We all know the holidays are supposed to bring good will and joy and all that nice stuff, but truth be told, for many people, ‘tis the season of dread. The food, the family, the festivities — the hijacked good intentions! Really, for many of us, there is no more stressful time than now.

If you are on a health-building program — either for weight loss or to improve your health — managing food and festivities around the holidays can lead to a sense of guilt and failure. To help you this year, I have a bag of holiday party survival tricks you might want to check out:

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Are you like most folks who tend to think of salads as a summer “thing”? It’s certainly true we eat them more when the weather is hot, but you’ll be happy to know how easy and satisfying it is to prepare winter salads, even warm winter salads. Combining an assortment of fresh seasonal ingredients makes a winter salad so appealing, and a good fresh salad is always a nice accompaniment to a heavy holiday meal.

When building a winter salad, keep in mind the bounty of gorgeous greens and fabulous fresh fruits and veggies that nature naturally provides at this time of year, and remember salads don’t always have to be completely raw. Cooked grains, beans and vegetables tossed with lighter raw fruits and vegetables make interesting, tasty winter salads. Here are some suggestions for “winterizing” your favorite salad: Read the rest of this entry »

Each Thanksgiving I feel thankful for many things, one of which is no more canned cranberry sauce! I loved Mom’s roasted turkey and delicious southern cornbread dressing but not the red blob of jelly-like stuff. Ever since I’ve been on my own, fresh cranberries have graced my holiday table in several traditional dishes. In fact, come November, I crank up the cranberries in just about everything from breakfast to bread to a snack before bed, and lots in between too.

Cranberries are one of the few fruits that are truly native to North America. Fresh, frozen, dried or juiced, cranberries are naturally sour and tart. That’s why dried cranberries and some varieties of frozen cranberries may be sweetened. The fresh and frozen varieties are perfect for making cranberry sauce and adding to muffins, cakes and quick breads. Dried cranberries are delicious in hot or cold cereal, as a garnish for salads, in sauces for grains and meats, and baked or roasted with casseroles. Don’t forget to add them to cookies and baked goods, pancakes and waffles, and sprinkle them over ice cream or favorite frozen desserts.

Here are some ideas for cranking up the cranberries this holiday season:

• Get creative with stuffing or dressing by adding fresh or dried cranberries for a sweet-tart addition. Our Bacon, Cranberry and Mushroom Rice Stuffing uses fresh cranberries to kick it up a notch and our Wild Rice and Cranberry Stuffing with Walnuts is amazing.
• Add dried cranberries to cookies and bars. You will love these Pumpkin-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies and these Cranberry Pecan Shortbread Cookies.
• Cranberries pair beautifully with other fruits in baked goods and fruit salads. Bananas and cranberries are the stars of our gluten-free Cranberry Banana Quinoa Bread and cranberries and orange juice are the stars of our Cranberry-Orange Tea Bread.
• If you have never tried Cranberry Jam, you are in for a wonderful surprise. Try it on muffins, biscuits, bagels and toast, or spread it over baked warm brie, or over nut butter on favorite sandwich bread.
• Making homemade cranberry sauce is easy; you’ll appreciate the fresh difference with our Cranberry Sauce with Clementines and Cinnamon.
• Use fresh or frozen cranberries in traditional holiday pies and crisps. We love our Apple Cranberry Crisp.
• Cranberries make a wonderful addition to sauces for meats and fish. This recipe for Pork Chops with Cranberry Pear Chutney has a sweet/tart sauce that adds a lot of flavor.
• Add dried cranberries to pilaf dishes. This Quinoa Pilaf with Cranberries and Almonds is savory and delicious.
• Add cranberries to salsa and relish. This Cranberry Relish with Dried Cherries is great as an accompaniment to roast turkey, sliced pork loin or chicken.

Remember, if you are a fan of cranberry juice, Whole Foods Market has the real deal – straight 100% pure cranberry juice (no sugar, fruit juice concentrate or high fructose corn syrup added). It’s tart for sure, but very refreshing when mixed with a splash of sparkling water and maybe a squeeze of fresh orange or lime juice. If you prefer a sweeter version, we’ve got naturally sweetened cranberry juice as well.

Are you clever with cranberries at holiday time? Got a favorite recipe? I’d love to know.

Are you traveling this holiday season? It’s a darn shame, but most airports, train stations and roadside stops offer little more than standard American junk food fare. The good news is you can bring your own food and it doesn’t have to be complicated! Try some of our favorite tips and share your own in the comments below.

With a little forethought, you can pack foods to help you and your family eat well, which will keep you feeling better on your trip. If flying, make sure to check the TSA website for food and liquid restrictions. Remember, too, that you can purchase food and water at the airport, after clearing security. Train travel is less restrictive and car travel adds the option of packing a cooler. Some possibilities:

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If you or someone close to you follows a gluten-free diet, then you know firsthand how frustrating it can be around the holidays. All of the wheat-laden desserts, pies and cookies, not to mention casseroles with bread crumbs, stuffings and gravies. Fortunately these days there are more food manufacturers creating  gluten-free options for serving on their own or as a replacement ingredient.

Good gluten free cooking demands comparable alternatives for traditional flour and breadcrumbs for a wide range of holiday favorites, so we’ve put together a list of simple, delicious ideas to help you keep on track for a happy, healthy gluten-free holiday.

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As a kid, I was always excited about Halloween! I loved to dress up and trick-or-treat with scary-looking friends, but truth be told, candy was not my thing. In fact, my favorite Halloween treat was the pumpkin seeds I could scoop out when carving the Jack-O-Lantern. My mother would roast them for a wonderful snack.

For many years my only experience of pumpkin seeds was at Halloween, but moving to Texas changed that quickly. I soon learned they were called “pepitas” and were popular in many delicious dishes.

It’s probably no surprise that pumpkins are native to North America. But did you know they were part of the native diet for thousands of years? They were especially popular in the Southwest. Every part of the pumpkin was used for food, including the seeds. Like me, the Native Americans could not resist the sweet, subtle flavor of the seeds, and they even used them for medicinal purposes.

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A few years ago I read about a Russian woman who lived to the ripe old age of 117! I had to wonder what she ate. Could her diet have included plenty of beets? After all, beets are a favorite in Russian cuisine, and they are known to contain many important health benefits.

Beets date back as far as the second millennium BC where they were likely cultivated along the Mediterranean. They eventually spread to Babylonia, China and Europe. In 19^th century Germany, they became commercially important due to the discovery that sucrose (sugar) could be extracted from them.

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Every year, I look forward to the fall. Partly for my birthday celebrations, but mostly for the food! Ask anyone who knows me; they’ll tell you I am of the pumpkin persuasion. Simply meaning, come October I fall prey to many delicious pumpkin dishes, including pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup, baked pumpkin, pumpkin pie and just about any other seasonal pumpkin dish you can think of.

Pumpkins are native to North America where they have been used as food for thousands of years. In the US, approximately 1½ billion pounds of pumpkins are grown each year. They can range in size from very small (less than a pound) to gargantuan (over one thousand pounds!). Available canned, frozen and fresh, pumpkin is harvested in time for the holidays but is available year-round. While frozen and canned pumpkin are certainly good choices, most folks don’t realize how simple it is to prepare fresh pumpkin. Here’s what I do:

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I remember the first time I ate authentic French food. I ordered a cassoulet and savored every bite of those flavorful little white beans, dozens of them, all perfectly nestled among chicken, sausages, vegetables, wine, tomatoes and herbs. If reincarnation was real, I wanted to come back French!

For this lifetime, though, I can at least cook all kinds of white beans myself, like navy beans, Cannellini beans (a relative of the kidney bean), lima beans, Great Northern beans and, of course, flageolets, the star of cassoulets.

Adding white beans to your menu plan adds good nutrition, versatility and ease. While cooking your own beans is always a noble option, for many people, time is of the essence! There are plenty of varieties of canned white beans available that don’t contain added preservatives and chemicals, Many are low in sodium and you’ll find organic varieties too. While popular in soups, white beans are just as delicious in spreads, dips, chili dishes, pasta and baked beans.

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In Louisiana, where I come from, there’s an unspoken law: Never be caught short on shrimp! I love shrimp just about any way you can cook it: poached, grilled, sautéed, broiled or breaded and fried. Shrimp pairs beautifully with herbs, spices and most sauces, making it a perfect accompaniment to grains and vegetables. It’s awesome in soups, salads and savory dishes. I even love shrimp on pizza and in quiche! But my first experience is always my favorite: Shrimp Etouffée — a specialty of my own great state.

And when you stock up on shrimp, it’s important to know what makes our farmed shrimp a great choice. We source from only three producers and have traceability back to their farms. And these are not your typical farms; our producers meet our standards for protecting the environment by avoiding mangrove areas to protect sensitive ecosystems and maintain good water quality. You’ll never find added phosphates or sulfates in our shrimp — we don’t want anything to take away from the sweet, delicate flavor of shrimp raised right. In fact, our shrimp are harvested to order and flash frozen within hours of harvest and you can taste the difference. Learn more about what sets our shrimp apart.

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