3 Winter Treats That Aren’t Sweets

‘Tis the time of year when the siren calls of egg nog, chocolate peppermint and pumpkin spice flavor lure us from our healthiest of intentions. Part of the temptation, of course, is the special, seasonal nature of these flavors — and that festive feeling that accompanies our tasting something different from the usual grind.

On one hand, partaking in certain holiday indulgences is one of the traditions that gives flavor to life, and is indeed part of what makes the human experience so rich and satisfying. (If food traditions didn’t matter, we’d all happily just spare ourselves the hassle and subsist on Soylent.) There’s a time and place for indulgence: pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving; jelly donuts and potato pancakes on Hannukah; grandma’s homemade Christmas cookies as you wrap gifts on Christmas eve. On the other hand, America’s holiday “season” is starting ever earlier with each passing year, extending its pumpkin-laced tyrannical reign into a full four months, from September through December. During this prolonged period of time, many “limited edition treats” have a way of becoming “habits,” and all of a sudden, their effects on our health are not so benign. Swapping out that daily drip coffee for a daily PSL or gingerbread latte? Opting for a pumpkin muffin in lieu of oatmeal for breakfast? Keeping holiday Peeps or candy canes in your desk drawer instead of an apple or banana when mid-afternoon hunger hits?

While I most certainly do my fair share of indulging in holiday treats when the time and place dictates, I try to be diligent about preventing sweet treats from infiltrating my day-to-day routines between actual holiday celebrations. Never one to deprive myself of seasonal festivity, however, I enjoy plenty of holiday cheer throughout the winter months by seeking out a variety of seasonal foods whose nutritional credentials merit a more regular appearance in my diet.

Fresh chestnuts. If you’ve never tried roasting fresh chestnuts at home, you’re seriously missing out on one of the best December treats available. The scent of chestnuts roasting in your toaster oven (did you think I was going to say “on an open fire?”) captures the seasonal coziness, and it’s such a pleasure to eat still-warm chestnuts as fast as you can train your spouse or children to peel them. These starchy little tree nuts have a little bit of fiber, a non-trivial amount of vitamin C and are the perfect naturally sweet little touch to top off dinner. For a step-by-step tutorial on how to select the freshest chestnuts and roast them, see my personal blog or one of the many online photo and video tutorials.

No-sugar added minty hot cocoa. It’s a fact: Sometimes you just need a sweet, chocolately little taste of something in the evening. When I’m feeling this way, I find that a warm mug of homemade hot cocoa not only hits the spot but makes me feel righteous due to its nutrient-dense ingredients; milk is loaded with protein and calcium, and unsweetened cocoa powder is a great source of iron, magnesium and heart-healthy antioxidants.

My trick for delicious hot cocoa with no sugar added: Use lactose-free milk as your base, whether or not you’re lactose intolerant. Here’s why: Milk sugar, or lactose, is a natural, two-molecule sugar that only tastes about 20 percent as sweet as table sugar despite having the same number of calories per gram. But when lactase enzyme is added to conventional milk to make it lactose-free, that lactose is split into its two component parts: glucose and galactose. As it happens, glucose tastes 70 to 80 percent as sweet as table sugar, which is far sweeter than lactose tastes. So all of those liberated glucose molecules in lactose-free milk result in it tasting much sweeter than conventional milk — even though it still contains the exact same total amount of naturally-occurring sugar. When I make hot cocoa with naturally sweeter-tasting lactose-free milk, I find no need to add any additional sweeteners.

My favorite way to make hot cocoa is to blend about a cup of lactose free milk with 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder using a device of some sort to help ensure complete mixing. You can warm your milk on the stovetop or microwave, and then blend it with an aerolatte frother; alternatively, mix both the cold milk and the powdered cocoa in a standalone device that both warms and froths the ingredients simultaneously (I’m partial to the aeroccino by Nespresso.) If you like a hint of mint, add a single drop of peppermint extract to your mug. Voila! Holiday in a cup.

Holiday whole-grain pancakes. I love pumpkin spice and gingerbread as much as the next girl. But in my house, you’ll most likely find these flavors spiking a whole-grain pancake recipe — not an oversized muffin, doughnut or sugary coffee drink. Canned pumpkin puree and a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice add holiday cheer — plus nutritious vitamin A and fiber — to your favorite whole-grain pancake mix. I use 1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin per batch (1 cup flour/mix) as a rule of thumb. To gingerbread-ize a store-bought pancake mix, you can add 1 tablespoon of molasses to your wet ingredients, and add a few dashes of homemade gingerbread spice blend to the dry (recipe available here).

If you’re game for making pancakes from scratch, I’ve found some terrific whole-grain recipes on the blogosphere for both pumpkin and gingerbread versions that go easy on the sugar but remain sweet enough to allow skipping a maple syrup drizzle. (The Minimalist Baker blog has a fantastic vegan version, though I recommend halving the sugar they call for.) In my experience, there’s plenty of time for pancakes even on busy weekday mornings if I take 10 minutes the night before to measure out and combine all my dry ingredients, and then separately all of my wet ingredients. Once we make it to the kitchen, I can just mix the pre-measured wet and dry ingredients together while the griddle is heating up, and I’ve got from-scratch pancakes hitting the table within five minutes. (And a vegetable serving — pumpkin counts! — under my kids’ belts before 8 a.m.) If we’re in a hurry, pancakes can be packed into a baggie and eaten on our way out the door.

More from U.S. News

Everything You Need to Know About Peppermint

Tasty, Healthy Ways to Use Raw Cacao

Holiday Vices: How to Have Fun Without Overdoing It

3 Winter Treats That Aren’t Sweets originally appeared on usnews.com

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up