An Eat-Clean Christmas

Christmas was a fun time this year at the Eat-Clean House. My daughters arrived at our place early in the afternoon after spending Christmas Eve and morning with their dad. We started in on the gift giving which is time consuming with 5 kids. I got some new training gear (like my goggles :-)) and a great new winter coat. It's easy to get the girls things since they all have the same style.

After gifts my sister and her family arrived. We set into dinner preparations, which included turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, veggie salad, stuffing, homemade bread, Brussels sprouts, and roasted butternut squash soup. Yummy!
My sister prepared a delicious Dutch Appletart for dessert that was topped off with a bunch of fresh berries. After dinner we watched Mamma Mia. What a great movie. We had so much fun singing along to all the old Abba songs.

On Friday we spent the day playing games, walking with dogs, and doing a puzzle. It was a very low key Christmas that I enjoyed very much.

I get to spend a few more days with the kids before they all head off to their respective centers of higher education. We are preparing for a big New Years bonfire which means more cooking and some house cleaning over the next couple of days.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too.

Stay tuned for a New Year's message!

Christmas Party Moments

I had a great time on Friday night hosting a dinner party for a fabulous group of friends. We spent the evening enjoying delicious food and drinks.

My friend (and fellow Clean Eater) Joanne Lusted and her fantastic catering crew from Nella Cucina Toronto prepared a fantastically clean spread for us including a plethora of yummy apps, spinach salad with goat cheese and nuts, broth-based soup, and a choice of beef tenderloin or halibut with mashed chipotle sweet potatoes and a bunch of in-season roots veggies. Joanne and I chose a menu with in-season and locally available options. Joanne's clean, citrus cheesecake dessert (can you imagine!) topped off the evening perfectly with coffee and tea.

I really enjoy hosting dinner parties, but they can be stressful so I chose to keep the decor simple. After setting up the tree in the great room I set the table with festive red linens, sparkly chargers and warm candles.

My husband and I opened up my home to our closest friends. It was a late night, too! The party didn't close down until 1:30. Well, that's late for me considering I usually wind up in bed somewhere around 9 or 10pm.

Holiday parties can make maintaining your Clean-Eating habits more than difficult, unless you are the one choosing the menu. When I am attending a party that I know will not have clean food I do my best to fill up on clean foods all day before the party so I am not starving for food at the event. I will nibble on the cleanest food I can find at the party. Otherwise, I will make that meal my treat meal for the week.

As wonderful as the holidays are, they can also be difficult when high stress and little rest takes over. Keep your clean treats with you when you are on your shopping hunts, and limit your decadent splurges. Feeling good about yourself will make the holiday more enjoyable AND may help you focus on other resolutions other than weight loss when you ring in the New Year.