Festivities over!

Wow, what a relaxed Christmas we had this year, very little cooking and lots of rest and playtime.  I have found that there are a lot of "sometimes" foods at Christmas time in Australia.  With our climate, we usually have a lot of fresh protien like ham off the bone, chicken and seafood, but its the rich condiments we use in potato and pasta salads, then the sauces we have on the tables, not to mention the desserts...although I love fruit cake, Christmas cake takes the humble fruit cake to a whole new level of fat, sugar, carbs etc that should definately only be experienced but once a year.  On our table we had lots of fresh salad with lettuce, onion, tomato, stuffed olives, cheese, pine nuts and a little balsamic vinegar drizzled over the top that makes our table simple yet so delicious.  We have a lot of meat, fish, seafood and eggs over the Christmas break, usually lots of leftovers but it's the cake and desserts that usually leave us with a little bit more to love than we would like.  So it's back to coming up with ways to make our meals low GI yet visually stimulating.  I have been doing some more research over the last weeks that have given me a lot to think about...weight loss is the first thing that I needed to deal with but now I'd like to focus more on the health benefits of food and how foods help or hinder our kids little bodies.  I am amazed at how much Hayley knows about this too as she is a very good listener when I find some new (for us) and exciting information on foods.  Just tonight I am reading about artificial sweetner and how some believe it is causing big problems with our metabolism among other things.  If we are to focus on our health, all sugar should be kept to a minimum as well as highly refined carbohydrates, very important for health and weight loss.  I feel I am a  learner with the information I am finding and I would like to study health and nutrition this year but in the mean time, I try not to believe everything I read, some are a little out there so I think I need a little more evidence.  The foods that we eat are not always the healthiest choices but we need to eat to fit into our individual lifestyles, otherwise, it will be a lot harder to eat healthy if it always feels like we are missing out on something, that's not a nice way to live.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and Happy New year, may 2010 be filled with wonderful memories of fun in the kitchen with your littlies :)