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05.19.13
Balance out heavy holiday eating with some lighter—but still delicious—fare.
Lighten your calorie load with some delicious, nutritious food between big holiday meals.
The holiday season has arrived with its cozy vibe, joyous celebrations and inevitable indulgences. From Thanksgiving feasts to Christmas cookie exchanges to Aunt Eva’s irresistible jelly donuts—not to mention leftover Halloween candy still lingering—fall and winter can feel like a non-stop gorge fest.
Total resistance is fairly futile—let’s be real—so it’s helpful to arm yourself with ways to mitigate the effects of eating-all-the-things around the holidays. Serving smaller amounts of rich, celebratory foods and focusing on slowly savoring the taste is one way. Another is to counteract those holiday calorie-bomb meals with some lighter fare in between.
Contrary to popular belief, eating “light” doesn’t have to be tasteless, boring or unsatisfying. And contrary to common practice, meals don’t have to fill an entire plate—especially when we’re trying to balance out heavy holiday eating.
It is possible to enjoy the bounties of the season while maintaining a healthy balance. Whether you prefer to eat low-carb or plant-based or gluten-free or everything under the sun, we’ve got you covered with these 10 easy, low-calorie meals from across the dietary spectrum.
Each of these recipes has less than 600 calories (most a lot less) per serving and can be made in less than 30 minutes. And Albertsons has made it easy to find O Organics® ingredients you can put right in your shopping cart to make prepping these meals even simpler.
Enjoy!
Not quite green eggs and ham, but closeAlbertsons
Ingredients:
1 (5 oz) pkg baby spinach
2 eggs
1 clove garlic
4 slices prosciutto
1/2 medium yellow onion
1 medium zucchini squash
1/8 cup butter, unsalted
1 pinch crushed red pepper
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Get your cauliflower power on.Albertsons
1/2 medium head cauliflower
1 stick celery
1/4 small bunch fresh dill
8 oz. ham steak, boneless
1/2 shallot
1/4 tspblack pepper
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/8 tsp paprika
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Plant-based food fan? This combo looks yums. Albertsons
1 avocado
1/2 English cucumber
1 (12 oz.) package extra firm tofu
1 Granny Smith apple
3 Tbsp (45 ml) Ranch dressing
1/2 (14 oz bag) shredded cabbage (coleslaw mix)
2 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Sometimes you just gotta frittata.Albertsons
6 eggs
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
2 oz Parmesan cheese
1 red bell pepper
1/2 medium red onion
8 sundried tomatoes, oil-packed
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Caprese, if you please.Albertsons
3/4 lb chicken breasts, boneless skinless
1/2 small pkg fresh basil
1/2 (8 oz pkg) fresh mozzarella cheese
1 clove garlic
3 tomatoes
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 3/4 pinches black pepper
1 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
These mushrooms look positively poppable.Albertsons
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1/2 (4 oz) log goat cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
2 sundried tomatoes, oil-packed
1 1/4 pinches crushed red pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
2 pinches salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Move over, avocado toast. English muffin pizzas have arrived.Albertsons
3 Tbsp (45 ml) basil pesto
2 English muffins
1/2 (4 oz) log goat cheese
1/2 pint grape tomatoes
3/4 pinch black pepper
2 pinches salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
This pita pocket packs a colorful punch.Albertsons
1/4 (8 oz) block cheddar cheese
1/2 bunch Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
4 oz oven roasted turkey breast, sliced
1/2 (12 oz) jar roasted red bell peppers
1 whole grain pita
3/4 pinch black pepper
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp mayonnaise
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Did we say, "Move over, avocado toast?" What we meant was "Throw some prosciutto on it!" Albertsons
1 avocado
2 slices prosciutto
2 slices whole grain bread
1 5/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Vegetarian chili with a fall twistAlbertsons
2 (15 oz can) black beans
1/2 (8 oz ) block cheddar cheese
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 green bell peppers
1 small bunch green onions (scallions)
1 (15 oz) can pure pumpkin purée
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 tsp black pepper
5 7/8 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp virgin coconut oil
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes, visit albertsons.com/recipes.
"Maybe we should all be a little bit more honest this holiday season because you don't know who you'd be helping."
A broke mom" explains her personal "holiday gift guide."
Almost everyone, at least once in their lives, enters a holiday season with very little money to spend on gifts. Unexpected medical expenses, job loss, everything breaking down all at once—we’ve all been there to some extent.
And yet, when December 25th makes its way into the periphery, many put themselves further into the red by buying items that no way match their budget. Or, there’s a sense of shame when telling family and friends that it simply can’t be done this year.
But one mom is perfectly unfazed about owning up to whatever financial realities exist for her and her family, and she is encouraging others to have the same mindset.
“Let me share with you my holiday gift guide for the broke mom,” the mom, Sam, says in her TikTok. “The guide is that there is no guide. I have no suggestions because I'm just honest with people.”
Sam recalls that last year when her family couldn’t afford gifts for anybody, she simply said so. And lo and behold—it was totally fine.
“You'd be surprised how many people were like, ‘Oh great, because I don't want to buy you a gift either,” she continues, adding that many people are currently in the same boat because of inflation, and might find the same relief in not being obligated to buy one more thing.
Sam also argues in the clip that really, the only ones that take priority when it comes to Christmas gifts are those who you’re responsible for, i.e. your children. But even for kids, she argues that gifts they want or need can easily be thrifted most of the time. And really, often what they really want isn’t more stuff anyway.
And if the desire to still gift something persists, Sam recommends some simple, frugal alternatives, like thrifting or making something.@shawtgal49 I’d prefer a little realness over another mug anyway #fyp #sahm #brokemom ♬ original sound - Sam
Bottom line: whether you’re preparing baked goods using dollar store ingredients or repurposing household items to make DIY picture frames or requesting a White Elephant party or not doing gifts at all, embarrassment should be left out of the equation.
“Maybe we should all be a little bit more honest this holiday season because you don't know who you'd be helping. You don't know who was embarrassed to say that they couldn't afford something for you this year, and you saved them by telling them that you're not doing gifts,” Sams concludes.
And she is not the only one on board for this idea, judging by the comments section to her video. Several agreed that holiday overspending is overrated.
“I refuse to go broke for holidays anymore,” one person wrote.
Another added, “Honestly it would make me feel terrible if I knew someone was struggling and they gave me a gift. I’d rather you not and spend it on what you need. ❤️”
One person even joked, “We don’t do gifts for anyone anymore. We’re all just passing the same $20 around lol.”
The rest of the year is stressful enough. Let’s give ourselves permission to be a little kinder to ourselves by honoring our limits this holiday season. After all, peace of mind is a gift that’s priceless.
Dr. Brené Brown says we need to be vulnerable to help.
Rsearcher and author Dr. Brené Brown
Dr. Brené Brown gave a talk to the Royal Society for Arts in 2013 called “The Power of Vulnerability,” where she explained that only by embracing vulnerability and imperfection can we live life with courage and authenticity.
Brown is a research professor known for her studies on courage, vulnerability and empathy. She is the author of several books including, "The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are" and "Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts."
One of the most powerful moments in Brown’s talk was when she described the difference between empathy and sympathy. To a lot of people, those concepts seem to be synonymous. However, in this video, Brown explains why “empathy fuels connection while sympathy drives disconnection.”
The video was beautifully animated by Katy Davis.
Brown says we must take on other people's perspectives and recognize them as their truth to be genuinely empathetic. We should also be able to stay out of judgment while recognizing other people’s emotions and communicating that we understand.
Empathy requires us to be vulnerable with someone who is hurting.
“Empathy is feeling with people,” Brown continues. “I always think of empathy. It's this kind of sacred space when someone's kind of in a deep hole and they shout out on the bottom and they say I'm stuck, it's dark, I'm overwhelmed, and then we look and we say, ‘Hey!’ you climb down ‘I know what it's like down here and you're not alone.’”
The video was beautifully animated by Katy Davis.
[Video]
Brown says we must take on other people's perspectives and recognize them as their truth to be genuinely empathetic. We should also be able to stay out of judgment while recognizing other people’s emotions and communicating that we understand.
Empathy requires us to be vulnerable with someone who is hurting.
“Empathy is feeling with people,” Brown continues. “I always think of empathy. It's this kind of sacred space when someone's kind of in a deep hole and they shout out on the bottom and they say I'm stuck, it's dark, I'm overwhelmed, and then we look and we say, ‘Hey!’ you climb down ‘I know what it's like down here and you're not alone.’”
Ah, the good old days, when you had to choose between the phone or the internet.
Sammy J took us on a trip down memory lane.
Those of us who remember life before the internet love nothing more than to share "back in my day" stories with today's youngsters who've never had to try to get somewhere without GPS. When we tell our kids about dial-up internet, they look at us the same bewildered way we looked at our parents when they talked about party lines. So much fun.
Nothing splits the generations like what was considered advanced technology during our formative years, and one comedian has encapsulated that divide in an ode to the 1990s.
Sammy J sang "You'll Never Know What It's Like" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and had the audience giggling along with recollections of life in the 90s. Driving around in the car with a big book of maps? Check. Making a collect call to tell your mom to pick you up but avoiding the collect call charges by telling her where you were instead of saying your name? Check. Agonizing over whether to take a photo because you only have 24 shots in your disposable camera? Check.
Younger generations will never know what it was like to live so primitively, it's true. But Gen X does, and this song is like taking a cold plunge into a pool of nostalgia.
Enjoy:
People loved the musical trip to the past.
"Thank you for taking me down memory lane! It was a blast " wrote one commenter.
But some couldn't agree on whether young people have it better today or had it better in the 90s.
"All true! If only our teenagers knew who good they have it!" wrote one person.
"Life was so so good in the 90’s I feel lucky it didn’t have to grow up in this era ," shared another.
"God I miss the 90s!" wrote another. "Both my daughters always say they wish they grew up in the 90s bc it seemed so much fun and it was!!"
Kids today really will never know what those days were like, but that's okay. They'll be singing their own "back in my day" songs someday and marvel at how much has changed since they were young.
In many ways, the future turned out much brighter than these youngsters expected it to.
Thankfully, this girl's prediction was way off.
The idea of predicting the future has been the subject of countless books, movies and televisions shows (and is basically the basis of all gambling). Outside of a few uncanny instances, no one can tell exactly what the future holds, especially for the world at large. But people sure love to predict it anyway.
The BBC shared a video compilation of kids in 1966 sharing what they imagine the year 2000 would be like, and their predictions are fascinating. After five or six kids share, it becomes clear what some of the most pressing concerns of the 1960s were. Some kids thought we'd have bombed ourselves into oblivion. Others believed we'd be so overpopulated we would be packed like sardines and wouldn't be able to build houses anymore.
Not all of the predictions were so dark. Some kids had some hilarious predictions about cabbage pills and robots. Others thought we'd have better cures for diseases and less segregation among the races, which we have.
Watch what these young folks envisioned nearly 40 years into their future—now more than 20 years into our past:
Thankfully, the year 2000 wasn't as dire as many of these kids imagined it would be. In fact, hearing these predictions might even make us feel pretty good about how humanity has fared in the past 60 years.
How about the kid predicting the future of automation? Or the kid who said people would be regarded more as statistics than people? Or the one who predicted animals being kept in buildings instead of grazing so they could produce more?
And hey, props to the kids who didn't predict an overpopulated nuclear hellscape. It can be hard to see negative news and not think the world is on a downward spiral. But if nothing else, seeing that these kids' doom and gloom predictions didn't come true is pretty heartening and a good sign that our own future may not be as dark as it sometimes appears.
We need to hear more stories like this.
Maura Quint shares about men responding appropriately.
For anyone who thinks stories of sexual harassment and assault are complicated, writer Maura Quint has a story for you. Actually, she has quite a few.
Quint posted a thread on her Twitter account that quickly went viral in which she talked about a number of real-life encounters with men that started out sexual, involved her expressing disinterest, and the men responding appropriately.
It wasn't an unrealistic hero's tale of men handing over the keys to their autonomy. Rather, Quint's incredible thread made it clear that the only variable in cases of assault vs. non-assault are when a man doesn't respect the autonomy of the woman he's propositioning.
Her thread opens up in an all-too-familiar tone, where we're led to believe it will go to an incredibly dark place:
Maybe?
via @behindyourback / Twitter
Instead, Quint says her indifference to his proposition was met in kind with a guy just acting in a basic, non-rapey way:
Should be expected.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
She goes on to offer several other examples of being in sexual or potentially sexual situations with men who also managed to not sexually assault her:
Annoyed but with character.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
Meeting the right instead of wrong person.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
And here's the real kicker, Quint says she has been assaulted. To her, the difference isn't hard to pinpoint:
Difference being whether they were okay with assault.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
Her thread has been re-tweeted nearly 50,000 times and "liked" more than 100,000 times. Other women and some men jumped in with their own tales of drinking, partying and still, somehow, managing to not assault or even harass the women they encountered.
She married him.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
Men avoid abusers too.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
Kind and human.
via @behindyourback / Twitter
It's a stark contrast to the half-baked defenses of Brett Kavanaugh and other men like him. There are incredibly rare exceptions where a man is accused of assault or harassment and he is entirely free of guilt. But for women, or anyone for that matter, who has survived sexual assault or experienced sexual harassment, there is no "gray area."
There's being OK with assault and then there's everything else. Whether or not we're consciously aware of this, we've all chosen a side. But if you're on the wrong side, it doesn't have to be that way forever.
This article originally appeared on 10.02.18
Courage and body positivity. This is me.
An emotional and strong Matt Diaz.
But his proudest moment came in March 2015 when he decided to film himself with his shirt off to prove an important point about body positivity and self-love.
Here's Matt at 16 years old and 497 pounds versus recently after his surgery — at 22 years old and 220 pounds.
Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.
To stay motivated, he started sharing his journey on social media, posting before-and-after photos, answering questions and giving support to followers, and even sharing his meals and favorite workouts. Six years later, Matt is down over 270 pounds and is a very active voice in the online body-positivity movement.
But in all his years of sharing his story, the one thing he's never done is showed what his body looks like after 200+ pounds of weight loss. So he uploaded the video above to show his followers his true self.
Sharing what happens with extreme weight loss.
Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.
Working through fear...
Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.
Loving myself.
Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.
Scary and important.
Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.
Shortly after he posted the video online, originally to Tumblr, it quickly went viral and garnered thousands of shares and comments from people around the web. I was one of the thousands touched by the video, so I reached out to Matt to find out more about what motivated him and what he hopes others can take away from his story. Here's what he had to say:
Why was it so important for you to post this video?
"I'm a really big advocate for self-love and body positivity. I think it's important that we learn to love the bodies we're in, even if we don't necessarily like every little thing about them. However, in the time I'd been writing and talking about it, I'd never actually shown my excess skin to anyone. It felt dishonest somehow, to others and to myself. I couldn't tell others that I wanted them to love themselves and keep myself hidden away and ashamed of my skin."
"I know what it feels like to hate your body, and to be depressed about it, and I never want anyone to feel that way again. So, if making myself vulnerable can help one person, why not?"
— Matt Diaz
What's the response been like? Anything particularly unexpected?
"I think that putting any opinion on the Internet will garner a certain amount of negativity and cynicism, but I haven't seen anything like that at all. I've read every comment and message since the video has gone up, literally thousands, and they're all so thoughtful.
A really surprising side-effect were the number of transgender people who've thanked me saying that they understood my struggle, even though their body-related insecurity grew from different roots. I'd never even begun to [think] of what that must be like, and the fact that my message could help even though my problems began somewhere else is really incredible.”
What advice or words of encouragement do you have for someone who's struggling to love their body?
"I know it's difficult, especially when you're starting out. I want you to remember that you are not the problem, certain aspects of society are the problem. You'll constantly be told that you're too heavy or too tall to be attractive, or you're not masculine or feminine enough, or that your skin isn't the right tone or your hair isn't the right color, and these people are always always always wrong.
Luckily, we're slowly starting to see these ideas get phased out by modernity. Plus-sized, un-retouched models are getting more attention in major brands, more attention is being put on the alternative scene for high fashion, it's becoming clear that these negative ideas are not going to last, though it's going to take a while."
"Understand that to love yourself is to contest the negative things that were put into your head. Every smile, tattoo, bathing suit, and crop top is a small revolution. Tell yourself you're beautiful every day, and I promise you will be."
— Matt Diaz
Watch video below:
I think the most important thing to take away here is that self-love takes time and is different for everyone no matter what they look like. It's also worth noting that for Matt, losing weight was an important part of his journey, but that might not be the case for everyone. Even so, our society has such incredibly high and unrealistic body standards that even many of those who do work to lose weight end up feeling uncomfortable or being shamed for not having "perfect bodies" once they've lost weight.
There's no such thing as a "perfect body" because everyone is different, which is what makes us beautiful and great! I'm glad there are people like Matt in the world who are not only willing to share their stories but also to inspire others by showing that body confidence comes in all shapes and sizes, and that everyone deserves to feel good about who they are. Here's hoping Matt's inspiring words can help others begin to love and accept themselves, no matter where they're at in their journey.
This story originally appeared on 03.18.15.