That’s why we’re sharing our favorite healthy holiday recipes in our first cookbook. The DietsInReview.com Holiday Cookbook is available from TasteBook and features 25 recipes that offer all the traditional flavors of the season, with less of the guilt, fat and calories.

Inside this colorful hardback cookbook we’re sharing appetizers, desserts, entrees and sides that will help you set a healthier scene as you and your family gather to give thanks and celebrate the season. These recipes are ideal for Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other winter event.

And since it comes from TasteBook, you can add up to 75 more of your own family favorites and personalize each recipe page to create a one-of-a-kind holiday cookbook.

Order your DietsInReview.com Holiday Cookbook to start preparing healthy recipes yourself, or share the gift of wholesome food with a loved one. The book comes with 25 DietsInReview.com recipes, plus credits to add 75 pages of your own, for $34.95.

Visit TasteBook now to preview the cookbook and order.

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DietsInReview.com’s Holiday Cookbook Shares Healthy Recipes

I recommend eating breakfast within an hour of waking up, followed by an intense cardiovascular-based workout.

Below are the top five breakfast foods to help fuel your mind and body. Each of the foods chosen below are found in the food guide pyramid and offer the body either protein to repair and build the muscles, carbohydrates to energize the body, or vitamins, minerals, and fiber to keep the body regular. Learn more about the food pyramid, now known as MyPyramid.

Top 5 Breakfast Foods

1. Egg Whites: I recommend eating 3-5 egg whites; each egg white provides four grams of protein and no fat.
2. Fresh Fruit: I recommend eating one medium sized apple, banana, or orange.
3. Raw Vegetables: I recommend eating a half-cup of either carrots, broccoli, green beans, or spinach. These provide a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and carbohydrates to energize the body. (Quick fix: Mix with your egg whites for an omelet!)
4. Whole Grain Foods/Oatmeal: I recommend eating one cup of oatmeal. This will fuel the body with plenty of carbohydrates.
5. Soy/Whey Protein Shake: Great way to get a healthy serving of protein, vitamins, and minerals, start off the day. (Quick fix: Toss your banana in the blender with the shake!)

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5 Healthiest Breakfast Foods

We’ve rounded-up our best Halloween recipes, healthy tips and ideas to help you make this a fun-filled holiday that won’t leave your little treaters in a sugar-induced coma from now until the Christmas candy shows up.

Healthy Halloween Recipes for Kids

These treats are better than anything you’ll find at the grocery store because you and the kids can make them together and they have much better ingredients. Get the recipe for snacks like Trick or Treat Trail Mix, Caramel Apple Fruit Dip and Sugar-Free Dirt and Worms.

Healthy Chili Recipes for Your Halloween Cauldron

Warm-up your little trick-or-treaters before they take on the neighborhood with one of these delicious and hearty chili recipes. Toss it in the Crock pot early in the day and your hands will be free to make last-minute costume alterations!

Calories in Your Favorite Halloween Candy

Those mini packs of chocolate and other sweets look so tempting because they’re so small. Mind your serving sizes and feel free to indulge, a little. You’ll be surprised how quickly, with so little, you can wrack up 100 calories or more! For instance, each Hershey’s Kiss has about 26 calories. Two fun-size Three Musketeers have 128 calories. Three pieces of Strawberry Twizzlers have 120 calories.

Top 5 Exercises to Burn Off Those Halloween Sweets

Come Monday, when you realize just how much you enjoyed the Halloween treats, you’ll want to get right back on track with your weight loss (or management). Try this workout designed by our fitness expert Matt Johnson.

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Healthy Halloween Recipes and Tips

Watch my video for more tips and recipe ideas with these whole wheat, 100 calorie tortillas.

I love these tortillas because you can keep them in your desk at work and use them for quick meals and snacks. For example, next time you get a salad for lunch, wrap this tortillas around it so you can get some healthy, whole grain carbs. If you need a pre-exercise snack, you can have a tortilla with some peanut butter and jelly.

You could also make:

Healthy Tuna Salad Wraps

Twice Grilled Chicken Fajitas

Biggest Loser Breakfast Burrito

Black Bean Mushroom Quesadillas

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Food Finds: 100 Calorie Tortillas from La Tortilla Factory

Plus, you can put their busy little hands to work to help you prepare these for their school parties or for a fun-filled Halloween night at home.

Trick or Treat Trail Mix

A simple snack to fill goody bags, or just keep handy during a scary movie, this trail mix takes minutes to prepare. Pretzles, reduced-fat cheese crackers, dried fruits, nuts and a few M&M candies will have them asking for more!

Sugar-Free Dirt and Worms

This is a funny little snack that sends imaginations running wild. Fill tiny flower pots or Halloween paper cups with pumpkin pudding, homemade granola and sugar-free gummy worms you make yourself for an unforgettable treat.

Caramel Apple Salad

Forget the sticky mess that caramel apples typically yield, and instead serve this twist on fruit salad. It’s made with fresh apples, butterscotch pudding, pineapple and Cool Whip, and even the big kids are going to enjoy it.

Caramel Apple Dip

Kids love finger foods and dipping – so let them scoop up this creamy, sweet fruit dip with apples, pears or even a carrot stick!

Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

Whether for breakfast or a snack, these bite-sized muffins are perfect for tiny hands and enjoying all the warm flavors of fall.

Frosty Pumpkin Smoothie

Halloween a little warmer where you live? Then whip up this sugar-free treat, that tastes like a pumpkin pie in a glass!

Crock Pot Chili Mac

Set the slow cooker and go! This tasty and hearty meal will make your Halloween evening more manageable. The kids will love that the goulash presentation looks a bit gory, too.

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Healthy Halloween Recipes for Kids

By day, guest blogger Maris Callahan is a publicist in New York City. In her spare time, she is a freelance writer and food blogger at In Good Taste, a blog about cooking and eating good healthy food when you’re busy or on-the-go (with a few indulgences, because everyone needs those!) When she isn’t cooking or writing she enjoys running, knitting, photography and a good latte.

We all know to put honey in our tea when we have sore throats, but most of us don’t stop to ask why. For centuries, honey has been used as a topical application to help prevent infection, due to naturally occurring antiseptic and antibacterial qualities. With the invention of antibiotics, this practice became less frequent, but consuming honey is still said to have health benefits and might even reduce sensitivity to certain environmental allergens.

Honey is great drizzled on toast, but that alone isn’t a substantial dinner. However, if you add a reasonable portion of cheese for a protein boost and some of your daily calcium, you can’t go wrong with this recipe for honey-drizzled cheese toasts that I posted on my food blog in August.

I adapted this recipe from the Southern Farmers Market Cookbook, one of my favorite books for healthy comfort food.

Honey-Drizzled Cheese Toast
(Serves one, but for a larger group, see note below)

Ingredients:
1 (3 oz) piece whole grain baguette (sliced in half horizontally, then into 2 inch pieces)
1 1/2 – 2 oz. soft, pungent cheese, such as Brie or Camembert
1 tablespoon honey (local, if possible)

Directions:
1. Preheat broiler to high. Slice bread in half horizontally and cut into 4-6 inch lengths. Top each with a generous portion of cheese (I used brie, my favorite!).
2. Broil in the center of the oven until the edges of the bread have browned and cheese is bubbling, about five minutes. Watch carefully to ensure that the cheese doesn’t burn.
3. Remove from oven and place a couple of toasts onto a serving plate. Drizzle with a tablespoon or so of honey and serve immediately.

For a well-rounded meal, serve with fresh fruit or a mixed green salad.

NOTE: For a larger group (or a big appetite), use approximately a pound of cheese and 1/2-cup honey to one twelve-ounce baguette. The whole recipe serves 8-10 people and is also a great alternative to garlic bread as a side dish or appetizer.

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Health Benefits of Honey

What do those three sentences have in common and how can you use that commonality to your advantage while pursuing healthy eating? Both call for easy, hearty meals, and both can be resolved with my greatest kitchen friend – the slow cooker. Thick, rich, hearty soups and stews are comforting and filling, and can be made inexpensively – always a bonus in these tough economic times.

Using the slow cooker helps transform that cheaper, lean piece of meat to a juicy meal, and cooking beans in the slow cooker takes almost no effort at all. Crock Pot cooking also has the bonus of requiring very little oil and therefore, many Crock Pot meals are extremely diet friendly. One other added bonus – using a slow cooker means you spend less time in the kitchen, which has a double benefit of keeping you out of the kitchen (less snacking!) and frees up your time for exercise. It’s a win-win situation for all involved!

There are tons of recipes available, and many of them are Weight Watchers friendly, if you are using the Points system. Make a commitment to use your slow cooker three times a week, and you’ll be amazed at how much extra time you have – time you can use for exercise! Not to mention, you may have leftovers, perfect for healthy lunches during the week.

Here are some of our favorite Healthy Crock Pot Recipes – sure to please everyone in your family!

• Provencal Beef Stew
• Chicken Picante
• Chili Mac
• Pineapple Chicken
• Crock Pot Pizza
• Sweet and Sour Pork
• Turkey and Black Bean Chili

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Slow Cooker Meals are Key to Diet Success

The Pro: A nutrition boost! Soups can be a wonderful way to get more veggies, fiber, and plant-based protein in your diet. Soups made with low-sodium broth, veggies, beans, and lean protein have a lot of nutrition to offer for 100-200 calories per serving.

The Con: Most people worry about the sodium content of soups so they avoid them altogether. The reality is you have room in your sodium “bank account” for about 600-700mg of salt per meal. If you generally eat a healthy breakfast and lunch then you have room for a soup-salad combo at dinnertime every once in awhile.

The Pro: Makes meals last longer. Did you know that one of the keys to weight management is making meals last 20-30 minutes? That’s the time needed for hunger hormones to get the message that you’re eating and starting to feel full. Hot soups take some time to eat, so by starting your lunch or dinner with a modest one cup serving, you’re adding about 10-15 minutes to meal time.

The Con: No downside to this one! If you’re a 5-minute-meal eater, this is an easy way to start your new weight loss plan, by simply slowing down your eating pace. Instead, speed up your walking or running pace!

Soup-er Short Cuts

If you don’t have time to spend hours in the kitchen, you can still have soup that tastes like you did. Here’s a way to get a nice big pot of steaming soup ready in no time.

• Start with a large pot or dutch oven.
• Place a quart of low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock or broth.
• Combine a 16 ounce bag of frozen vegetables. Anything will do. Use mixed veggies for a standard vegetable soup or try something like spinach.
• Add in one can of rinsed and drained beans. Again, any kind will do, but cannellini, white beans, or kidney beans work best.
• Sprinkle in some black pepper and any of your favorite herbs and spices. Try some red pepper flakes for some subtle “heat.” If you have fresh herbs like basil and cilantro, save them for adding at the very end of cooking.

How to Find a Healthy Convenience Soup

• Bravo for broth. Look for a broth-based soup over cream-based soups, which will be high in artery-clogging saturated fat.
• Say “whoah” to sodium. Some soups at the grocery store can have a half-day’s worth (1000mg) of sodium in a single serving! The good news is there are many low- and reduced-sodium soups available. I recommend looking for a soup with less than 600mg sodium per serving.
• Believe in beans and veggies. Look for soups made with beans and legumes like black bean, lentil and split pea soups. They will have more protein and fiber than other soups, which will help you feel full and satisfied. Any veggie-based soup, whether it’s vegetable barley, roasted red pepper, or butternut squash, will offer vitamins and minerals.
• Love your label. You wouldn’t buy a pair of jeans without knowing who made them so give your groceries the same label love. Flip the can before sticking it in your cart to make sure the calories, sodium, and saturated fat are low and the protein and fiber are high. Avoid soups that say “creamy,” “cream of,” or “bisque” unless the saturated fat is really low on the label (less than 3-4 grams per serving).

Also, check-out the healthy soup recipes right here at DietsInReview.com, including:

Artichoke Soup

Hearty Zucchini Soup

Mom’s New Beef Stew

Peter’s Grill Vegetable Soup

Tomato Pesto Soup

Now it’s your turn to sound off. What’s your favorite way to do soup? Have any ideas for making a cream soup healthier?

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Healthiest Soups for Fall

Canned beans

Not just the “musical fruit,” beans provide complex carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. In fact, a one-cup serving provides one-third of your day’s protein needs, half your fiber needs, and 65% of your folate needs (an important B-complex vitamin that helps prevent osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, anemia, and homocysteine buildup in the blood). For less than a dollar a can, you can-not go wrong! Try cannelini beans, black beans, kidney beans, lentils and black-eyed peas. You can buy them with no salt added, low sodium, or rinse them before use to remove about half the salt.

Recipe ideas: add to salads, home-made bean dip, three bean chili, and breakfast burritos.

Frozen fruits and veggies

I’d love to highlight one particular fruit or vegetable, but the bottom line is they are all good choices! Frozen fruits and veggies are picked and minimally processed at their peak freshness. Freezing does not diminish the nutrition quality. Fruits and vegetables are “very good to excellent” sources of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber that help keep your body healthy. They are very low in calories too, so they help you lose weight without having to eat tiny portions. One cup of most fruits and veggies have less than 50 calories! Think about that, how full are you going to get from two cups of fruit and veggies versus the “100 calorie packs?” There’s no comparison.

Just glance at the nutrition facts label and ingredients list. Look for frozen fruits with no sugar added and look for veggies with little to no salt added. There are some great frozen veggies that come with a light sauce, just make sure the fat and sodium don’t diminish the health benefits.

Recipe ideas: thaw frozen corn and mix with canned beans and canned diced tomatoes for a quick side dish, steam broccoli and top with lemon zest, make breakfast or dessert smoothies with a cup of frozen fruit and a half-cup of low-fat milk or plain yogurt.

Canned fish

Canned fish is a low cost way to gain a lot of heart-healthy nutrition. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week because it’s a good source of protein and low in saturated fat. Fatty fish, including trout, sardines, tuna, and salmon, are also high in omega-3 fatty acids, which may reduce the risk of heart disease.

Recipe ideas: toss canned salmon in with scrambled eggs and serve over half a whole wheat English muffin with a side of fruit for a balanced breakfast, mix canned tuna with low-fat plain yogurt, celery, and onion for a quick and low-fat tuna salad served in a pita with tomato.

What are some of YOUR favorite canned and frozen food finds and how do you use them to eat healthier and manage your weight?

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Affordable Nutrition in Frozen and Canned Foods

Tonight Curtis also has a pop quiz prepared for the contestants, sure to test their nutrition knowledge. It might only be week two, but we’re hoping to see nothing but right answers.

If you missed his season seven appearance, then you must try these recipes:

7 Layer Dip – King crab, lima beans, yogurt and more replace the traditional version of this appetizer, just in time for football season!

Turkey and Black Bean Chili – Now that fall has arrived, it’s the perfect time to simmer this hearty new chili recipe.

Rosemary Skewered Chicken with Orange Glaze – Rosemary sprigs replace wooden skewers for a simple dish that will impress any dinner guest.

Grilled and Spiced Chicken with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce - Rich in flavor, you didn’t know eating well could taste so good!

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Tune In: Curtis Stone on Biggest Loser