Does your passion for chocolate, koulourakia and tsoureki, tend to wreak havoc on your waistline at Easter?
Well, don’t worry!
I’m not asking you to give up your beloved chocolates, but to consider including a variety of treats over the festive period. What do I mean by that? See my suggestions below:
Easter treats
Easter is about getting treats, but no-one said they had to be edible. With the rate of childhood obesity on the rise, why not try something new and include more toys and less chocolate as part of the kids’ Easter hunt?
Try hiding small hand held electronic games, game cards, toy cars, lego, playdough, stickers, yo-yos and bouncy balls.
Paint and decorate eggs
Make it a big deal to paint and decorate real eggs with the kids.
Then you can enjoy a healthy Easter breakfast of boiled eggs, with toasted sourdough bread, topped with baked beans and mushrooms or tomatoes (if desired).
Chocolate bits
If you end up with a ridiculous amount of chocolate eggs, try breaking them into pieces and freezing them instead of gorging them.
Then you can bring them out over the year and use them creatively such as melting them into hot skim milk or grating them over ice-cream or fruit.
Good quality chocolate
Buy a small quantity of good quality chocolate such as a small Lindt bunny and really savour it, rather than gorging on large amounts of poor quality chocolate.
Eating in moderation
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times but it’s all about moderation.
Eating a few Easter eggs on Easter is not going to do much damage but if you continue to eat a large amount in the weeks following, you will be in for a nasty surprise when you try to put those already tight skinny jeans on.
Feel like a chocolate treat that is as close to guilt-free as possible?
Try some low fat goodies
Try strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, baked banana drizzled with a small amount of melted dark chocolate and a sprinkle of chopped nuts, Aero chocolate mousse, Creative Gourmet chocolate pancake with a scoop of light ice-cream, berries and shavings of dark chocolate, iced or hot chocolate made with cocoa, sweetener and skim/light milk, Chocolate Paddlepop or Moo, Weight Watchers Chocolate, Berry Mudslide Ice-cream, or Le Rice chocolate pudding.
Note that these have little nutritional value (besides the fruit and nuts) and are recommended to be eaten as occasional snacks.
Easter dinner plate
Last, but not least, at the Greek Easter buffet table aim to fill your plate half with vegetables/salads, and fill the rest with healthier options such as chargrilled souvlaki/chicken, boiled eggs, boiled rice or baked potatoes, and limit the consumption of baklava, galaktobouriko, tiropita and koulouria.
Better Easter Chocolate choices:
•Mini Lindt Bunny 10g: 224kj, 4g fat.
•Chocolate Creme Egg: 764kj, 7.3g fat.
•Cadbury Marshmallow Hot Cross Bun: 430kj, 2.7g fat.
•My favourite- Lindt Dark Chocolate Easter egg filled with oh so velvety chocolate filling: 413kj, 6.4g fat.