Holiday Recipes & Fun Activities For A Healthy And Affordable Holiday Season 

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image of hot cocoa with marshmallows wit text overlay. HOliday food family & fun from www.captivatingcompass.com

Holiday Recipes & Fun Activities For A Healthy And Affordable Holiday Season

The table is set with your best crystal and dinner dishes. The chrysanthemum and wheat centerpiece has been arranged. The smells of turkey, pumpkin pie, and an array of vegetable casseroles fill the air. The traditional holiday recipes (especially in the USA) include heavy and often unhealthy, versions of pumpkin pie, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes, and gravy. Even the sweet potatoes are smothered with brown sugar and marshmallows.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just a couple of the holidays that are all about overindulging, unhealthy, and overabundance. You don’t have to let it be that way though. With a few healthy changes and updated classic dishes, the dishes in this cookbook use big flavors like herbs and spices and foods that are in season. The butter, cream, salt, and all those other no-noes have been minimized. 

Many people are changing the way they eat. Many have adopted a healthier menu for their everyday lives. It could be they are eating low carb or have adopted a raw foods diet or dairy-free lifestyle. Some are doing this for weight loss while others it’s for health reasons. No matter the reason, they don’t want to blow their lifestyle on one day of celebration. 

In this guide, we’ve put together 10 healthy recipes for the winter holidays. The lightened versions of classic dishes taste decadent. Many don’t rely on fat for the flavor. Some of the dishes are classics that have been updated while others are new twists on favorites.

You’ll find dishes in every category here to create your own delicious, healthy holiday feast.

Your family will love these healthy and easy to make Recipes for The Holidays:

  • Apple Butter Sweet Potatoes 
  • Sweet ‘n’ Tart Cranberry, Ginger and Orange Chutney
  • Decadent Pear, Prosciutto & Hazelnut Stuffing 
  • Naked (crustless) Fresh Pumpkin – includes instructions for making homemade pumpkin purree…double yum!
  • Pumpkin Applesauce Spice Bread 
  • Cheesy, Creamy Mashed Cauliflower
  • Mom’s Lighter Stuffing
  • Green Bean Casserole with Fresh Fried Onions
  • Easy Apple Cinnamon Crisp
  • Sage and Butternut Squash Soup

Grab the Holiday Recipes at the end of this post

Are You Looking for Winter Activities?

You’ll love these family winter activities and these winter activities for kids and teens.

Get Ready for a Delicious and Healthy Holiday! 

Instead of overindulging on heavy, fat-filled, processed traditional Thanksgiving & Christmas Day meals, a better option is to try these and other healthy recipes. Full of flavor and healthy, these recipes call for all-natural ingredients that are readily available. Seek out fresh ingredients like butternut squash and cranberries that are in season to keep your budget in check. Most of all have fun creating a healthy and delicious meal your whole family will love.

The only thing that’s missing, (besides the turkey) are a few fun things to do besides watch football and plan for your weekend shopping list for ‘the BIG sale weekend’.

If you are like many homeschool families, you put aside the regular learning in favor of fun resources that focus on some aspect of the holiday season. Get ready to study Shakespeare & Dickens with engaging unit studies specifically about Christmas. They contributed so much to the customs and FUN of gathering together to celebrate the holidays. Your family will enjoy being together so much they won’t even realize they are doing schoolwork over the holidays!!

Holiday coloring pages are always a big hit!

Grab the coloring pages download at the end of this post These are perfect for at-home and road trip busy bags.

Get outside & have fun hanging out!

Getting out and getting a bit of exercise is always good after a big meal too. Make a fun competition out of it with a Gratitude Challenge Photo Scavenger Hunt. Grab it FREE with coupon code: Thankful

Having an attitude of gratitude is more than just enjoying a meal together.

Check out these posts for more holiday inspiration.

Capture Moments of Gratitude with this Printable

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