{"id":1005,"date":"2010-12-22T16:57:46","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T16:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/?p=1005"},"modified":"2010-12-22T16:57:46","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T16:57:46","slug":"holiday-survival-reality-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/holiday-survival-reality-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Survival: Reality Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Surviving Holiday Potlucks When You Don&#8217;t Control the Agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lauren visited her in-laws for Thanksgiving.\u00a0 A participant in our Whole Kitchen cooking classes this  fall, she was excited\u00a0 to share some of the new vegetable dishes we had  made.\u00a0 Maybe the savory roasted squash dish instead of canned sweet  potatoes topped with brown sugar and marshmallows? Or how about the  &#8220;Braised Brussels Sprouts &amp; Parsnips with Apples and Pecans?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite  her enthusiasm, the thought of change just didn&#8217;t appeal to her  husband&#8217;s family, steeped in tradition, Texas style.\u00a0 Family members had  a lot of sentimental attachment to the dishes that appear on many  holiday tables.\u00a0 So instead of trying to recreate a menu that had been  put on the table for the past 40 years, Lauren decided to weave in a  healthier dish that could be the focus of her Thanksgiving meal.<\/p>\n<p>Put  in charge of the fruit salad, she replaced the traditional whipped  cream concoction\u00a0 with an interesting\u00a0 combo of sliced apples and  oranges, pomegranate seeds,\u00a0 feta cheese and toasted pecans served over a  bed of greens with a light citrus dressing.\u00a0 With this salad and some  turkey, Lauren had a healthy base for her meal.\u00a0 She could then add in  small portions of other\u00a0 dishes, but didn&#8217;t have to rely on them for  satisfaction and comfort.<\/p>\n<p>Lesson learned:\u00a0 With a little effort,  it is possible to respect long-standing family tradition while blending  in some new ideas, just by taking control of what we contribute to the  meal.\u00a0 And who knows?\u00a0 In a few years, those new dishes could become  the new favorites.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/22\/holiday-dinners-the-salad-strategy\/\">Read more about the Salad Survival trick, and put the 10-Step Survival Strategy to work for your next holiday potluck<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you don&#8217;t control the food agenda it&#8217;s hard to stay true to your eating ideals.  Find out how one dedicated person survived a traditional holiday dinner, Texas-style, with the in-laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20],"tags":[237,284,287,298,501],"class_list":["post-1005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-is-healthy-eating","category-recipes","tag-fruit-salad-recipe","tag-healthy-eating","tag-healthy-salads","tag-holiday-eating","tag-salad-strategy","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}