Imagine if your holiday menu planning concentrated on more than 'just' flavor. What if you also added to that mix a consideration for nutrients, calories, compatibility with other foods, digestibility and the like? It wouldn't take away from the flavor of the recipe, but would instead enhance its overall enjoyment - GUILT FREE!

I would imagine that's the way you would want to go. Food that tastes great that is great for you.

When I put together a recipe no matter what it is, I have these involuntary questions that surface:

What's my desired end result?
Will this recipe accomplish it?

Here's how you can utilize these same questions while locating, following, modifying, whether on this site or elsewhere, or creating new recipes to design your best holiday menus for family, friends and clients.

What is your desired end result?
Say that it's an easy menu, that's tasty, establishes and or supports health and has a lot of variety.

Let's break these 'end result' components down:

Easy menu = what for you? - Would it be:

- Less than a certain amount of time?
- Less than a certain number of steps?
- Less than a certain number of ingredients?
- all of the above and/or other considerations?

Tasty = what you consider appetizing.
Health = what health looks like for you.
- This may be:

- Getting rid of those nagging symptoms leading to: Fibromyalgia: Rheumatoid Arthritis; Endometriosis; MS; Etc.
- Losing those extra un-needed pounds and taking excess strain off of your heart
- Bringing your high blood pressure down to normal and reducing your cholesterol levels
- Having more clarity and consistency in thought and memory
- A general feeling of strength and well being or a list of other things

Will this recipe accomplish that?
This may be one of those tricky questions with answers that may be "above your pay grade".
How would you know if your recipe will accomplish your desired end results?
How could you accomplish all of these things? And for your holiday menus nonetheless when you're supposed to be throwing caution to the wind and enjoying yourself?

You can do this:

Start with the best ingredients: fresh, whole, nutrient dense and unprocessed [note: the better your body absorbs the nutrients in your food the less you'll have to eat before becoming full and being satisfied.] and design your menu around those items or viceversa plan your menu and then get the best ingredients to carry it off.

Take an existing recipe and substitute the unhealthy ingredients (the conventional/non-organic, artificial, bleached, processed, stripped, denatured and irradiated ingredients) with healthy ones (100% natural, pesticide free, organic ingredients), it will not only boost the nutritional value and body's ability to use it, but also add much more flavor, be more satisfying as well as fill you up faster without the heaviness that usually follows a heavy holiday meal. Also... you can use silicone coated nonstick cookware which will cut down on the amounts of fat that you'll need to keep your food from sticking.

When you make these simple adjustments you'll not only have more energy to thoroughly enjoy your holiday company, you'll also be able to get through it guilt-free coming out of it with relatively the same inches you went into it with. So as you rifle through your holiday recipes on or offline this season and those to come... Think ahead to stay ahead.

For more information or to have one of your questions answered, drop me a line, stop by my forum, join my Vegetarian Resource Newsletter and definitely stay tuned in as I bring you more articles to help you effortlessly achieve your best, health, well being and wholeness throughout the life of your diet and your holiday season.

As always... It's been my heartfelt pleasure to share with you. Happy holidays and many returns. Until next time...