8 Tips to Simplify the Holidays for Less Stress and More Joy

2 Junior Bakers with Sticky Fingers

Here are 8 tips to help simplify the holidays and create less stress and more joy at this festive time of year.

1. Think about holiday traditions and pastimes that are important to you and your family, and write a to-do list with that in mind. Organize tasks including gift buying and food and meal shopping and planning details. Don't forget to include relaxing and refreshing activities in the mix.

2. Acknowledge the reasons you celebrate the season, and focus on the overall themes of gratitude, love, giving, and togetherness.

3. Consider the why of your celebration and use your breath to set yourself up for a calmer holiday season. Think about the past year’s accomplishments and challenges, and recognize what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown. Perhaps you will also reflect on future aspirations, focusing on who you want to spend time with and how you want to feel in the New Year.

4. Make self-care a priority. Maintain healthy habits like getting enough sleep, exercise, and time in nature. Release expectations that you can fit everything you want into each day. Instead of striving for perfection, set boundaries by saying "no" to over-commitment. Just remember your mental and physical health are impacted by the self-care choices you make.

Note: This post is intended for entertainment and educational purposes only, and is not intended as health advice. Speak to a health care provider if that is what you seek.

5. Share tasks to make holiday decorations, food prep, and planning a group effort.  Lighten your load and work with others, and get the bonus of providing space for connection with friends or family. Reserve time to relax and enjoy those people, places, and things you love. Also, don’t forget to rest and/or take breaks.

6. Go for quality over quantity. Don’t go overboard buying the fanciest decorations or an expensive toy for the kids. Be thoughtful about gift-giving. Be creative and give handmade food items or experience gifts rather than things. Memories are golden.

7. Update your vision of holiday gatherings, especially if your budget is stretched. Get together with friends for ice or roller skating, a festive lights tour, or a leisurely stroll after dinner. Companionship and sharing are real gems of the season. 

8. Laugh and play by hosting an ugly sweater competition or white elephant gift exchange. Find a relaxed, creative pursuit like making cookies or brownies to give as gifts. Why not partake of a simple holiday-themed outdoor activity like hiking or building a snowman? 

No matter when, where, or how you do it, try to pace yourself. When you want or need to kick-back, enjoy a cozy day indoors with a holiday movie marathon or a good book. Take extra time to pamper yourself by luxuriating in a hot shower, engaging in a spa day, or take a holiday yoga or Pilates' class.

Thanks dear readers and visitors for the time and attention you have given me this year. I am grateful for you.

Have you come up with ideas that simplify the holidays for you? Please share one or two in the comments section below.

What area or areas of holiday prep do you need to review or revise? Please share that below too. 

 

I like to get feedback, questions, and input from my readers, but will not be able to publish those comments that contain links. Thanks for understanding.

Wishing you a festive holiday season and many moments of sheer joy.

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Plant You Scrappy Cooking: a Cookbook Review

 

Cover Design by Amanda Kain (cover copyright © 2024)

Plant You scrappy cooking:140+ Plant-Based Zero-Waste Recipes That Are Good for You, Your Wallet, and the Planet, by Carleigh Bodrug is an eye-catching hardcover cookbook.

From the colorful photo of Carleigh and delicious looking front cover fruit and veggie display to the very end where pages suggest ways to grow your own vegetables from scraps and how to freeze odds and ends for future use, it's chock full of food tips, ideas, and meal prep information. Each page is filled with hacks designed to help home cooks make the most of the food they already have in their fridge and pantry.

Recipes are whole food plant-based, and easy enough for a novice cook to follow along. Each recipe also has beautiful color illustrations, featuring small thumbprint sized pictures of the ingredients, making it quick and simple to see what ingredients to use at a glance. It also makes the book more appealing, as you can flip through the pages and choose recipes with ingredients you enjoy.

Carleigh focuses on sustainable vegan recipes that help us prevent waste. She offers food prep tips to help use up produce, nuts, seeds, grains, and beans and legumes before they go bad. She also includes a number of recipes that include stuff we’d normally throw away, like onion peels and lemon peels.

 

Another neat feature of this cookbook is it offers ideas for ingredient substitutions, allowing us to save money and use more of the ingredients we have on hand.

Even though I have been making vegan dishes for over forty years, I discovered new planet friendly drink recipes, “Pineapple Skin Tea” and “DIY Ginger Ale” that I liked, but never even imagined making before I read this book.

 

Carleigh divides the recipes into categories and some of the catchy titles are Scrappy Sunrise (breakfast foods), Souperb Soups, Sustainable Sammies, Wraps & Salads, Dressings, Dips & Saucy Things, and Preserves, Powders, Ferments & Other Fun Stuff.

Use the book to look up yummy dinner ideas including “Super Loaded Harvest Bowl,” “Firecracker Tofu with Coconut Rice,” and “Cuppa Joe Chili.” Also check out a recipe called “Luscious Lemon Dressing” and “(Almost) the Whole Can Hummus” too.

People in the United States consumed the most beef in the world last year, yet many people are unaware or ignore animal products' environmental impact. Beef production results in massive amounts of waste, deforestation of the world, worsening of water and air quality, and species extinction. This cookbook shows us alternative recipes that are earth-friendly, cuts down on waste, and are satisfying for our whole family.

The hardcover book is substantial ( 384 pages), with cover design by Amanda Kain (cover copyright and book copyright © 2024). Look for this book at Hachette Book Group both in a hardcover and eBook format (288pages).

Carleigh Bodrug is a NYT bestselling cookbook author, food blogger at Plantyou.com, and social media influencer. Along with producing weekly cooking videos and creating recipes, Carleigh also runs a digital meal planner and hosts a podcast called PlantPod. Her approach is centered on "scrappy cooking" to reduce food waste, and a desire to make healthy and delicious plant-based meals accessible to everyone. 

 

Before you leave get additional ideas and tips about food prep, plant-based recipes, and eco-friendly living at Colors4Health.com. Find links to blog posts below, and see what I mean. 

Amazing Garlic Facts and Recipes for Garlicky Sautéed Spinach

Key Reasons to Eat Mindfully with Tips to Succeed

Food-waste-not-want-not-checklist

Please comment below.

In what ways have you already learned to make conscious decisions about what you eat and how you spend time, energy, and resources to get the best quality food you can afford?

Do you think you'd like to own this cookbook? I checked it out from the public library for a test run, and am so glad I did. Borrowing it from the library is free, and helped me determine to purchase the ebook, because it's a keeper. 

 

Did you learn anything new from the post, or want to report about other plant-based recipes? Please share in the comments section below.

I love to get feedback, questions, and input from my readers, but will not be able to publish those comments that contain links. Thanks for understanding.

Thanks for visiting! If you like what you see, please share on social media with a link back to this post. Don't forget to visit Carleigh's blog, and comment there too.  

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