S3E45: OMS-friendly Holiday Cooking on a Budget
The holidays are upon us, which for many of us means time spent with family eating a smorgasbord of delicious foods. This highly anticipated seasonal ritual sometimes leads to unintended consequences – expanded waistlines and hefty price tags for all the holiday meals you’ve had to stock up ingredients for. That’s why we are pleased to welcome Karen Lee, the healthy cooking doyenne of The Sensitive Foodie Kitchen, to help us navigate holiday eating in a healthy way that won’t bust the bank.
Karen Lee, otherwise known as The Sensitive Foodie, believes that food is the key to health. Karen uses a whole food plant-based diet to manage a variety of health challenges.
Karen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2016 and has been following Overcoming MS program ever since. She is the co-Ambassador for the OMS Circle in Sussex and has contributed recipes and cooking videos to OMS campaigns over the last few years.
In The Sensitive Foodie Kitchen, she combines her love of delicious food with her professional background as an intensive care nurse (now retired) and naturopathic nutritionist to inspire others to experience the powerful effects of using food as medicine.
Karen runs online courses, workshops and live cooking classes and offers a range of resources on her website. She is the author of Eat Well Live Well with The Sensitive Foodie.
Welcome to Living Well with MS, Karen, and it’s great to have you here. Before we dig into the main course, so to speak, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your experience with MS, and how you got into the healthy food game?
What are the main challenges you see people facing when it comes to staying true to the OMS diet while wanting to indulge in some delicious holiday food?
You talk in your courses and website about “managing energy”. Can you explain that concept and how it applies practically?
You’re a big fan of plant-based alternatives to traditional Christmas foods. Can you tell us some of your main course favorites and where people can find great recipes for them?
How about ideas for healthy sides or sauces? How do you spice up veggies or make sauces that are free of meat or dairy but still excite the palate?
Many recipes involve lots of ingredients, including things people don’t usually stock in their pantries. That can get pricey. What are your best tips for making healthy and delicious food without going into debt to pay the grocery bill?
What are your best tips for making holiday desserts more OMS-friendly without all those elaborate expensive ingredients?
Bailey’s is a cream-based liquor that people use to make a Christmas favorite, egg nog. You have some clever ways to make an OMS-friendly version at home. Can you share your secret?
You’ve given us some amazing advice on this episode for making healthy holiday foods that won’t drain your savings. I understand you teach many of these techniques through your course offerings. Can you tell our audience a bit about that and how they can learn more if they’re interested?
Finally, before we let you go off to do your own holiday cooking, what is your personal absolute favorite holiday meal from starter to main course to dessert?
And on that note, thank you Karen for sharing your culinary expertise with the OMS community. Make sure you check out the show notes for this episode for tons of links to delicious recipes, including one for an OMS-friendly Yule Log. Our next episode will be the last until 2022, so join us for Coffee Break #26 to meet OMSer Pat Feller from San Diego, California and hear about his inspiring OMS journey. Hope you can tune in!
Check out The Sensitive Foodie Kitchen website. You’ll find new recipes there shortly just in time for the holidays, including lentil and mushroom loaf, sweet potato and chestnut swirl, custard, and a cashew nut version of baked ‘camembert’
Check out Karen’s recipe for dairy-free Bailey’s
Learn about The Sensitive Foodie’s array of courses
Check out The Sensitive Foodie on Facebook
Check out The Sensitive Foodie on Instagram
Only 1 episode left! Next up: starting December 13, meet San Diego’s own Pat Feller on Living Well with MS Coffee Break #26, part of our popular ongoing series introducing you to members of OMS’s dynamic community from around the globe. And join us on January 12 for the premiere of our 4th season!
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