The holiday season is all about family, friends, and food. But when you’ve made a choice to eat healthy and delicious plant-based food, even and especially during the holidays, it can sometimes be a challenge. If you are tired of feeling like you are sitting at the kids table during the holidays because of your diet restrictions, here are some plant-powered strategies to make it easier for everyone.
Has this ever happened to you?
You get an invite to see friends and family, maybe for Thanksgiving or the holidays and, while you are excited for the invitation, it immediately hits you. The only food at the table you know you can eat safely is, well, the food you bring for yourself. You are exhausted before you even put the date on the calendar. Remember last time?
- A well-meaning relative brings a big salad just for you, but it’s topped with cheese and/or dressed with lots of oil.
- A friend passes the mashed potatoes or steamed veggies prepared lovingly with lots of butter or sour cream and says oops, I forgot.
- The delicious smelling vegetable soup was made with chicken broth, the dessert with eggs, the pasta with meat sauce. So close.
- They said they would love you to bring a vegan dessert, and that is all you brought, so you end up eating fruit for dinner.
What if this season you could flip the script and rewind the plans by a few days or hours and get to enjoy several dishes that are being served without too much effort.
Here are 5 of my favorite tips to make sharing a meal a little easier for the holidays…
1. Let your host know your dietary needs.
Most hosts will ask how they can make something simple you can eat (have a few ideas ready for them) or they may ask you to bring your food. Both can work well, but hoping for the best rarely does.
BTW, some will act like food pushers, ‘but it was grandma’s recipe’! If you read my blog, you’ll know what to do.
2. Be specific.
Don’t assume someone knows what vegan or plant-based means.
At a recent neighborhood dinner, we shared our diet needs with our host in advance which is common. A few hours before the dinner, they shared that they had prepared a veggie lasagna. We politely asked if there were eggs or dairy (cheese) in the dish. They immediately understood and we both agreed that some spaghetti and roasted broccoli without oil was a perfect solution. Easy for them and healthy for us. Glad we double checked.
3. Offer to bring a dish to share.
Who doesn’t love someone who comes with their own solution. Whatever it is tat you sign up to bring, make it a one pot or one bowl meal just in case. It’s simple.
- Add chickpeas or edamame to your salad. Bring oil-free dressing to share.
- Add lentils and potatoes to your vegetable soup.
- Add a side of veggie balls for your pasta dish.
For the dish to be a meal, it’s best to be a combo of colorful vegetables, starchy vegetables or grains and legumes. Everyone else’s side dish can be your entrée with a few tweaks.
4. Serve yourself early.
Don’t wait until everyone else finds out how delicious your food is. This is a lesson we learned the hard way when we put our marinated Portobello mushrooms on the grill when invited to join friends and found out at dinner that the host had cut them into 16 pieces so everyone could try mushrooms as burgers. They thought our entree was a side dish and not our meal. Let’s face it, our food is yummy!
5. Plan ahead together.
If this is a friendly pot luck or family affair, ask others if they would be able to stop preparation part way through the prep, leave something out, or put your unfinished portion to the side. Mashed potatoes before the added butter and sour cream and maybe before mashing Salad before the oil dressing. Pasta before the cheese or meat sauce. Veggie broth instead of chicken.
You won’t be able to do it with everything or everyone, and you may have to do some of your own prep when you arrive, but that way you can still have steamed veggies or undressed salad and potatoes without all the other stuff. Bring some balsamic vinegar or make your own oil-free dressing and you are set.
No more banishment to the kids table, but with all this plant-based food during the holidays, you will likely feel years younger!
