Choosing foods for New Year’s

By Staff
Suzanne Langcuster
Columnist
Christmas holidays are gone for this year and we will miss the beauty of the season. There are so many festive foods for this season that it is hard to come back to reality when the time passes. Nothing warms the heart and soul like good warm food and friends and family around to help you eat it. That is probably the reason we enjoy dressing for the holidays. It is definitely a warming food and a meal in one.
It might be time, when all leftovers are gone, that we get back to foods that will help us have healthier bodies. Not so many sweets, punches, and highly seasoned dishes. Maybe we could make an attempt to find foods that supply us with the right vitamins and minerals that will help us be healthy. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and whole grain might give you a guide as you shop. We are fortunate we can purchase fresh vegetables at our groceries most of the year. When summer arrives we have our gardens and we have Franklin County's Farmer's Mkt. to purchase our vegetables from. Nothing has the taste of fresh greens, beans, and squash. Fried okra is hard to beat! If you enjoy all of these vegetables you always have the choice of the frozen variety. Most of these vegetables are frozen within an hour after picking. They are really fresh. You might enjoy green peas, okra, greens, and frozen corn on the cob.
We do have to wait a little while to have fresh fruit that is grown in this area, but when it is harvested we make up for lost time. There is nothing as good as a peach cobbler with a scoop of low fat or sugar free ice cream on top. Meanwhile, the canned variety of peaches is a good substitute.
The same with homegrown apples. We are fortunate that many apple varieties are shipped to our area during our holidays and beyond. They make a good selection of fruit for your dinner table whether they are prepared as applesauce, cobbler pie, apple straddle, or just plain old baked apples. They make a great jelly also.
Along with the choices in food you might want to include exercise to you post holiday plans.
The New Year is upon us and it is the time to think about ways to keep ourselves on a good eating plan, and remember to look for vitamin and mineral loaded foods to give us strength to fight flu and colds.