Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Latkes and Doughnuts

Chanukah is here.  This means fried foods.  Usually potato latkes or sufganyat (doughnuts).   The tradition to use oil is because after the Jews defeated the Greeks, they went to the temple and only found enough oil for one night, but a great miracle happened and the oil burned for 8 nights. 

Frying food means extra calories.  How to navigate around this holiday without compromising your fitness/weight loss plan. I say treat yourself.  Maybe have one doughnut at a Chanukah party. Be choosy.  Do not eat it because its there.  Maybe you have a favorite bakery that you really like.  Maybe you are at a place and the doughnuts just came out of the oven.  Just last week, I did this.  I treated myself to one at the bakery near my office.  Today we had some at work for our Chanukah party.  That’s it. I am done. 

Latkes are potatoes mixed with eggs and flour.  Then you drop a spoonful of batter into oil to make a potato pancake.  These are delicious.  I like these better than the doughnuts.  I went the other route with latkes.  I made these myself.  I found a recipe and made a few adjustments to it to make it much healthier.  I used sweet potatoes.  I boiled then to make mashed potatoes.  Then I mixed it with my ingredients.  Then I cooked them like pancakes on a  griddle. Then put in the oven for about 20 minutes.  They were the best latkes I ever had. 

One more tip.  Skip the daily weigh in after you have a big meal the night before, especially if you are eating foods you do not usually eat.  I ate more this weekend, than I usually do. I will probably not weigh myself until either Wednesday or Thursday of this week.  Why make yourself get all bent out of shape over a temporary weight gain that wont last more than a few days.

Happy Chanukah!!!

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