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Healthy Christmas Snacks for a Very Merry Christmas!

By on December 18, 2013

As much as we would love to say to you that the snacks you put in your mouth at Christmas is bad for you, there’s a high chance that you are not going to stop eating them. We all know that Christmas is for splurging – it wouldn’t be the same without a naughty desert or a glass of festive tipple! Thankfully, with our simple hints and tips, you could have a healthier Christmas and still enjoy all those snacky-little foods that you love to nibble on!

Make your own! 

Mince Pies

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If you make your own mince pies, you can make open-topped ones. This may not seem like a great effort to make to stay healthier this Christmas but think about how many of these mince pies you are likely to eat, especially if you take them to parties with you. The open-topped idea means that you are consuming less pastry which is generally the worst part of this festive delight. You might also want to consider making the mince pies with filo pastry to make them less calorie-ridden and easier on the digestive tract that conventional pies. When you look at it this way, it just makes sense – one sheet of filo pasty contains around 40 calories. One sheet of puff pastry has over 600 calories. Even if you use five or six sheets of filo pastry to make luxurious mince pies, you will still be consuming less calories than the puff pastry versions. They will be lighter to enjoy too!

You can even liven up the mincemeat a bit to make it heather by adding some chopped apple. It’s a simple tip but one that could save you a whole load of calories during the Christmas season.

Nibbles

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Rather than putting out bowls of calorie-ridden nuts and savoury snacks, make your own healthy treats and cut back on calories without sacrificing flavour. Instead of using bags of crisps that can contain over 200 calories per bag, make your own dried vegetable crisps. A few of our team starting buying these from Boots and they are delicious and have most definitely gone down a treat. Take a look online for some recipes and you’ll see how easy they are to make too!

You could use poppadoms, rice cakes, oatcakes and even homemade healthy treats to put out in place of the conventional nibbles. We promise you that your guests will love the exchange!

Dip-Dipping

You can’t really have a festive gathering without dips. What else would you dunk your breadsticks in? There are ways that you can substitute unhealthy, calorie-packed dips for the healthier ones. Salsa, for example, is a great substitute for the tubs of sour cream and chive dips that you always have with your Doritos. Low fat yoghurt with a handful of herbs also make for great dips and you can experiment with different flavours for plenty of fun opportunities! Again, take a look around the internet for homemade healthy dips for a good idea of what we mean.

Simple swaps!

Easy peasy substitutes are what you are looking for at this busy time of year, right? We’ll bring the very best ones right now:

Swap the ready salted crisps for plain tortilla chips or handmade chips (healthy ones, of course!)

Swap the salmon and cream cheese bite-things for sushi-style salmon instead!

Swap the pastry tarts for the filo pastry ones – just like we mentioned in the mince pies!

Swap an onion bhaji for a satay stick and you could be saving almost 50 calories per nibble!

Swap the salted peanuts for some pretzels and again, you could be saving over 70 calories! 

There are plenty of things that you can do to make Christmas this easier for you and these healthy Christmas snacks are just the tip of the iceberg. Why not take a look at some of our other festive healthy eating articles to have a much healthier Christmas this year:

The delicious Christmas grub was found on Pinterest.com