2. Assemble skewers using toothpicks sandwiching the basil between the tortellini and tomato. Be sure to skewer through the "meatiest" part of the tortellini and tomato for a sturdy appetizer.

3. Arrange dipping "sauces". Balsamic Glaze (can be substituted for a balsamic reduction) in one bowl, good quality olive oil in another, and coarse sea salt in another (or via a salt grinder) with small serving spoons. While I prefer to offer the selection of classic toppings, you could also just drizzle one or the other over a platter of skewers.

Note - I actually originally made these for a picnic at the end of summer but the colors and simplicity make them a perfect appetizer for the holidays!

 

 

 

Caramelized Onion, Gruyere and Bacon Spread

 

I made this delicious spread last year for Christmas and it was a huge hit! I found the recipe on the Cooking Light website. At only 100 calories for 3 tablespoons, you can feel free to indulge! The creamy cheese, caramelization of the onions and subtle saltiness of the bacon makes this dip seem much more decadent than it actually is.

 

Something to note - you have to cut up A LOT of onions for this recipe (this is what makes it so low cal despite all of the other delicious ingredients). If you are sensitive to the aroma, you may want to wear eye covering. I had to keep stopping because I couldn't stop crying! Also, I prepped the entire spread the day before with the exception of adding the final layer of cheese. If you are trying to get a number of items ready, just having to pop this in the oven is a big time saver. I served this spread with Trader Joe's Rye Crisps and crostinis.

Photo courtesy of Cooking Light

 

 

 

Side Dish/Salad

 

Rosemary Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Shallots

 

This was another great find from Cooking Light! Our main dish last Christmas was a pork roast and these potatoes went wonderfully. I think this dish would go equally well with any number of proteins as the shallots and rosemary really help tame the sweetness of the potatoes.

Photo courtesy of Cooking Light

 

 

Christmas Spinach Salad

 

This is a salad that was inspired by one my friend brought to an event several years ago. I just love the contrast of the pomegranate seeds against the spinach leaves. Unfortunately no photos of this one but I promise it is very simple.

 

1 bag of pre-washed spinach leaves

feta cheese, crumbled (I like the fat free or reduced fat.)

fresh pomegranate seeds (dried can be substituted but it isn't as good)

walnuts, chopped & lightly toasted

balsamic salad dressing

 

1. Fill a large bowl with spinach leaves and top with the feta cheese, pomegranate seeds, and walnuts - use your best judgement as to proportions. You want to garnish the salad - not have the toppings in equal proportion to the spinach.

 

2. Just before serving, toss with dressing or allow everyone to dress their own salads.

 

 

I hope these recipes have given you a place to start when planning your holiday meals and gatherings. The options really are endless! I am a crazy Pin-aholic so please check out my Pinterest page for lots more recipe ideas!

 

 



 

 

Turkey Day Cocktails

Last week I shared with you a couple fun ideas for Thanksgiving tablescapes using the same products on each table. As promised, I am pleased to share some delicious cocktails to make your Thanksgiving more festive! The two recipes I am sharing today are for Apple Cider Margaritas and Lingonberry Royales. Both are drinks I have successfully served at previous Thanksgivings. The Lingonberry Royale has been a recurring Thanksgiving drink whereas the Apple Cider Margarita was inspired by my initial discovery of Pinterest!

Apple Cider Margaritas
This recipe is modified from the recipe on How Sweet it Is. Photo credit also goes to this site as I was too busy drinking margaritas to take a photo! I changed this recipe due to cost of ingredients as well as simplicity in serving for a large crowd. The margaritas in the original recipe would need to be individually made and at an event with over 20 people that was not realistic. The portions below are for one drink so multiple for the quantity of drinks/size of pitcher.

1 ounce Citronge
1 ounce gold tequila
5-6 ounces apple cider (I used both Trader Joe's Spiced Cider and their Pear Cinnamon Cider and thought both were great.)
orange wedges
sugar (coarse preferred)
cinnamon
ice

1. Mix Citronage, tequila and cider together in a pitcher. I recommend having the cider chilled in advance.

2. Mix sugar and cinnamon together and place on a saucer. This will be used to rim the glasses. I did a 50/50 mixture.

3. Take a glass and rub the lip with an orange wedge. Dip the glass lip into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Squeeze the remaining juice from the orange into the glass and toss the wedge into the bottom of the glass.

4. Fill the glass with ice and the tequila mixture. Enjoy!

Lingonberry Royale
This is a take on the classic Kir Royale. If you have never tasted a lingonberry before, I like to say that they taste like a cranberry and a raspberry had a baby but in reality it is probably more like a tiny cranberry. Sounds perfect for Thanksgiving doesn't it!?!? I get the lingonberry concentrate from IKEA however if you don't have an IKEA handy you can order from Amazon. I think an unsweetened cranberry juice (or at least a naturally sweetened - NOT cranberry juice cocktail) could probably work in a pinch as well.

lingonberry drink concentrate
water
sparkling wine

1. Mix 1x lingonberry drink concentrate to 2x water. Keep in mind that you will end up with 3x the amount of lingonberry so choose your proportions carefully. The water is key in order for the concentrate to mix with the sparkling wine. Otherwise it is too heavy and does not mix well.

2. Place lingonberry mixture in a champagne flute (to taste) and top with sparkling wine. Serve!

 

NOTE: Not an actual photo of a Lingonberry Royale however a close approximation.

 

 

What will you be serving with your Thanksgiving dinner? Do you have a favorite seasonal cocktail?

 



And the Oscar for Best Oscar Party Goes To...

Me! Of course you shouldn't be surprised since I am the one handing out the award. So as you probably guessed, this is the recap of my annual Oscar party - 9th annual to be exact. Unfortunately there are not a lot of photos as we were all too busy eating and drinking to be bothered with picture taking!

Invitations

As per usual, I used Evite for my invitations for ease of use, friendliness to the environment, and cost. I like the survey tool and that invitees can post on the "wall" of the invite. This event was a potluck so it allowed guests to see what others were bringing to the event. The other site I recommend is Paperless Post however this is not a free site and does not feature the same survey tools as Evite. If those aspects are not an issue for you and the look of a more traditional invitation is preferred, this site is for you.

Cuisine

As I mentioned, this event is almost always a potluck with everyone bringing an appetizer and bottle of bubbly to share. This year we had a lovely array of tasty treats to enjoy! Some of the items included hot wings, gourmet cheese plate, spinach & artichoke dip, hummus, veggies, baked havarti, arancini (Italian rice balls), and several miniature sweets. One of the most memorable items were the special Oscar themed cookies Audra brought to share. There were cookies for each Best Picture nominee as well as an Oscar. If you want to purchase similar cookies cutters, the slate can be found at CopperGifts.com and the statue at CheapCookieCutters.com (Note: There used to be better statue cutters out there but the Academy forced the sites to take them down. If you're crafty, you can always make your own pattern from an image online.)

Beyond all of the great food provided by my guests, I offered a Individual Mini Pizza station and a Shot Glass Ice Cream Sundae bar.

Individual Mini Pizzas

This recipe is modified from the Personal Pizzas recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook (1979 Edition). I will list the recipe as written and note my changes in parenthesis.

Shortening (Did not use)

All-Purpose Flour

1 Package Refrigerated Biscuits - Qty 10

1 8 Oz Can/Jar Pizza Sauce (Also offered pesto)

1 4 Oz Package Shredded Mozzarella Cheese - 1 Cup (Offered Quattro Formaggi & Fat Free Feta in lieu of mozzarella)

Suggested toppings: Sliced Pepperoni, Sliced Hot Dogs, Chopped Green Pepper, Pickle Relish, & Sliced Olives (Offered Corn Salsa, Turkey Bacon, Cilantro, Sweet Balsamic Onions, Chives, & Pepperoncicis as toppings however you can use whatever you have on hand and think your guests would enjoy.)

1. Pre-heat oven to 425. Grease 1 or 2 baking sheets with shortening. (Used foil and no grease on baking sheet.)

2. Sprinkle cutting board with flour. Pull biscuits apart. Put 1 biscuit on the floured board. Use rolling pin to roll out biscuit till it is a circle 4 inches across. Put on baking sheet. Repeat with the remainder of the biscuits.(In order to make smaller pizzas, each biscuit was cut in half and rolled out to approximately 2 inch circles. Be sure to roll the biscuits as thin as possible as they tend to puff up while baking.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: From here on is the recipe as written in case you wish to follow it exactly. Rather than pre-top the pizzas, I par-baked them and allowed my guests to top them and finish the baking process in a toaster oven during the event. One issue that I had was that they didn't remain as flat as I would have liked. When making them per the instructions, that was never an issue due to the toppings weighing them down. An alternative you may wish to try is to use a Pie Weight Chain during the par-baking. The pizza "crusts" were par-baked for approximately 5-7 minutes. After guests created their own pizza masterpieces, they were baked in the toaster oven for another approximately 8 minutes.

3. Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the pizza sauce onto each biscuit. Spread evenly over the biscuits. Sprinkle each with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cheese.

4. Let each person put favorite toppings on 1 or 2 pizzas.

5. Put pizzas in oven and bake until the crust is brown. This will take 10 to 15 minutes.

6. To serve, use a pancake turner (does anyone still call it that?) to put hot pizzas on plates.

Makes 10 (or 20) pizzas.

Shot Glass Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Your Favorite Ice Cream(s) (I used Dreyers Slow Churned No Sugar Added Vanilla.)

Your Favorite Toppings (I used Hershey's Chocolate Syrup Lite, Hershey's Classic Caramel Sundae Syrup, Fat Free Reddi Wip, Lingonberry Jam, Kahlua, and Chopped Peanuts.

1. Using a melon baller, scoop ice cream into shot glass.

2. Add toppings.

3. Repeat to try different flavor combos!

Libations

The Oscars are not complete without lots of bubbly! Thankfully with everyone bringing at least one bottle, we had plenty for everyone to enjoy. Unfortunately none of us are bringing in the big bucks so it was all Cristal and Dom. We enjoyed a variety of international sparkling wines with a few options to dress up your bubbles if desired. Choices included frozen berries, lingonberry drink concentrate and elderflower drink concentrate. The lingonberry and elderflower drink concentrates were both purchased from IKEA though the lingonberry can also be found through Amazon. The elderflower is a bit more difficult however St. Germain elderflower liquor is an excellent though more expensive substitute. When using the concentrates, I recommend cutting them on a 1-1 ratio with water. The pure concentrates do not seem to mix as well with champagne.

Costumes

This was not a costume party exactly but it was a pajama party. The Oscars are such a long show that enjoying it in comfy clothes just makes the night more enjoyable. Plus it is a nice foil to how the stars are dressing at the actual Oscars.

Decor

My apartment is small so I don't decorate for this party. If you are hosting your own Oscar party in future years, there are many sites with decor ideas. Or let me know what type of Oscar party you are throwing and I can give you some suggestions.

Games

What's an Oscar party without an Oscar pool? We stopped putting money on it and now it's just for bragging rights. We also played the third annual Thrillist Oscar Bingo. While this year's bingo cards were not as "accurate" as previous years, it was still a fun way to pass the time between boring speeches.

You know it was a good party when there is Kahula running down the front of your liquor cabinet and everyone is moaning about how much they ate. With next year being the 10th annual event, I am going to have to raise my game!

PS - What do you think of the new background for the site? I'm trying a new look out and would love your feedback!