Diwali recipes ? The traditional with a health twist!

Festivals bring on two emotions: joy and happiness?of being with family and friends celebrating with the choicest of traditional sweets and savouries. But now things are a little different, aren?t they? We no longer want to have the deep fried samosas and mawa burfis. But we still want to have the traditional festive foods! The balance is struck when we make some healthier versions of the traditional festive foods.

A change for the better is always welcome. We can bake our samosas and karanjis with ease and make halwas less sweeter. We can substitute refined flour with whole wheat flour. Some sweets can be made using sugar substitutes whereas dates are a good addition as a sweetener too. Even ice cream is tastier and healthier with fresh fruit puree like Yogurt and Chickoo Icecream.

We realize that it is better to stress on use of less oil, less trans fat and less sugar. It holds true for all age groups. So why not make a beginning this season by creating more awareness about the latest health trends? Make these Diwali recipes, gift wrap them if you may, and floor your friends with fresh home made sweets and savouries that are high in health and taste!

One could well imagine having custard and kheer with a sugar substitute. There are mithai shops now with a separate counter for sweets for diabetics! The base of such sweets are dates or figs but the fact remains that there is no added sugar. In fact the skeptical would rather prefer to make the same at home and be sure that there is no added sugar. Try the Date and Hazelnut Laddoo.

Jaggery also is a good sweetener and can be added to kheers if someone does not prefer to use sugar substitutes. Well, the features of the two are different but at least you can avoid granulated processed sugar. It is also difficult to contemplate sweets or mithais with less ghee. For that matter halwas and laddoos are not possible. The alternative at this juncture could be fruit based halwas made in nonstick cookware. Yes, you would need a little ghee but not as much as a flour based preparation. Some people just chill fruits very well, chop and enjoy as a dessert. That?s perfect because they have the satisfaction of a chilled, sweet ending to a meal. Certain enterprising sweet tooths would also use a trick or two and have rasogullas, after draining them and then squeezing out the sugary syrup. The taste remains the same but the sugar intake is cut down!