Dreaming Of A Low-Carb Christmas Dinner

The holiday season can bring some formidable challenges for anyone trying to be faithful to a low carb lifestyle. Those challenges can escalate when you are away from home, making you feel like you’re losing control and you may as well just eat everything in sight. But don’t give up!

When you are at home for the holidays, you have the advantage of being able to prepare your own foods with appropriate low carb ingredients. A handful of recipes and you’ve got a magnificent feast with every kind of appetizer, side dish, and dessert you can dream of. Just pop the turkey in the oven and you’re golden!

Then again, being away from your familiar environment may actually give you an advantage, too. It may help you to break bad food habits that you have carried over into your low carb lifestyle. Take advantage of your unfamiliar surroundings by using them to help you embrace new and better food choices. Enjoy a Christmas dinner that doesn’t end with a scavenger hunt for the antacids and stretch pants.

Whether you are a guest in someone’s home, on a holiday cruise, or out on the road, there are some effective strategies you can use to help stay on track, even over a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.

The first obstacle to overcome is your attitude

Let go of the idea that “it’s not really Christmas” unless you eat particular foods that you enjoyed before you adopted the low carb style of eating. A feast is a great way to gather together and share a celebration with the people you love. But it’s just one part of the celebration. No matter how much you may love pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie is not the “reason for the season.”

Low-Carb Christmas Dinner in developed countries will usually have an adequate variety of food choices for you to stay on plan.

If you are traveling in a remote area, or undeveloped region, you may find it challenging to meet your protein and fat requirements while keeping your carb counts low; but this will not be an issue for most of us.

Often the greatest holiday food challenge will be the overwhelming variety of foods and the many long hours of eating at an all-day Christmas gathering. What to eat will not be as much of an issue for us as what NOT to eat.

My most successful overall food strategy to avoid unplanned eating is to keep my appetite fully satisfied with foods I am allowed to eat. When my appetite is fully satisfied with good, wholesome foods that are on my plan, I feel great, and it is much easier to avoid the foods I shouldn’t eat.

Three-step approach to avoid unplanned low-carb christmas dinner eating

1. Eat foods you really enjoy.
2. Eat enough to fully satisfy your appetite.
3. Do something to make your meal, or part of your meal, festive, beautiful or special in some way.

The three-step method works well if you like to eat 2-3 distinct meals without any snacking in between; and, it works just as well if you want to graze all day. You can munch out over the football game, enjoy a festive cocktail, immerse yourself in fancy finger foods, or even have a luscious dessert treat.

You can do any or all of these things, if you are in a place where you have access to a supermarket with a few good low carb ingredients. All it takes is a little planning.

Your first challenge of the day might to be your biggest one: The all-day carb fest with chips, dips, crackers, and spreads may be your biggest foe. If you have a decent meal before the gathering, you can resist the appetizers for the first hour or two. But after watching others nibble on forbidden foods for a while, and hearing Aunt Betty insult your first-born for the umpteenth time, your resolve may begin to waiver. You just might need something to keep your mouth busy.

Try bringing at least one thing you can munch on. If your clan is big on dipping chips and crackers in sour cream dip or cheese spreads, bring something to dip and to spread on! Fried pork rinds, veggie sticks, or any pre-made snack tray in the supermarket could give you an on-plan alternative to an all-out holiday binge. If I get started, I can eat a whole bag of tortilla chips in no time at all. The plan is never to start. I can’t finish what I never started.

If your hosts are serving reduced-fat dips, buy or make your own full-fat dip or spread with plenty of cheese, cream cheese, butter, or sour cream. Full-fat dip will satisfy your appetite and will not have as much added sugar or chemical ingredients. Go low carb wild and eat some guacamole or cheese spread right off the spoon.

If you’re not the dipping type, get a protein snack tray of cocktail shrimp, cold cuts, cheese slices or chicken wings. If you can find out ahead of time what appetizers are likely to be available, it may save you a little time and money, but it’s usually acceptable to bring a snack tray, even if it’s not a BYO affair. The possibilities are endless.

An appetizer is a wonderful thing on which to splurge. If you think you’re likely to feel deprived because you can’t eat chunks of bread dipped in the hot spinach and artichoke dip (in the bread bowl no less), spend a few extra bucks for the giant prawns you love so much. Get the fancy cocktail sauce in the cute jar. Buy some caviar, and use it to top off a tray of pre-made deviled eggs. Make your low carb appetizer festive and celebrate your holiday with a big attitude instead of a big sugar binge!

Have a chat with the cousin who makes the bacon-wrapped sausages drenched in brown sugar, and ask her if she’d be willing to bake some sausages in a separate dish without the sugar.

Splurge on some delicious macadamia nuts or a can of fancy mixed cocktail nuts.

If you enjoy cocktails, volunteer to make your favorite low carb cocktail for everybody. Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water, especially if you are also drinking alcohol. Bring some fancy water enhancers to share, like powdered drink mixes or flavor drops. These are delicious in sparkling mineral water.

The main course is probably the easiest for most of us to deal with, because it is most like a normal meal. Turkey, ham, and roast beef are common Christmas main courses, and excellent low carb choices.

Many traditional holiday sides are filled with hidden carbs in the form of bread crumbs, soup concentrates, and straight-up sugar. So, be careful with those green bean casseroles and candied yams. But if your table has any simple vegetable side dishes that are free from thickened sauces and sweeteners, dig in to those, maybe enjoy a glass of dry wine, and your main course will be a delicious success.

So, you’ve stayed on plan through the first two courses. You have survived Aunt Betty’s scathing remarks. And then they bring out the pumpkin pie. And you LOVE pumpkin pie! How will you stay on plan without feeling deprived, when everybody else has been eating cookies all day, and will now consume another thousand calories worth of sugar and flour?

Most of us who have been low carb for any length of time know at least a few rich, satisfying treats we can make for those times we want to indulge without abandoning all our nutritional scruples. Though we are pretty used to going without dessert, especially when we can’t make our own. If you can whip up a fat bomb on the go, or mix up some combination of cream cheese, sour cream, or nut butter with your favorite sugar-free flavor syrup, you’re good to go.

If you need a quick substitute for pumpkin pie, try mixing some cream cheese with pumpkin puree or pie filling, and adding a little sugar-free vanilla syrup and some chopped pecans. You could put this into a custard cup, and top it with a big dollop of sour cream mixed with a squirt of the vanilla syrup. This is a rich, satisfying dessert, which is great with coffee. I have made similar no-bake, “crustless cheesecake” desserts many times in hotel rooms, on cruise ships, and at friends’ homes.

Another low carb treat you can easily bring to your out-of-town Christmas dinner is a favorite gourmet coffee blend and a selection of coffee condiments. If heavy cream is something you enjoy in your coffee, it is a great splurge for your holiday celebration. Bring a couple of sugar-free flavored syrups to share. Torani makes several sugar-free flavors that are delicious in coffee, like Sugar-Free Irish Cream, Sugar-Free Hazelnut, and Sugar-Free Almond Roca, just to name a few.

If you are an overnight guest, you may just have to choose between making something to share, making something just for yourself, or not eating dessert with the others. If the other guests are overly critical of your low carb plan, there will not be any way to avoid standing out a little bit at dessert time. You’ll just have to choose which way of standing out is least socially awkward for you, or embrace the awkwardness. In my case, I usually prefer to skip dessert, and have a cup of good coffee. Or I might like a glass of fancy sparkling mineral water with lots of lime and a little stevia, or one that is pre-flavored. I don’t think a holiday dinner is the best place to debate nutritional ideology with somebody’s cousin’s drunken in-laws. I keep myself as far removed as possible from the holiday Atkins bashing.

If staying satiated is not quite enough to keep you on plan over the holidays, or if you can’t manage to get to the grocery store or bring some of your own food, here are a few more ideas:

Keep your distance from the foods that give you the most trouble. After all, you can’t eat what you can’t reach. Sit on the other side of the room, come late, or leave early, if it’s feasible.

In my family holiday gathering, I am usually met at the door with something like a tray of Mimosas and Bloody Marys. We start drinking early in my clan. I don’t really enjoy alcohol that much, so it’s no problem for me not to indulge. I simply arrive with a delicious coffee drink in hand. “No thanks!” I say. “I’ve already got what I want.”

I could also just show up a little later, but I don’t see the big family group very often, so I wouldn’t want to minimize my time with them even further. Many of us don’t want to miss the family time, so coming late or leaving early would not work for us. If that’s your situation, consider a way to fill your day with something other than food.

Do you have a mobile hobby? My mom had a puzzle book with her at all times. Sometimes, she carried some needlepoint or knitting with her.

Bring a camera to take pictures of the various family members during the most tempting appetizer times. Take a deck of cards or a game that’s easy to learn, and start a game with somebody after dinner, to keep your mind off the dessert table.

Will there be kids at your gathering? Bring a kid-friendly game to share. Bring some paper squares and teach the kids how to make an origami crane or hat. Do you have an unusual artifact, musical instrument, or vacation pictures that might interest the rest of the gang? Do you have a nephew or granddaughter you could ask to show you how to download music on your iPad? Why not do that at a time it would be useful in your strategy against carbs?

We all have different trouble areas, and many of us need a variety of defensive techniques to employ against the tempting array of carbs offered at a traditional holiday dinner. Have any of my ideas inspired one of your own? I hope so.

I’ll be spending this Christmas on a Caribbean cruise. If my itinerary doesn’t change unexpectedly, I’ll be in Curaçao. My ship will be offering a huge array of traditional American holiday favorites, as well as some ethnic treats from other traditions. For my main course, I’ll probably have roast turkey, prime rib, or some kind of steak. For a side dish I’ll have green beans or asparagus, or make my quick coleslaw to supplement whatever meat is available.

It’s easy to make your own sugar-free coleslaw at a buffet. I make it all the time on cruise ships, right on my plate at the table. I usually take a mixture of cabbage and carrots from the salad bar. Then, fill a small condiment cup with mayonnaise, and add a combination of salt, pepper and whatever sweetener is available, as desired. Mix up the dressing first, and remember to taste it. Then, mix the dressing into the veggies.

I mix my slaw together as early in the meal as I can, and let it sit for a few minutes while I get in line for meat. This is a great method for surviving Lido Barbecues without going carb wild on the sides. Last night I made it with shredded radish, zucchini and carrots to go with a grilled bone-in rib eye steak. I love good grilled meat with creamy cole slaw. I don’t need anything else on my plate!

To take this idea a step further, you can plan ahead of time to make some slaw for your out-of-town Christmas dinner, by making a coleslaw dressing spice mix at home where you have a full selection of spices you like, and bring the mix with you in a zip top bag. Then you’d only have to buy mayo and cabbage on location.

I have always loved mayonnaise-based salads like chicken salad, egg salad and potato salad. I didn’t add coleslaw to this list of loved foods until I was almost out of my teens and into my twenties. After I gave up carbs, I missed good coleslaw and potato salad, so I started working on my own recipe for sugar-free creamy cole slaw. My recipe is the result of a lot of experimentation and many potlucks, until I found a secret ingredient that made my coleslaw tickle the taste buds of friends both old and young.

A few years ago, I printed up little recipe cards, tied them to packets of my Creamy Cole Slaw Dressing Mix, and gave them to my friends for Christmas. The response was very positive. Everyone seemed to love my coleslaw recipe.

This year, again, I am giving away my coleslaw recipe for Christmas, with my sincerest wish that you and yours have a merry low carb Christmas or holiday season, and a happy, healthy new year in 2014!

Low-Carb Creamy Coleslaw

DRESSING MIX

Ingredients:
½ teaspoon poppy seeds
Pinch cayenne (red) pepper
¼ teaspoon each:
Salt
Seasoned salt
Ground black pepper
Ground white pepper
Celery seed
Optional: sweetener of choice, to taste

Place dry ingredients in a food storage bag or container, for use with the wet ingredients. If you are giving the dressing mix as a gift, be sure to include the coleslaw recipe with the mix.

My original mix used plain table salt and a commercially prepared seasoning salt. If you use sea salt or kosher salt, you may need to adjust the amount to your own liking. 
If you don’t have seasoning salt you like, just double up on the plain salt.

Add more cayenne if you want some zing. A pinch is enough to brighten the flavor a little without making your slaw spicy hot. I like mine creamier. I prefer to get the spicy hot zing from the meat/main dish, and use the coleslaw as the cooling part of the meal.

When I first began making this recipe, I used 8 packets of Splenda. My taste for sweets has shifted quite a bit since them and I probably use half as much for sweet, creamy slaw. I recommend packaging the dressing mix without adding the sweetener, at least until you know how you like it. You can add the sweetener when you mix it all up.

COLESLAW
1 packet coleslaw dressing mix (recipe above)
1 cup mayo
Shredded cabbage, 10-12 ounces of store-bought cabbage or coleslaw mix or about half a head of cabbage.
Dash of vinegar (optional)

Stir the dressing mix into one cup of mayonnaise and taste it. Then add the sweetener of your choice, if desired, a little at a time, until the dressing tastes right to you. Remember that the cabbage is a little bitter, and the finished cole slaw will not taste as sweet as the dressing tastes by itself. If you want a traditional sweet, creamy slaw, you probably want the dressing to taste quite sweet before you add it to the cabbage.

If you like tangy slaw, add a dash or two of vinegar. Any kind will do, depending on what you like. I like white wine vinegar best in this recipe, but I’ve used red wine, balsamic, or malt vinegar when it was the only kind available. I have even used pickle juice, when that’s handy. That makes delicious cole slaw. The tangier you like it, the more you should add. If you just want to brighten the flavor a little, add it very sparingly.

Mix the dressing with the cabbage until all the cabbage is coated. When you mix it, it will probably look like you don’t have quite enough dressing. That’s perfect. You should only be able to barely get all the cabbage coated. Cover the bowl, and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 15-30 minutes. That should be enough time for the cabbage to absorb the dressing a little.

Stir the salad to re-coat the cabbage with the dressing that has pooled in the bottom. If you have time, let it sit in the refrigerator for another hour or two, or even overnight.

Cabbage slaw salads only get better and better for the first 24 hours or so. Just give it a quick stir right before you serve it, to make sure the dressing is coating all of the cabbage.