WOW! It sure has been a while since I blogged last. The holiday really consumed my time and energy. So much so that I got sick ON Christmas. Yes, Merry Christmas to me.
Growing up we had a traditional Christmas morning meal. For as long as I can remember, I only remember having one thing for breakfast. This meal that my mom would put on for us was and IS still so special to me. Every winter my mom would make a hot chocolate mix that, to this day, is the BEST and easiest mix known on the face of the Earth. Every Christmas morning we would have this hot chocolate accompanied by a fruit salad that consisted of diced apples, oranges, and sliced bananas. She would then pour Sprite and orange juice made from concentrate over it and it would make this yummy, sweet, and fizzy treat. Now, for the "pièce de résistance". Every year my mom would go on a baking frenzy. She would bake SO much stuff for Christmas. She would use these offerings of pure heaven as gifts to friends and family. Sandwiched in the middle of this baking frenzy she would make the holy grail of Christmas goodies which would then turn into our Christmas morning meal. Two words: "Cardamom Bread". This bread, or more likely the "Achilles heal" of all dieting efforts as I know it, is the thing that I look forward to the most EVERY year and has been my downfall of all past diets. I've tried making it other times, but it just isn't the same. Funny how that is. Anyway, this bread is packed full of yummy cardamom spice and then topped with an icing that brings it to heaven's gate. And it isn't shaped like a typical loaf of bread. My mom would shape it into braids, wreaths, Christmas trees, etc. etc. It truly is a work of art. The hot chocolate, fruit salad, and bread is what I remember the most growing up about Christmas and together they bring the Spirit and fun memories that are often lacking because of the "hub bub" of the season. I've carried on this tradition in my own family and I am happy to say that my children have come to see how special this traditional breakfast is. This year, however, I had to get a little "creative" as to how I could make it more healthy. ESPECIALLY when it came to the icing. Mmm....icing.
To start, I didn't make the hot chocolate mix. I made hot chocolate from scratch this year. I used milk, cocoa powder, vanilla, and sucanat instead of sugar. Instead of Sprite and orange juice, I used soda water sweetened with just a touch of honey and used lemon and lime essential oils to give it the "Sprite" flavor and then used fresh juiced oranges for the orange juice. A couple years ago I added pomegranate to the fruit salad and it was a hit. So, now we add pomegranate to the salad and it is not only yummy, but really pretty too. For the bread, I always get nervous when I "mess" with an already perfect thing, I was determined though to make it as good but make it more healthy for us. Instead of AP flour I used fresh ground whole wheat and instead of sugar I used honey. The bread turned out beautiful. I typically just braid it and it makes two huge loaves that we typically finish up in 24 hours time. The icing was where I was really struggling. How could I make an icing that would do this bread justice and keep it healthy??? Since graduating from culinary school my icing has been powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and the juice from maraschino cherries. (I hate the cherries, don't mind the syrup.) And it has been GOOD, BUT seriously unhealthy. So, this year, I had an idea to take cream cheese and thin it out to an icing consistency using maple syrup and/or sucanat and then add Amaretto flavoring to give it the maraschino cherry "vibe". We weren't sure which one we would like the most so I did small batches of both. They were BOTH EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD. My alterations were a success. The breakfast was just as indulgent as it has been in the past. In fact, I felt like I was being a traitor to my own cause. It was hard to wrap my mind around eating this yummy stuff and it being OK. I didn't realize how "OK" it actually was until I stepped on the scale the next Monday and saw that I had lost almost 5 pounds. This is where the "Triple H" comes into play. This year we were able to have a
Happy,
Healthy
Holiday.
As for holiday treats, I found this recipe for pomegranate chocolate bark that was to DIE for. So, I thought I would share this Happy Healthy find with the world.
Chocolate Pomegranate Bark
2/3 C cacao powder
1/2 C pure maple syrup
1/3 C coconut oil, melted
1/2 C chopped pecans
1-2 pomegranates, de-seeded
1 tsp sea salt
Add the first 3 ingredients to a bowl and mix well until you have a uniform consistency. Stir in pecans. Pour mixture onto a parchment or Saran Wrap lined pan. Pour pomegranate seeds evenly across the chocolate and push them down gently. Sprinkle with the sea salt. Place chocolate bark in the freezer for 20 minutes. Break
chocolate sheet apart (I actually cut it because it was "bendy" and not breakable) carefully with the pomegranate side facing down
so you don't squirt yourself with juice from the seeds! Store leftover chocolate bark in an air-tight container in the freezer.
ENJOY!!!
