The Holiday Leftovers

Image from sodahead.com


In the weeks leading up to Christmas I was completely mindful of what foods I brought into the house. Not a single sweet passed our doorstep. I vowed that I wouldn't spend time baking cookies that no one in the house needed. As of Christmas Eve I hadn't indulged in a single holiday sweet. No chocolates, no gingerbread boys, no eggnog or sugar cookies. It's really not that difficult to stay away from sweets-just don't bring them home, right?

On Christmas Eve my sister-in-law's family came to dinner. She has two small boys so I felt the need to bake a small batch of peanut butter blossom cookies for them and my own children. One batch of 3 dozen cookies isn't so bad and I planned to serve the leftovers when I hosted my own family on Christmas evening. What I didn't count on was the tray of assorted cookies and fudge that my SIL would bring with her as a hostess gift. To be polite, I ate half of one of the cookies that she brought with her. I revised my plans to include the new sweets with the Christmas buffet. Problem solved.

Image of peanut butter blossom cookies from Flickr.com.

Fast forward to Christmas day. After brunch at my Mom's house, my oldest brother, as is his tradition, gifted us with an enormous bag of treats that included dark chocolate (my favorite), candied nuts, dried fruit, bags of candy and peanuts. I added some of these items to the buffet on Christmas night, but only a small portion was consumed. By Christmas night everyone had had enough of the sweet stuff. My vegetable platter was completely gone by the end of the evening. (I always make a vegetable platter similar to the one pictured below. Presentation is everything!)

Image from www.eddieross.com

The grilled chicken and sun-dried tomato topped whole wheat pizza that I made as an appetizer was just about devoured too. (See comments below.)

Image from The Food Network.

The morning after Christmas my pantry was filled to the brim with all of the leftovers. I froze the cookies that weren't consumed. The nuts and dried fruits were kept to be added to yogurt or on my morning oatmeal, but I'm afraid that some of the chocolates, fudge and other treats met an early demise. We had all had enough. Even my teenage son who has the world's worst dietary habits complained "all we have are carbs!" While I don't like the idea of wasting food, I don't have a problem throwing out junk. When the garbage truck pulled up in front of our house this week, hidden among the cast off wrapping paper and bows that decorated our Christmas gifts, were the remains of the Christmas leftovers.

As I was throwing out the leftovers, I remembered something that an instructor at the massage school I attended used to say:

"There is no such thing as junk food. There is only food and junk."

With 2009 coming to an end and 2010 on the horizon, I choose food over junk.

*The recipe for my pizza appetizers is a revised version of this recipe from Food Network. I use a whole wheat crust and substitute extra chicken in place of most of the cheese. I also use just a small amount of low-fat ricotta cheese instead of the full cup that is recommended. I cut the pizza into small appetizer-sized squares. It is always a hit at parties.