Healthy Meals During Christmas Week

How to eat healthy in the middle of most overindulgent, sugar-laden season of the year with overwhelming temptations everywhere?

By having homemade food I can rely on throughout the week. That means

1. A big batch of chili today to turn into additional couple of different meals
2. A one pan chicken and veggie dinner for more meals later in the week
3. shredded red cabbage for different salad variations

This frees me up to double down on making a delicious, nutritious dinner for Christmas Eve and brunch on Christmas morning.

Saturday

Lentil Beef Chili

Accompanied by toppings: chopped red onion, cilantro, chopped jalapenos, grated cheese, and plain Greek yogurt

Spinach Red Cabbage Salad (without the pomegranate)

Food Prep

• shred a whole red cabbage in food processor and reserve remainder for later in the week
• cook 2 cups quinoa
• peel 2 pomegranates (or buy already peeled)
• CMF Basic Salad Dressing – balsamic version

Sunday

Chicken and Veggies One Pan Dinner

Red Cabbage, Pomegranate Salad

Monday

Breakfast

Cranberry Cleanser Smoothie  (spinach instead of kale for the kids) from Simple Green Smoothies

Snowman Bagels from Super Healthy Kids

Lunch: hummus wraps with spinach and leftover vegetables (from chicken sheet pan dinner

Christmas Eve dinner!

Tuesday

Christmas Day brunch!

Dinner: Leftover smorgasbord

Wednesday

Breakfast

 Cilantro Limeade Smoothie from Simple Green Smoothies — a great detox smoothie

Bowl of Gingerbread Granola from Minimalist Baker (homemade granola is one of my pantry staples!)

Lunch

Salad or sandwiches with Christmas dinner leftovers

Dinner

Chili Quinoa “Lasagna”

Whisk 2 eggs and ½ cup milk, mix into 1 1/2 – 2 cups quinoa. Place half of quinoa in Pyrex, then a layer of chili and then remaining quinoa on top. Cover with 1/2 – 3/4 cup of shredded cheese and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until quinoa is solid.

Serve with spinach salad tossed with dried cranberries and chopped nuts.

If that’s too much trouble at this stage of Christmas week, just serve chili over the quinoa and top it with chopped cilantro and/or chopped avocado.

Salad: Toss shredded cabbage with pear, chopped green onion, vinaigrette and a handful of nuts

Thursday

Breakfast

Sliced pear

Granola and Greek yogurt parfait with cranberry orange sauce

Lunch

Tossed greens with leftover chicken and vegetables, add toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds and a CMF Basic Vinaigrette – balsamic version

Dinner

Acorn Squash Stuffed with chili

Cut acorn squash in half, scoop out seeds. Place in a roasting pan filled with about 2 inches of water and place in pre-heated oven for 25 – 30 minutes until squash is tender.

Remove from oven, empty remaining water from roasting pan and fill squash with leftover chili. Top with grated cheese, put back in oven until chili is heated through and cheese is melted.

Serve with Spinach and Red cabbage salad

Other favorite chili options

Turkey Chili https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/turkey-chili-with-white-beans-3090 from Epicurious

Black Bean Chili https://eathealthyeathappy.com/black-bean-quinoa-chili/ from Eat Healthy Eat Happy

Other great sheet pan dinners at Cooking Classy https://www.cookingclassy.com/search/?q=sheet+pan+dinners