Skip to content

Top Navigation

Cooking Light Cooking Light
  • Recipes
  • Cooking 101
  • Eating Smart
  • Healthy Living
  • News

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Email Preferences

Manage Your Subscription

  • All Access Subscribers
  • Magazine Subscribers
  • Cooking Light Diet Subscribers
Login
Logout
SUBSCRIBE
Pin FB

Explore Cooking Light

Cooking Light Cooking Light
  • Explore

    Explore

    • 31-Day Healthy Meal Plan

      Our 31-day calendar of meals and tips shows you how to cook more and love it with fun, family-friendly meals that come together quickly and deliciously. Read More
    • Dinner Tonight: Quick and Healthy Menus in 45 Minutes (or Less)

      Hundreds of delicious recipes, paired with simple sides, that can be on your table in 45 minutes or less. Read More
    • Our Favorite Healthy Air Fryer Recipes

      Who ever said that chicken wings, doughnuts, and pizza couldn't be healthy? Read More
  • Recipes

    Recipes

    See All Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Recipe Makeovers
    • Quick & Healthy
    • Diabetic
    • Gluten-Free
    • Vegetarian
    • Cooking Light Live
  • Cooking 101

    Cooking 101

    See All Cooking 101
    • Essential Ingredients
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Meet the Chef
    • Cooking Resources
    • Budget Friendly
    • Smart Choices
  • Eating Smart
  • Healthy Living

    Healthy Living

    See All Healthy Living
    • Weight-Loss
    • Health
    • Fitness
    • Home
    • Travel
    • Nutrition 101
  • News

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Email Preferences

Manage Your Subscription

  • All Access Subscribers
  • Magazine Subscribers
  • Cooking Light Diet Subscribers
Login
Logout
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. entertaining
  3. 7 Secrets of Healthy Holiday Indulgence

7 Secrets of Healthy Holiday Indulgence

By Recipes By Julianna Grimes, Photography By Romulo Yanes December 01, 2012
Skip gallery slides
Pin
How to savor the delights of cheese, chocolate, caramel, and meat in light, smart, delicious ways.
Start Slideshow

1 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #1: Portion Control

Portion control is perhaps the hardest thing about eating healthfully in the holiday season, when desserts are everywhere and the temptation is to slice generously. Single-serving cheesecakes bake in muffin tins, so there's no guesswork. Our individual desserts don't feel skimpy, except with their numbers: Each has about half the calories and one-fourth the sat fat of a typical serving of caramel cheesecake.

Baking individual desserts in a muffin pan is the smart way to pre-portion a rich treat. Each serving is still full of big sweet-salty pleasures. 

1 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #2: Keep Servings Small But Satisfying

A healthy portion of pork is 4 ounces raw, which cooks down to about 3 ounces. Now, a 3-ounce cut of the holiday centerpiece could look puny on the plate if it's naked, but not when you dress this roast up with a filling that features licorice-like fennel, tangy dried cherries, and lots of herbs. Slices are larger with the stuffing, and the port wine sauce that drapes over the meat is sop-it-up satisfying. All this pleasure, and the entrée is well under 300 calories!

Use the gorgeous flavors of dried cherries, pungent herbs, and rich port wine to keep servings small but satisfying. 

2 of 7

3 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #3: High-Flavor Ingredients

The indulgent "cream" sauce for this gratin is actually a low-fat white sauce made from 2% milk thickened with flour—not a speck of cream or butter in sight. The flavor gets seriously delicious when good aged Gruyère cheese, nutty and salty, melts in. Our gratin is wildly delicious, hitting all those comforting starchy-creamy-cheesy notes, and has roughly half the calories and 83% less saturated fat than a classic gratin.

When you start with high-flavor, nutty-intense Gruyère and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses, you don't need heavy cream or butter to yield a comforting potato dish. 

3 of 7

Advertisement

4 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #4: Indulge in the Best Decadent Chocolate

Chocolate is a food that, at its best, delivers a hit of pleasure that is mostly unrelated to the quantity of the treat. Here, creamy milk chocolate gets a hazelnut kick from Nutella, Frangelico, and the nuts themselves. While you can certainly enjoy two or three truffles without going overboard calorie-wise, we suggest serving one perfect treat on the saucer with a cup of coffee or espresso.

When indulging in chocolate, indulge in the best. For about the same calories and sat fat as a generic mini candy bar, here are some decadent, two-bite confections. 

4 of 7

5 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #5: Pick One Indulgent Star

The key with this decadent appetizer is to exploit the indulgent texture of burrata (a rich cheese that's made up of a thin "skin" of mozzarella encasing a runny center of mozzarella and cream) while dialing down the calories of the accompaniments. This is our updated version of the classic puff pastry—wrapped Brie cheese. No need to use a butter-rich pastry because the cheese itself is so divine. You'll save about 40% of calories, total fat, and saturated fat.

Pick one indulgent star, and then surround it with low-fat embelishments. Here, milky-oozy burrata bakes inside crisp phyllo dough and gets a bright flavor boost from garlicky roasted tomatoes. 

5 of 7

6 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #6: Add a Luxurious Topping

Oysters always feel special, even when served simply raw on the half shell. But to make them superindulgent, we embellish with lavish touches. The oysters get pan-fried in panko breading so they're crispy on the outside, juicy within. The oyster liquid is cooked down with wine and herbs for a delicious sauce that's made silky with crème fraîche. A final crown of sparkling fish roe takes this into sexy new territory. A happy portion of three has less than 130 calories.

Make an already healthy treat—the oysters—extra special with luxurious toppings: crème fraîche sauce and a jewel-like garnish of salty fish roe. 

6 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Secret #7: Make an Expensive Ingredient Affordable

With pine nuts at $35 per pound, we wondered if it made any sense at all to make a butter out of them. Then we tasted it: the richest, most indulgent nut butter ever, and satisfying in minuscule bits, so that a little 2- or 3-ounce jar makes a fine food gift, like a present of caviar.

We took an insanely expensive ingredient and found that it makes a treat so rich that it's actually affordable. 

7 of 7

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Recipes By Julianna Grimes, Photography By Romulo Yanes

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 7 Secret #1: Portion Control
    2 of 7 Secret #2: Keep Servings Small But Satisfying
    3 of 7 Secret #3: High-Flavor Ingredients
    4 of 7 Secret #4: Indulge in the Best Decadent Chocolate
    5 of 7 Secret #5: Pick One Indulgent Star
    6 of 7 Secret #6: Add a Luxurious Topping
    7 of 7 Secret #7: Make an Expensive Ingredient Affordable

    Share & More

    Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message
    Cooking Light

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Customer Service this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise
    • Content Licensing
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    MeredithCooking Light is part of the Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Cooking Light may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright Cooking Light. All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.cookinglight.com

    View image

    7 Secrets of Healthy Holiday Indulgence
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.