Author: Karen Lennox
Time for reading: ~4
minutes
Last Updated:
October 11, 2022
If you want to make a New Year's menu with health benefits, choose light and low-calorie products for your dishes.
If you want to make a New Year's menu with health benefits, choose light and low-calorie products for your dishes.
New Year's holidays are traditionally accompanied by a feast. In most families, they think over the menu in advance, buy food and drinks, and on the eve of the holiday, housewives realize their culinary fantasies. As a result, every New Year we eat a lot of heavy meals, wash them down with sweet carbonated water. You can't do without alcoholic drinks. As a rule, the festive feast stretches over several days - because we visit each other. It is not surprising that a large amount of high-calorie, fatty and spicy food, sweets and alcohol affects our well-being in one way or another. Someone can barely button their pants after the holidays, someone's chronic diseases get worse. And some suffer from food or alcohol poisoning. But all these troubles can be easily avoided if you make a New Year's menu with health benefits.
Tasty and healthy products for the New Year's tableFor the New Year's table, it is better to prepare dishes from low-calorie products. Vitamin salads, batter-baked vegetables, lean meat and poultry dishes, red fish, and light snacks are relevant for a winter feast. As a dressing for salads, it is better not to use mayonnaise, but low-fat yogurt or sour cream sauce. They are less caloric and easier to digest. If you cannot imagine your salad without mayonnaise, try to prepare it yourself. For this, you will need sunflower or olive oil, mustard, eggs and lemon juice.
Use nuts to prepare meat dishes, salads and desserts. They are rich in vitamins, dietary fibers, fatty acids Omega-3, 6, 9, trace elements and amino acids.
Another traditional component of the holiday table is delicacies. But if you care about your health and figure, give preference to sauerkraut rather than pickled cucumbers and tomatoes. In winter, they have practically no vitamins, mainly water and salt. In addition, they stimulate the appetite. But sauerkraut helps digestion, strengthens immunity, regulates metabolism. It is rich in vitamins and goes perfectly with meat dishes. Sauerkraut is low in calories.
It is better to drink festive meals not with sweet carbonated water and juices from packets, but with home-made compotes and homemade lemonade.
So that alcoholic beverages do not harm your health, buy a quality product, do not exceed the dose and do not mix alcohol.
We offer you several recipes that will help you make a healthy New Year's menu.
If you replace store-bought mayonnaise with a sauce that you prepare yourself, your favorite holiday salads will become more useful. To prepare it, take 2 eggs, 10 g of salt, 25 g of sugar, 50 ml of boiled water, 5 ml of table mustard, 15 ml of lemon juice, 300 ml of sunflower oil.
Mix eggs, salt, sugar, mustard, cold boiled water and lemon juice. Beat all the ingredients with a mixer or blender. Gradually add sunflower oil to the mixture in a thin stream, continuing to beat until smooth.
Canapes on skewersAppetizers are an integral part of the festive table. One of the tasty, beautiful and useful options for a New Year's feast is canapes on skewers.
A salty snack can be prepared from red fish and pitted olives. Cut the salmon or trout fillet into rectangular layers. Put pieces of fish and olives on the skewer one by one. Sprinkle with lemon zest, pepper (to taste).
To prepare sweet canapés on skewers, combine any fruits: oranges, bananas, grapes, pears. Banana tends to darken quickly. To make the appearance last longer, sprinkle it with lemon juice.
Greek saladThis classic vegetable salad will decorate the festive table and is good for health. To prepare it, take tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, olives, cheese, green onions, garlic, apple cider vinegar, salt, vegetable oil. Cut vegetables and cheese into cubes, olives into circles, finely chop garlic.
Add salt, a little apple cider vinegar, pepper to taste and dress the salad with oil.
Hot mealsA simple and useful recipe for a hot dish for the festive table - salmon baked in foil.
You will need salmon steaks, lemon juice, greens (dill, parsley, cilantro, green onions - at your discretion), salt, pepper, olive oil.
Salt, pepper, sprinkle with lemon juice. Put half of the finely chopped greens in foil, put pieces of fish greased with olive oil on top, cover with the remaining greens. Wrap in foil and put in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees. When serving, sprinkle with lemon juice again. Rice and fresh vegetables are suitable as a side dish.
Baked meat and fish are a great alternative to fried dishes. All useful substances are stored in them, and the taste is excellent. Try baking chicken thighs or drumsticks with apples in a sleeve. For the marinade, take 100 ml of soy sauce, 3 tbsp. spoons of honey, salt, pepper, garlic to taste. Squeeze the garlic into honey, add soy sauce, add salt and pepper and mix. We marinate the chicken in this sauce for 2-12 hours.
Put marinated thighs or drumsticks in a sleeve together with sliced and peeled apples. Bake for 30-40 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees.
DessertsAn excellent option for a healthy dessert is apples stuffed with dried fruit. Stuff the apples with prunes, dried apricots, dates and nuts, and bake in the oven until done.
If you can't imagine the New Year without a cake, but want to spare your figure and stomach, we recommend you to choose recipes based on biscuit dough, jelly and fresh fruit.