Candida Diet Friendly Festive Meals & Thanksgiving Ideas
Is there even such a thing as ‘Candida diet friendly festive meals’?
Yep, I’ve listed my favourite sugar free meals here before. But it’s time to add a few new tasty finds to the mix!
With the colder temperatures sneaking in and the festive season rapidly approaching let’s look at some heartwarming meals that you can enjoy with the entire family.
Have you decided yet what you are going to cook? Check out my suggestions below!
Regardless whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Ramadan or something entirely different, the thing we all agree on is that it’s a time to sit together with your family and friends, give thanks and feast on delicious meals before the year is out.
I’ve been scanning Pinterest long and wide for ‘healthier’ menu ideas. I’ve also included some suggestions how to adapt classic meals to reduce the sugar, dairy and overall calorific load.
Here are my finds (all suitable on the Candida diet so you can enjoy them without guilt!):
Healthy Starters/ ‘Safe’ Side Dishes
Garlic roasted green beans with almonds
Roasted cauliflower mash
Lighter Mains & Low Carb Options
Roast Chicken & Turkey are ideal.
Green bean casserole tends to contain mushrooms/ mushroom soup, Parmesan or other dairy cheese, all of those being no-goes on the Candida diet. Better to keep it simple (see the Green beans dish with almonds above), it will still taste delicious!
3 Lots of Healthier Stuffing
Classic traditional thanksgiving stuffing — Perfect, but be sure to make Paleo bread (if you are in stage 2 of the Candida diet) or gluten free bread (if you are in stage 3 of the diet) ahead of time so you can use that instead of the recommended French stick! Needless to say, since this is high in carbs this is best kept to a minimum…
Low carb pumpkin bread sausage feta stuffing — Great for people without a dairy intolerance and from stage 3 of the Candida diet when feta, starchy veggies and bread are allowed.
Keto thanksgiving stuffing — This looks very tasty to me — you can easily leave the mushrooms out to make this more ‘anti-Candida’ (if dairy is an issue for you, swap the whey protein out for chickpeas or sunflower protein).
Vegan Nibbles & Dips
Pumpkin hummus — the name says it all, the classic with an autumn/ fall twist (leave pumpkin out during first two stages of the diet).
Turkey veggie tray — contrary to what it sounds like, no meat involved here, much fun for the kiddos though!
Crispy sweet potato wedges with garlic avocado aioli — note: this recipe uses a small amount of mayonnaise – make this yourself with egg yolk, organic sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar and sea salt, and go easy on the sweet potatoes (they are better for you than white potatoes, but they still contain a fair amount of natural sugar that feeds Candida, same as carrots and butternut squash or beet root too).
If you are dead set on having Cranberry sauce (which naturally contains a little bit of fruit sugar and can aggravate Candida), then I recommend you add applesauce instead of sugar/ maple syrup (it’s a little lower in sugar and higher in fibre).
Sugar free Savoury Snacks (Gluten Free)
Roasted asparagus wrapped in lean ham — check that the ham you buy doesn’t contain sugar (most pre-packaged ham, bacon and prosciutto does!)
Note: in order to make this a vegan treat you can offer a simple Tahini dip (made with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar).
Oven roasted brussel sprouts with bacon
From Pie to Cheesecake — My Shortlist of Festive Candida Diet Desserts:
Sugar free pumpkin pie — Not to forget the 100% Candida diet safe and tasty pumpkin pie from yours truly ? which you can enjoy from stage 3 of the diet onwards when starchy veg and grains agree with you.
Pumpkin cheesecake — Note: this contains cottage cheese, as far as Candida is concerned this is as low sugar a cheese as it gets, but theoretically you could still react to the tiny amount of lactose in it. The Candida diet approach I followed allowed cottage cheese. I had a similar cake 6 weeks into the diet and was fine with it.
Grain free apple crisp — Yes, apple does contain a little fruit sugar, but if you choose green apples and eat only a small piece, you have nothing to worry about.
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