Waist Not! Healthy Ways With Leftovers

GUEST POST: Tucking into the vast choice of left-overs in the fridge is almost as much part of our Christmas indulgence as the main Christmas Day lunch. The great thing is we’re not wasting the excess food we create from catering for twice as many as we have around the table on the big day itself! The only problem is that if we’re not careful, that ‘special day’ indulgence becomes a week or two of calorie-laden feasting. Feels great at the time but New Year’s Day soon looms leaving so much work to be done on getting back into shape!

At VavistaLife we are all about enjoying our favourite foods: we would never discourage a turkey curry, a stuffing sandwich or a quick bubble and squeak … and we certainly wouldn’t recommend throwing food away. So here are some quick tips to improve the health of your Christmas left-over meals:

Turkey curry:

A delicious way to use up extra meat and veg from Christmas, but keep it healthy by avoiding adding unnecessary ingredients like cream and serve it on a bed of lovely nutty brown rice. Avoid dishing it up with side orders such as naan bread or poppadums which pile on the calories.

Sandwiches:

The opportunities are endless; stuffing, turkey, salad, even veg can be folded between two slices of fresh bread to really make a delicious, fulfilling meal. But avoid slapping on the mayonnaise and choose a lovely wholemeal loaf over a white one – really you’ll taste the difference! Or use lettuce leaves instead of bread and make it a ‘breadless sandwich’. Finally – avoid treating a sandwich as a snack between meals; add some salad on the side and make it a proper meal!

Bubble & Squeak:

A true favourite and a great way to finish up all the savoury left-overs. Think about the oil you use to cook it though. Choose a good olive oil – and remember you probably need very little of it as most of the potatoes, meat and veg will probably have been roasted originally in some oils so you shouldn’t need to add much more. Or use a low-fat spray or oil and water spritz (it’s easy to make your own in a spray bottle).

And Puddings?

Is there any way to improve the health value of those lovely, rich dessert left-overs? Well yes! Why not make up a big fresh fruit salad and then have a portion of left-over pudding with it? It’s a double whammy – you’re cutting down on your portion of the sugary left-overs and topping up on your fresh fruit and vitamins intake which has probably been somewhat neglected over the Christmas build-up!