Holiday Appetizers for a Culture of Health Holiday Season

Time to start thinking about that shopping list for preparing some healthy appetizers for parties and celebrations.

Let’s keep holiday time a Culture of Health so we stay happy and healthy. Germs spread around fast as friends and family come together for the holiday festivities. But we can outsmart those germ critters by keeping our immune systems strong with healthy eating.

Sweets paralyze our white blood cells ability to gobble up invaders. So let’s minimize the sweets and maximize delicious, colorful, nutritious, immune-supporting food in our holiday feasts.

https://www.drjomd.com/highways/nutrition/sugar/sugar-suppresses-the-immune-system/

Let’s create some colorful appetizers that could be a meal in themselves! We will keep it gluten and dairy free also!

A Tray of Veggies with a Big Variety of Colors!

Something to dip them in:

Non-Dairy Cheezy Spread

2 cups potatoes (peeled, cut in cubes, and steam-cooked)

1/3 to ½ cup cooking water from the potatoes

2 tablespoons butter or oil (optional)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon dried minced onion (or ¼ teaspoon onion powder)

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

a pinch of ground thyme

¼ teaspoon sea salt (optional)

1 tablespoon pimiento, drained and minced

Whip the cooked potatoes until smooth with the cooking water, butter, and seasonings;

add the pimento last. Use this versatile spread to stuff celery, spread on crackers, as a

vegetable dip, or in place of cheese topping.

From Dr. Jo’s Natural Healing Cookbook  APPETIZERS, SPREADS, AND DIPS page 103

Festive Mini-Bell Peppers Stuffed with Zesty Salmon Filling

(sweet bell type – they come in packages of yellow, orange and red)

Cut the top off each mini-pepper at the stem.

Scoop out any seeds left inside.

Then get creative. I stuffed them with the Dr. Jo’s Super Salmon appetizer mixture (recipe below). Then plugged the hole with a sweet 100 cherry tomato or stuck the pointy end of a yellow pear tomato into the salmon mixture. You may be surprised at how yummy these are

I stuffed another set with almond butter and then put a small tomato or other vegetable in the hole. These are very colorful and fun.

Dr. Jo’s Super Salmon Appetizers

1 can salmon (from Alaska – least polluted and not farmed – I found these at Costco), discard the liquid

2 Tablespoons olive or grape seed oil

1 ½ Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ teaspoon dried dill or herbs of your choice

Mix all of above together. Then spoon a dollop on a cucumber round, slice of jicama, or stuff celery. Top with a cherry tomato, sprinkles of sesame seeds, shreds of carrots or anything else you can imagine.

Variation: Mix your favorite salad dressing with the salmon. I love to mix an Italian vinaigrette in the salmon before stuffing the mini-bell peppers.

Need more appetizer ideas?

http://naturalhealingcookbook.com/blog/category/appetizers

Happy Thanksgiving,

Dr. Jo