Tag: christmas

Recipes

1-hour Vegan Nutella Star Bread (+ other filling ideas)

Miche


I’ve been drooling over the star bread trend, but figured I lacked the patience and artistry to make it… I’m just not very good at making food look pretty. But then I realized that if I could whip up a *super quick* version, then it wouldn’t be so sad if it turned out to be an ugly mess 😉

(PS: If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in awhile, I talk about it on my Instagram!)

There weren’t any solid-looking quick vegan recipes for star bread out there, so I made my own! I used my go-to cinnamon roll dough, which doesn’t require the typical hours of rising time but still gets super poofy. And it requires hardly any ingredients.

If you have your own favorite cinnamon roll dough, you can definitely use that instead. Just follow the directions, including rising, for your dough. I suggest that you don’t let it rise after assembling the star, though, or the shape could lose definition.

This recipe is also super versatile in terms of fillings! Instead of the vegan nutella (Justin’s, Artisana, and Nocciolata are all great options), you can use things like:

  • Vegan butter + cinnamon + sugar
  • Jam
  • Apple or pumpkin butter
  • Cinnamon sugar, orange zest and cranberry sauce
  • Pesto or marinara + vegan cheese (just halve the sugar in the dough)

Tips

Usually I keep these pre-recipe spiels really short, BUT this recipe is a bit more finicky than my usual chuck-in-a-pot recipes, so here are some tips on the procedure:

  • When spreading the nutella on the soft dough, it can be a little tricky–I found it helpful to approach it more as lightly scraping the nutella around with the edge of the spoon rather than spreading it per se.
  • When twisting the star arms together, make sure you REALLY pinch them together at the end, otherwise they can pop apart in the oven.
  • I found this video really helpful for the shaping method, so I highly recommend watching it or another one before beginning.
  • See the steps below:

Ingredients:

Dough:

  • 1c warm vegan buttermilk (aka 1c non-dairy milk + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar)
  • 2 1/2c all purpose flour
  • 1 packet of instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

  • 3-4 tbsp vegan nutella

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Make the dough: Combine all dough ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook, and mix it all together. Then, knead in the mixer on low for 7 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead by hand. The dough should be smooth and not too sticky; if it’s wet or very sticky, add a bit more flour. Split the dough into 4 equal balls, approximately 160g each.
  3. Roll out a ball into a circle until it is about 8.5″ in diameter; anywhere 8-9″ is fine. Place the disc on a baking sheet (on either a silicon mat or parchment paper) that is at least 9×9″.
  4. Spread a heaping tablespoon of your filling evenly onto the disc, leaving about .5-1″ clearance around the edges. (See tips above)
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 with two more of the balls of dough, layering one on top of another. (So you’ll have a stack that’s dough disc, then nutella, then dough disc, and so on). For the fourth and final ball of dough, roll it into a disc as before and set it on top of your stack, but do NOT spread nutella on top of this one!
  6. (I strongly recommend watching a video like this one before starting this step.) Use a 2-3″ circular pastry cutter, glass, or jar to lightly mark a circle in the center of the dough; do not cut the dough out. Then slice the surrounding dough like a pizza into 16 equal pieces, leaving the center circle uncut. 
  7. To make the star arms, grab two adjacent pieces, and twist them away from each other two and a half times, then join the flat parts on the edge. Pinch them together really well so they don’t come apart! Repeat for the rest of the pieces.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown on top. Dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy, and try to snap a photo of your beautiful bread before inhaling it! That was a tough one for us 😉

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Intuitive Eating, Weight loss advice

Study: Dieting = MORE Holiday Weight Gain?

Miche

If you’re like me, you’ve been baking up a storm of holiday treats. For many of us, those holiday treats come along with the dreaded holiday weight gain.

I posted 5 general tips back in November for how to avoid gaining weight over the holidays, but today I’m covering a scientific study on how dieting affects holiday weight gain–and what it means for you.

Peppermint bark is always a classic in my house!

The Study

In this study, the researchers looked at how much weight was gained over the holidays by dieters versus normal controls (nondieters). And, more importantly, what kinds of dieting habits these groups had.

The dieters were people who had successfully lost weight in the past and kept it off for years–so they really knew how to diet. Before the holiday, many of them reported having “extremely strict” holiday diet and exercise plans in place: they had solid plans to control their portions, cut out treats, and exercise like crazy. Many of them also lost weight before the holidays to have a safety net in the event of holiday weight gain.

Sounds like a lot of people around November, right?

Not a single one of the 100 nondieters, on the other hand, reported having strict diet or exercise plans. None of them reported losing any weight to prepare for the holidays, either.

So the dieters were completely focused on weight loss, had strict plans in place to do that, and even preemptively lost weight to have a holiday safety net. And the nondieters didn’t care about weight or dieting much at all.

Guess who gained more weight?

The dieters.

During the holiday, the dieters reported exercising much more, and successfully sticking to their strict diet plans. They followed self-imposed rules, like only eating at home and not allowing snacking after dinner. They intentionally stopped eating before they were full, focused on their portions, and weighed themselves more often.

And yet, they gained weight: almost half of them gained more than 2lbs. Only 15% of the nondieters, on the other hand, gained weight.

The kicker is that even a month later, in February, three times as many dieters were still holding onto that holiday weight than nondieters.

But why did this happen?

The researchers found that paying less attention to their weight and dieting over the holidays predicted more weight gain in the dieters. And yet, the dieters were still paying more attention to their weight and diet overall than the nondieters, so that can’t explain why they gained more.

This seemingly paradoxical result really shows how dieting affects you: if you’re used to dieting, then the second you take a break from completely obsessing over your weight and diet plans, you start to gain weight.

My favorite Christmas treat: toffee!

So, what does this mean for you?

The only way dieting really works in the long term is if you maintain complete control 100% of the time, with no binges or overeating or slip ups. And that isn’t realistic. It’s usually more like a cycle of doing well for a little while, then overeating, then trying to make up for it by dieting more strictly, which leads to binging… rinse and repeat.

Dieting just doesn’t work in the long term.

So what can you do?

Be like the nondieters: try intuitive eating (here’s my post on how to do that). Don’t focus on your weight. Don’t make strict diet plans. Don’t impose eating or exercise rules on yourself. Instead, just learn to tune into your body’s signals so you can eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full–that’s it!

It takes some time to escape from a diet mentality and the cycle of strict dieting and slip-ups, but it is so worth it.

And if you want to lose weight, just focus on eating whole, plant-based foods. (No need to cut out treats though!) There’s a ton of research that shows that eating this way, without any dieting, leads to effortless weight loss.

The holidays should be a time that you can spend focusing on loved ones, relaxation, and self-care. Not a time that you have to spend all your mental energy on keeping up your diet.

 

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Happy Holidays,

Intuitive Eating, Weight loss advice

5 Tips to Avoid Gaining Weight on Thanksgiving (or any Holiday)

Miche

The holiday season is a mostly wonderful time… but between the fun of getting together with loved ones, having more free time, and being surrounded by holiday decor, there lurks the fear of seemingly inevitable weight gain.

I spent years and years being so afraid of weight gain, and so desperately planning my post-holiday diet, that it was hard to enjoy the holidays at all. Especially Thanksgiving, because the whole day is so focused on food. But now that I’ve learned how to escape that cycle, I want to share some tips to help you stop worrying about your weight this holiday season too, so you can focus on what’s important instead 🙂

1. Eat more (of some things).

Sounds counterintuitive, I know.

But the science is clear: some foods are more satiating than others. Studies have found that if you eat 250 calories of potatoes, for example, you’ll feel more than twice as full as you would from eating 250 calories of cheese1. And as a result, you also eat much less after eating potatoes than after eating cheese.

And you can take advantage of this fact to help you pace yourself during your holiday meals.

If you’re mindful about having a good helping of those satiating foods (think starches & veggies), it’ll balance out the high calorie density, low satiety foods (think meat, cheese, & desserts), and help prevent you from overeating.

So what exactly does that look like? Try having a dish as close as possible to a plant based whole food–maybe mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, a veggie side, or even stuffing–that you eat first or that you serve yourself extra of, to give you that baseline of satiation before going for seconds (or thirds) on everything else.

Another strategy is to have some snacks or appetizers before the big meal. This can help by making sure you don’t go into dinner feeling ravenous and overstuffing yourself before your brain can catch up.

2. Don’t plan to diet beforehand or afterwards.

This is a big one. Almost everyone who has ever dieted plans to diet before and/or after the holidays. But it’s exactly that mindset that leads to overeating and weight gain in the first place.

In fact, studies show that people who are most successful at losing weight in general are the ones who gain the most weight during the holidays2.

Sounds crazy, right?

A few years ago I would have thought so too, but now it makes perfect sense.

First, we know that dieting leads to yo-yo weight gain and loss in the long term. So dieting before the holidays is the perfect way to set yourself up to go into binge mode during the holidays and gain all that weight back… and then some3.

Second, when you go into the holiday season expecting to gain weight, that’s exactly what happens. It’s a very easy self-fulfilling prophecy, because the expectations are all in your mind, and it’s your mind that causes you to overeat. (Your body never asks for that!) When you start eating, you probably have negative emotions about how much weight you’re going to gain. And we know that for people who diet, negative emotions lead to more overeating.

It’s a vicious cycle that leaves you miserable during the holidays, and heavier (and still miserable) afterwards.

So what should you do instead? Ditch the diets, and start eating intuitively instead. (Check out my guide for how to get started.) Your mind and waistline (and probably your loved ones too) will thank you.

My plate of leftovers last Thanksgiving!

3. Plan to make yourself more holiday foods afterwards.

Part of what makes us overeat at holiday meals is that the food is scarce. Maybe it’s even “forbidden” the rest of the year.

If you don’t eat that pecan pie today, you might not get to eat it again until next year.

But the reality is that the only reason holiday food is scarce or forbidden is if YOU decide that you aren’t allowed to have it at other times. And that makes it so much more alluring. After all, there’s a reason they say that the forbidden fruit is sweetest.

And, science shows that people who avoid eating certain foods for dieting purposes end up overeating them later3.

If you don’t allow yourself to have certain foods most of the year, you end up overeating them even more during the holiday season because you know you’ll be deprived of those foods again soon.

This is not your last chance for pecan pie, so you don’t need to eat it like it’s your last time having pecan pie.

So this tip is an easy one: just allow yourself to have your favorite foods. (This is a good anti-weight-gain tip in general, not just for the holidays!) Either make some of your holiday favorites before the season starts to test out some recipes, or schedule a day after the holidays to make or buy those holiday foods you always crave. (And, of course, save leftovers from the holiday meal itself!)

Or best of all, go all out with intuitive eating and just eat what you want when you want it. No scheduling necessary. That’s how I’ve lost weight and maintained it–it just works.

With this tip, you’ll go into your holiday meals knowing that the pecan pie really isn’t that rare–and if you know there’s more where that came from, you’ll feel much less of an urge to overeat it.

(Can you guess that I really love pecan pie? 😉 )

4. Treat it like any other meal.

Try changing your expectations going into your holiday meals. If you don’t treat them like a big daunting event where you’re expected to overeat, you’ll be less likely to overeat.

Like the last tip, this is also about reducing the scarcity of the food: the goal is to get rid of that feeling that the Thanksgiving food (or other holiday food) is a limited resource. Don’t treat the food like it’s the special part of the day. That’s not what makes a holiday a holiday.

It’s the loved ones, the focus on what you’re thankful for, or even just a day off from work that makes it a holiday.

If you want to create something special and rewarding in your day, in place of focusing on the meal, you could also try treating yourself to some self care: is there a book you’ve been wanting to read, a videogame you’ve been dying to play, or some bubble bath you’ve been wanting to try? Treat yourself or set aside some time for yourself during the day to make it feel special.

5. Shift your focus.

Changing your mindset is so powerful. Mindset makes us overeat in the first place, and mindset can be the reason we stop.

This holiday season, try shifting your focus. Instead of thinking about how food will affect you and your body, focus on who you’re sharing that food with. Focus on why you’re there eating a holiday meal in the first place.

And, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, try replacing guilt, shame, and fear with gratitude. Gratitude that you have food to eat, loved ones to eat it with, and a body that allows you to enjoy the holidays. Maybe your body doesn’t look exactly how you want it to (yet), but try to appreciate it for what it allows you to do.

After all, practicing gratitude has been shown again and again to make people happier4, and even to improve their body image5.

And with that, I wish you all a very happy holiday season. I hope that these tips can help you enjoy it even more. ❤

References

  1. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Petocz/publication/15701207_A_Satiety_Index_of_common_foods/links/00b495189da413c16d000000/A-Satiety-Index-of-common-foods.pdf
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137466/
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16261600
  4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735810000450
  5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144517302991