Here are some simple, healthy ideas for delightful holiday meals

More often than not, Christmas means tucking into enormous meals, and we end up eating far too much. Specialists recommend we resist the temptation, and continue to eat a balanced diet, maintaining a health weight avoiding uncomfortable bouts of indigestion. After all, being overweight or obese increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Why not make a special dinner with light, delicious low-calorie ingredients? It’s a question of good menu planning, prioritising quality over quantity, adding more vegetables and pulses to stews, and using healthier cooking techniques.

Here are some delicious, light recipes to consider

1. Starters: Starters and snacks can be extremely fattening, so replace them with lighter alternatives.

Toast and guacamole: stone and peel two ripe avocados and chop a pear tomato and half a red onion into cubes. Blend the avocado in a bowl, then add the onion, tomato, the juice of half a lime and salt. Cut a bread stick into slices and toast. Pile the guacamole onto the toast and add rolled up slices of smoked salmon. Garnish with chopped parsley.

 Apple and aubergine timbale: combine two tablespoons of lemon juice, two of oil, salt, and pepper, in a bowl. Cut an apple into three x 1 cm slices. Brush three slices of fresh cheese, three slices of aubergine and three of apple with the lemon mixture. Then fry half an onion while you cook the apple and aubergine until soft. Assemble the timbale by placing the slices on top of each other, combining colours and flavours.

2. Starters: It is a good idea to start the meal with stocks or soups, which fill you up and prepare the stomach to digest your meal.

 Pumpkin and orange cream: cut an onion into quarters and fry in a little oil in a saucepan until clear. Chop and add one potato, three carrots and half a pumpkin, and sweat for a few moments. Add 800 ml of chicken stock, covering the vegetables, and cook everything for 30 minutes. Peel and chop the oranges, put in the blender jar, add the cooked veggies and blend. Pour into bowls to serve, and if you like, garnish with sunflower seeds.

 Red cabbage with apples and pine nuts: Cut an onion into julienne strips and poach in a saucepan. Add 500 of sliced red cabbage. Peel two Reinet apples and add to the pan. Leave everything to stand for 10 minutes. Add a squirt of apple vinegar and allow to evaporate a little, then cover with one litre of home-made stock and cook slowly for one hour. Lastly, toast 50 of pine nuts and sprinkle over the stewed cabbage.

3. Main dishes: Choose meat over fish. It is easier to digest, lighter and contains healthy fatty acids.

Oven-baked wild sea bass: Clean the fish and ask the fishmonger to prepare it for baking, without opening it. Season with salt and pepper. Make a paste in a mortar with a clove of garlic, fresh parsley and paprika. Add olive oil, a glass of wine and a glass of water. Spread the fish with the paste, place on a bed of sliced potatoes (two) and half an onion, and make some slits in the fish to place lemon slices. Preheat the oven to 180 and bake for 25 minutes.

4. Desserts: Say no to the chocolates and sweets, and make desserts with naturally-sweet fruit.

Chilled kiwi cream: Place four kiwis, 500 ml of liquid yoghurt and a spoonful of honey in the blender jar and blend thoroughly. Chill and serve. You can make this type of yoghurt drink with any type of sweet fruit.

Fruit skewers with yoghurt cream: Prepare some skewers with pieces of strawberries, mango, papaya, and kiwi. Beat a sweetened natural yoghurt and serve the skewers with the cream spread on top.

Watch what you eat, and stick to your exercise routine. After a meal, go out for a walk with your family or do some outdoor activities with the kids. You’ll burn fat, and relax and fall asleep more easily.

Eat in moderation at Christmas and your health will thank you for it.

This post is also available in: Portuguese (Portugal)