Healthy Holiday Meals from Our Mason Assisted Living Community

Enjoy the holiday season with nourishing and tasty meals!

The holiday season is here and with that means delicious meals with loved ones! Though this season can be all about indulgence, we like to make sure there are some healthy meal options in your rotation to balance out the rich meals and treats!

At Central Parke Memory Care & Transitional Assisted Living in Cincinnati, our amazing chefs create delicious, healthy meals that adhere to the MIND diet. This Mediterranean diet is designed to promote brain health and can be extremely beneficial for our residents with dementia and Alzheimers. A healthy and delicious diet, we’ve created some incredible meals that still give that warm and cozy holiday feeling to each bite, and we thought we’d share some great meal ideas that do just that! Take a look at our recommendations below, and give them a whirl this holiday season!

Turkey and Stuffing

Labor intensive, but absolutely delicious, turkey is a wonderful lean protein that is rich in choline which is excellent for brain health. Instead of dousing your turkey in butter, lard, and loads of salt, consider using olive oil, fresh pepper, a bit of salt, and plenty of herbs. Rosemary in particular is an excellent anti-inflammatory herb and packs a flavorful punch. For your stuffing, cook it in a slow cooker, use most brown breads like dark rye, pumpernickel, and whole grain, and use low-sodium chicken broth to keep it moist. Skip the sausage and other fatty additions and instead use antioxidant-rich cranberries and walnuts (be careful of nut allergies), plenty of herbs, carrots, lemon, and a whole apple. Add a scrambled egg or two to help the stuffing stick together, stir, and set your slow cooker on low for 4-6 hours.

Beans and Greens Soup

This tasty, healthy soup is from Food52 and we’re sure it will become a quick winter staple. Combining classic soup flavors like mushroom, onion, and garlic, and calling for whatever beans, lentils, and leafy greens you have on hand, this recipe allows for a little freedom in the kitchen and is the perfect meal to warm you up after a long day cutting down a Christmas tree or hanging holiday lights. Easy to store for leftovers, and incredibly rich in nutrients, this should absolutely be added to your holiday recipe book!

Harvest Thanksgiving Vegetable Hash

This delicious vegetable hash is unique as it works for almost any meal during the holidays! Filling, tasty, and nutrient-dense, Unbound Wellness’s holiday hash is a sheet pan go-to for any household. Featuring sweet potatoes, parsnip, brussels sprouts, carrots, red onion, and a ton of herbs, there is flavor packed in every single bite!

Feast of the Seven Fishes

While not exactly a meal, we thought we’d share a holiday tradition that was unexpectedly grounded in the MIND diet. A traditional Italian-American dinner, the Feast of the Seven Fishes is exactly what it sounds like. This dinner includes seven dishes featuring seafood on Christmas Eve. While some dishes might not be particularly healthy (we’re looking at you, fried calamari), there are ways to make this slightly healthier and reap the benefits of the omega 3s, lean proteins, and filling nature of fish. Consider doing a baked cod, or octopus salad with olive oil, shrimp cocktail, grilled sea bass or swordfish, marinated eel, or even a lemon salmon! There are so many ways to make this holiday tradition a bit healthier, but still keep the beloved tradition alive!

While the holidays should be a time to let loose and enjoy, your overall well-being is truly reliant on healthily nourishing your body. We hope you found a little inspiration with these meal ideas, so let us know if you try them out!

If you are interested in learning more about how the MIND diet benefits our residents or have general questions about Sunshine Retirement Living and our Central Parke community, please give our friendly team a call!