1. Eat Protein Pre-Party to Curb Hunger

Before you leave the house, eat a protein-packed snack such as trail-mix made with nuts and seeds, or carrots and hummus, or a hard-boiled egg. Protein will keep you feeling full longer and help manage blood sugar levels. If you arrive to a party with your hunger tamed, you’re more likely to make healthier food and beverage choices.

2. Hydrate Pre, During & Post-Party

Staying properly hydrated helps you feel full longer and helps your body detox properly. If plain water is boring, try lemon water, sparkling water and water-dense foods like oranges and veggies such as cucumbers. Drink at least 16-ounces before you arrive to the party and drink at least 8 ounces of water between any alcoholic beverages. Lastly, don’t forget to drink a big glass of water when you return home! Staying hydrated may also help you consume less high calorie or alcoholic beverages, which is better for your health overall.

3. Choose Your Booze Wisely

Not all alcohols are created equal! For example, 10-ounces of beer has the same amount of calories as only 5-ounces of wine. Be aware of how much and what you are drinking, it is easy to get distracted by conversation.

• 5 ounces of red or white wine = 125 calories
• 10 ounces beer = 123 calories
• 5 ounces champagne = 110 calories
• 1 ½ ounces of Irish cream = 144 calories

4. Make Half Your Plate Veggies

Balance your plate with veggies which are packed with fiber. The fiber will help you feel full and less likely to overindulge. Fibrous foods also help delay the absorption of sugar in the body, better helping to blood sugar levels from sugary Holiday treats.

5. Mingle More & Munch Less

Chat with your crush or make a new friend! If you’re talking or listening to someone else tell a great story, you’ll be distracted from overeating. Also make sure to mingle away from the buffet line! If you’re standing close to the food or bar all night it’s easy to consume more than desired.

The post 5 Ways a Nutritionist Eats Healthy During Holiday Party Season appeared first on The Inspired Home.

I love a good eggnog as much as the next gal, but if you want to make something memorable amidst the onslaught of typical holiday flavors, sometimes it pays to back off the baking spices and use what’s actually in season. So, let’s talk pomegranates and one of my favorite winter weapons: homemade grenadine.

Making fresh grenadine is the best way to get a highly seasonal burst of tangy, floral pomegranate flavor, and color into your cocktail without a ton of work. If you read my post on Pink Lady Cocktails, you know that I feel almost duty-bound to show people how easy it is to make homemade grenadine whenever pomegranates are in season. [Spoiler alert: you literally just combine equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar in a blender].

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Homemade Grenadine

Homemade, fresh grenadine lends a gorgeous jewel-toned hue and fresh pomegranate flavor to more than a few classic cocktails. Making your own is surprisingly easy -- essentially just two ingredients and a blender (no stovetop required)!

Course Drinks & Cocktails

Keyword Cocktails and spirits

Skill intermediate

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Calories 284kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g fresh squeezed pomegranate juice
• 500 g sugar
• 2 oz pomegranate molasses (optional)
• 2 tsp orange blossom water (optional)

Instructions

• Simplified recipe: Combine equal parts fresh squeezed pomegranate juice and pure cane sugar in a high speed blender. Blend on high until the sugar is completely dissolved. Store in fridge.
• For best results: Use a kitchen scale to weigh the sugar and pomegranate juice (500 grams each) instead of using measuring cups. Add 2 ounces of pomegranate molasses and 2 teaspoons of orange blossom to the blender before blending to give the grenadine better depth and more pronounced floral notes.
• Bonus tip: If you plan on using your grenadine over an extended period of time (more than a couple of weeks), add an ounce of vodka to the recipe and it will stay fresh longer.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 284kcal | Carbohydrates: 74.2g | Sodium: 12mg | Sugar: 70.2g

Grenadine drinks are wonderfully bright, slightly tart and floral. They run the gamut of pale pinks and deep plummy reds thanks to the rich purple hue from the fresh pomegranate. This punch is incredibly refreshing – a welcome respite from heavier winter fare and the perfect way to set the tone for a holiday gathering.

I’m obsessed with serving it in this footed punch bowl from Fortessa; its’ tall configuration (as opposed to more typical low, wide punch bowls) really shows off the drink’s lovely, rosy hue.

I added a floral crown to my punch bowl because a little extra festive flair never hurt anyone. I’m sure there are more involved ways of doing this, but I just wrapped the rim of the punch bowl with floral wire and taped it into place, then tucked the stems under the wire.

One small bunch of seeded eucalyptus was all I needed to ring my entire bowl, along with a few stems of inexpensive spray flowers. I got both at Trader Joe’s, and the entire crown cost under $7 to make. I even had leftover flowers, which are now brightening up my bathroom.

I like to garnish with extra pomegranate arils – the pops of bright red really set off the punch’s pale pink, and make a bolder holiday statement.

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Pomegranate Holiday Punch

You can’t enter the high season of entertaining without a kick-butt holiday punch recipe up your sleeve. You just can’t.

Course Drinks & Cocktails

Keyword Drinks

Skill intermediate

Servings 5

Calories 488kcal

Ingredients

• 2 cups gin
• .5 cups ginger liqueur (like Canton)
• 1 cups heavy cream
• .75 cups fresh grenadine
• .5 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
• .5 cups fresh squeezed lime juice

Instructions

• Combine all in a punch bowl filled with ice. Add the cream first. If the punch begins to separate after sitting, give it a quick stir.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 488kcal | Carbohydrates: 39.3g | Protein: 0.6g | Fat: 8.9g | Saturated Fat: 5.5g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 2819mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 31g

The post The Festive & Refreshing Pomegranate Punch You Need to Make This Holiday Season appeared first on The Inspired Home.

One of the ways that Jewish people celebrate Purim is by giving packages
of baked goods, called mishloach manot, to friends and neighbors. All mishloach
manot must contain hamantaschen, a triangular, filled cookie that is the
signature food of Purim. The cookie’s
shape is said to come from the three-cornered hat that the villain Haman wore.

Hamantaschen can
have a bad reputation. All Jewish kids
have been scarred by eating a soggy, tasteless Hamantaschen filled with unpleasant
prunes or not-very-sweet poppy seeds. This recipe, however, will redeem
hamantaschen in your children’s eyes. The dough is sweet and buttery, with a
hint of lemon zest, and crumbly without being dry.

For filling, I suggest using jam instead of the more traditional
poppy seeds. You can use any jam that you like to fill your Hamantaschen as
long as it is good quality. Berry, apricot and plum jams all work nicely. If
you have some homemade jam left from your summer canning, this is the moment to
use it!

The key to this success for this recipe is giving the dough
plenty of time to chill and harden in the refrigerator before rolling it out.
Use a nice sturdy wooden rolling pin like this rotary rolling pin from Architec and do not roll your dough out too thin or the filling will leak!

Use a round cookie cutter that is at least 4 inches in diameter, such as these metal cookie cutters from Architec, to cut out circles of dough. Place the circles of dough on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat mat. (Trying to move the filled and folded cookies from a cutting board to a cookie sheet is a recipe for disaster, so I always place them on the cookie sheet prior to filling.)

Fill the circles with jam and then fold into a triangle. In my
experience, folding the sides over like an envelope to form the triangle works
better than pinching the corners together.

Once you have filled and folded your hamantaschen, chill the
cookies prior to baking. This step will ensure that they will hold their shape
in the oven and you will end up with the triangular hamantaschen of your dreams.

To make the cookies extra brown and glossy, brush with an egg
wash right before baking. This expandable pastry brush has natural fibers and gets
into all the corners.

Chag sameach Purim everyone!

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Hamataschen

Keyword Cookies, Holidays, Kitchen, Purim, Tips and techniques, Tools and gadgets

Skill intermediate

Servings 1

The post Hamantaschen for Purim appeared first on The Inspired Home.