I was gonna do a whole “Healthy Holiday eating” thing but Governor Patterson’s plan to tax non-diet soda has really put me off this morning. Still, there’s no reason that you and your diet should suffer just because I’ve thrown a strop.

• Epi-Log’s Healthy Eating at Holiday Parties is a nice link round up on the topic.
• KidzWorld has a nice sounding plan for Low Cal Egg Nog. And I know I said I was only interested in the booze infused stuff but you can’t leave the kids out of the egg nog experience entirely. So make two batches and add an extra glug to the bowl marked “grown-ups”
• Mealtime.org (from the hilariously named Canned Food Alliance – or maybe that’s just me. I can’t help it. It sounds funny) has some healthy substitution suggestions for your holiday cooking. Not unsurprisingly – considering the source – their suggestions involve canned goods but they shouldn’t be shunned on that basis. I would go one further on some of these ideas — such as the one recommending canned chicken broth instead of butter as a way to moisten the mashed potatoes. I’m not sure moistening them is the point of butter as much as taste but if you are going to try this, why not try it with sodium free canned chicken broth? Or even better – garlic infused sodium free canned chicken broth. Garlic infusing takes mere moments and will result in mighty robust tasting taters.
• Oh and don’t bother skipping meals to allow for indulgences later on. It never works. You just end up pigging out even more on the stuff that is no good for you in the first place. I’ve actually taken to having a salad (with a hearty leaf base – spinach leaves for example and some grilled chicken) before heading off the parties. I’m a lot less likely to grab at the buffet in an unladylike manner that way.

What is your favorite “healthier holiday food” tip?