Christmas Day

I will be having a day off - i just could not face having a healthy meal when everyone else will be digging in! And the chocolates that get passed around all day - nope i could not resist One day surely will not hurt.

I'm not going to go overboard, but I'll make sure there's plenty of healthy chocies around. My husband isn't a big turky fan, so we usually do something else, like a venison casserole. I dont like Christmas pudding, so last year I did a variation of a Provence dessert called Les Treize, which is basicially little morsels of fruit and nuts.

I'll eat what I want on the day, but it will be just the one day, it won't spread into a month long food fest like it so easily can do.
Also in the past sometimes I have eaten till I have been too full. Determined I will only eat till I'm full, and therefore avoid the bloated sick feeling afterwards

This will be the second Christmas of my new lifestyle & last year I tried to alter some dishes & introduce new ones. This time i think I will stick with to the altered dishes (little things, like greek yogurt instead of sour cream in a casserole, etc) & then instead of eating EVERYTHING AT THE TABLE ..it's Christmas, you know what's going to be served.. I'll figure out which dishes I really like (vs. which ones I used to eat just because they're there) & I will budget room for the things I want to enjoy.
The holiday focus should be on family & friends, not food. And if I need to focus on presents for a year or two to help not focus on the food than so be it Presents are fun & they're zero calories!

My hubby's family makes Christmas tacos (or taco salads in our house).
They tell me that since the lettuce is green & tomatoes are red it's Christmas colors. And you can let the meat simmer in the crock pot all day so people can help themselves while watching Christmas movies, opening gifts and when visiting friends/family come by then can nibble some too.

edited to add: Thanksgiving we'll do the tradional feast though and stuff our faces.

I cook for 14 people on Christmas Day and I love it - my strategy will be to just do what I've always done, it's Christmas for Pete's sake . I plan to eat and drink what I want - one Christmas is not going to sabotage my healthier lifestyle. I'm not on a diet, I'm just being a bit more healthy so why would I deny myself on Christmas Day?

Can't wait! I love having all the people I love together

Where I cook 100% fresh all the time, it will really be similar to just another day but have a menu planned already ahead of time.

Christmas dinner is always something I throw on the grill - yes, I grill outside in the middle of winter as much as possible!!!!

Fresh Prime Rib
Au jus made from the prime rib

Freshly grated horseradish for mine, but we both love a sautee of baby portabella mushrooms and onion in garlic and wine on top of the prime rib

Spears of asparagus lightly coated with olive oil, fresh rosemary, thyme and finished with freshly squeezed lemon

"Loaded" Mashed yukon potatoes for my husband (loaded meaning shaved parmesan, home-cured hickory bacon, sour cream and chives)

For me a 'pasta' of zucchini, summer-squash and carrots in a wonderful herbal compound butter sauce

I make fresh whole grain rolls for my husband to sop up the juices and he just grabs whatever compound butter I have made in the freezer.

I always make a fresh minestrone or Pasta e Fagioli soup (this is a two-day process in the making) with a hearty rich broth, fresh vegetables and herbs and a small variety of beans.

Dessert for him is always his favorite: "Grasshopper" brownie sundae. Homemade fudge brownies with kahlua seeped into the brownie. The brownie is split in half: one layer features Godiva White Chocolate liqeuer in the frosting, the top/outer frosting featured Dekuyper's dark creme de minthe, frozen Andes Candies broken and sprinkled on top, and a whole Oreo cookie on top - and fresh made whipped cream on top.

For me, I prepare a low-carb Red/Black Raspberry cheesecake using crushed almonds for the base, and a recipe of cream-cheese, homemade whipped cream, berries that are mashed and mixed well, spread on top of the almond-crust and then the top is garnished with more fresh red/black raspberries... Even my husband is known to steal from my dessert as well! LOL!

This will be the first christmas i dont go overboard, i will eat in moderation and log everything just to see what i actuall will get through Lol..

I don't really struggle much with overeating on the actual DINNER ... it's the desserts and chocolates that get me.

We fancied a change so we're going to a rather nice local pub / restaurant for Christmas dinner this year. At £80 per head you'll be damn sure I'm eating every last bite along with any leftovers from ours or the surrounding tables...

First, if you eat healthy all year, one day won't do a single thing.

Second, I'm at a stage where I don't think I would stuff my face. I'm not into it anymore. A lot of the food served is pretty good. It's the munchie food that always used to get me. Simple answer, stay away from the crackers, chips, dips, and all that. Just don't eat it. When it's time for dinner, just have a plate of food, and be done with it. Don't obsess about it from September to December. Just chill out.

I dont celbrate Christmas as i'm aethiest but i do go to my parents for a 'Sunday roast' (Beef usually). I hate rost dinners- so I'll probably pick at it and munch on chcolates later, as usual.

Well...I typically make a lot of sweets this time of year. And I am lucky enough that my DH takes them off my hands to all his work guys.

As far as Christmas meal goes, we started our own tradition a few years ago of NOT having the traditional Christmas dinner. So we have Carne Asada Tacos every Christmas. My DH is the bomb at carne asada. We make homemade salsa too. Its fantastic! And we only have it twice a year (because its so much work)...once in the summer and on Christmas. :drinker:

Christmas has changed for me. It used to start on Thanksgiving with more food than you can imagine. Both my mother and father love cooking and baking....and the whole family was obese...so it was not out of the ordinary to over indulge the holiday season away.

Now that I live in the UK Christmas is a very different story. My in-laws prepare 1 meal, usually a roast turkey with some sides, but nothing over board. My in-laws are also a whole family of thin people...the whole season is different when you aren't surrounded by disordered eating.

I'm not worried about Christmas at all. What I DO worry about are my trips home, lol. yikes!

On Christmas what I eat would probably depend on who I'm with, and it's not a time that I would count calories, although I probably will watch potion sizes just to keep from going overboard.

If I'm with my rural Kansas Grandparents, breakfast food for dinner time on Christmas Eve is probably on the menu, so fresh homemade biscuits with butter and jam or honey or "white" gravy (or combinations of all of the above), bacon, sausage, and fried eggs. The cookies of choice are frosted cut-out sugar cookies, chocolate no-bakes, snicker doodles, and an old family recipe for awesome oatmeal cookies (no raisins). (Seriously, what most people know of as oatmeal cookies don't hold a candle to these lovelies.) And usually someone else makes peanut brittle.

If I'm with my parents, for lunch it's probably more likely food that my late (also Kansas) Grandma used to make, like a cheese soup very similar to this one http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cheese-soup-recipe/index.html served with oyster crackers. (I've made it with regular whole milk, low sodium broth, no wine and cheddar cheese before and it's still very tasty. It reheats well and was a great excuse for me to buy a stick blender.). Dinner would likely be ham and beans with cornbread. The cookies of choice are "peppernuts" (flavored with anise and very addictive, although my husband swears they aren't "cookies" since they are hard as rocks/nuts) and soft chewy gingersnaps (loaded with molasses, and they disappear quickly when I take them to parties). Flavored popcorn is also on the snack list.

With my husband's family, seeing as how they are Jewish, it's Chinese food. :P Apparently all Jews have Chinese food on Christmas. I did not know this before I married one, but it's been confirmed to me by every Jew I've meet since.

Left to my own devices, in the Carolinas where I've grown up and live, it's biscuits and "sawmill" gravy for a late breakfast/brunch and cheese soup later in the afternoon or evening. Cookies of choice are all the family recipes I know, but I box most of them up as gifts, so hubby complains that he don't get to eat nearly enough of them. :P