Healthy Baking for the Holidays

It’s a holiday weekend & you know what that means…lots of rich, traditional, delicious foods and great times spent with family. Whether you’re celebrating Easter, Passover or some other religious holiday this weekend, don’t let the rich holiday foods get you off track of getting ready for summertime. Three things to remember:
1.Practice Portion Control. If something’s tempting you, eat it right away, before the temptation gets worse. If you’re craving something the craving won't go away by wishing it away, you have to satisfy it. Don’t binge. Control yourself: only eat to satisfy your hunger & your temptations.
2.Pay attention to alcohol. Alcohol is one of those hidden dangers – we don’t really think about it when we’re trying to eat healthy, especially on holiday weekends. But it matters! The calories and sugar content in alcohol should not be ignored!! Stay away from hard liquors, sweet drinks and heavy beers. Instead, stick to a glass of red or white wine. If you feel like you really must have that cocktail, choose a Vodka Soda, Bloody Mary or Vodka Cranberry, because they’re fewer in calories/sugar compared to other mixed drinks & actually contain some nutritional value.
3.Wherever you’re going to celebrate, bring something healthy! Sometimes healthy options aren’t available at family gatherings, especially during the holidays, so it’s your job to bring one! The healthy options can be just as tasty as the unhealthy ones. The secret is knowing how to substitute the bad ingredients for better ones.

I’m lucky to have my sister visiting with me this weekend. Tomorrow we’re going to our cousins’ house in Connecticut to celebrate Easter Sunday with family. But, we won’t go empty handed!
This morning we made banana bread to bring over as our healthy contribution. It will be sure to satisfy that sweet tooth after dinner and keep us away from sugary cocktails. It contains healthy alternative ingredients to offset the ‘bad’ ingredients that will be in all the other desserts offered.
I'm sure you'd all agree with me that baking is fun – the problem is, usually the most delicious & fun things to bake contain the worst foods for our body, namely sugar, butter & white flour. But, they don’t have to! Next time you bake, alter your recipe using these simple substitutions:
Apple Sauce instead of butter
All Natural Maple Syrup or Honey instead of sugar
Organic whole wheat flour instead of white flour
Egg whites instead of eggs.
(Note: When substituting sugar with either honey or maple syrup be sure to use a little less than the recipe calls for because both are actually sweeter than granulated white sugar. And be prepared for your baked goods to taste extra delicious, because honey & maple syrup add moisture to recipes which sugar does not.)


Healthy Banana Bread Recipe (Ingredients in Bold)

-Preheat oven to 350
-Cream together in a large bowl: 6 tbsp Apple Sauce, ½ cup Maple Syrup or Honey, 1 tbsp of vanilla & 3 egg whites until smooth
-In separate bowl combine: 1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda & ½ tsp. salt
-In another small bowl, mash up 3 medium, very ripe bananas until they’re mushy (add water if need be to make bananas blend)
-Alternately add dry ingredients & bananas to bowl with apple sauce, maple syrup/honey, vanilla & egg whites
-Stir in ½ cup chopped walnuts & ½ bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
-Pour into greased loaf pan and bake 45 - 50 min., or until toothpick comes out clean