{"id":5937,"date":"2009-02-24T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2009-02-24T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=5937"},"modified":"2009-02-23T17:08:17","modified_gmt":"2009-02-23T22:08:17","slug":"new-healthier-mardi-gras-favorites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/new-healthier-mardi-gras-favorites\/","title":{"rendered":"New, Healthier Mardi Gras Favorites"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tuesday, February 24 is Mardi Gras, which is the 24-hour food fest that ushers in the six weeks of Lent<\/a>, the 40 days of\u00a0abstinence\u00a0leading up to holiday, Easter.\u00a0Similar to Thanksgiving, this is\u00a0one of\u00a0those holidays that is dedicated to eating –\u00a0a lot.<\/p>\n

With a name that translates to “Fat Tuesday,” there is really not much hope for getting through the Mardi Gras’ festivities without loosening your belt a few notches. And since\u00a0concocting\u00a0a low-cal and low-fat version of the paczki might require a veritable culinary\u00a0miracle from the heavens, we’ve drummed up some healthy Mardi Gras favorites from the Diets in Review kitchen.<\/p>\n

Many Mardi Gras favorites have their roots in Creole cuisine, so it’s fitting that many of the holiday dishes are filled with seafood, a protein source that is allowed during Lent.<\/p>\n

Fish is considered an excellent source of lean protein, as long as you prepare it using healthy ingredients. Here is a super recipe for\u00a0Crunchy Oven Fried Fish<\/a> – a low-fat take on a typically high-fat favorite. This recipe uses cornmeal and flour to create a crispy coating and it’s baked, not fried, which saves you oodles of calories and fat grams.<\/p>\n

Part of the abstinence of Lent is refraining not just from meat, but for some Christians, from alcohol as well.\u00a0 On this last day before 40 days of sobriety, you can mix up a batch of Oprah’s famous Pomegranate Martinis<\/a>. And yes, the pomegranates in your cocktail do count towards getting in your share of disease-fighting antioxidants.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No Mardi Gras is complete with a cake. The traditional cake is the King Cake which is a ring-shaped pastry covered in sugary icing and decorated with colorful sprinkles. So rather than eating a hefty chunk of cake that offers little, if any, nutrition bonus points, whip up this Carrot\u00a0Cake<\/a>. Loaded with heart-healthy walnuts, fiber-rich raisins and Vitamin A-filled carrots, this decadent cake clocks in at only 173 calories per serving.<\/p>\n

If you’re going full tilt for Mardi Gras, don’t forget the shiny\u00a0beads and colorful masks to round out your Fat Tuesday celebration!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, February 24 is Mardi Gras, which is the 24-hour food fest that ushers in the six weeks of Lent, the 40 days of\u00a0abstinence\u00a0leading up to holiday, Easter.\u00a0Similar to Thanksgiving, this is\u00a0one of\u00a0those holidays that is dedicated to eating –\u00a0a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695,16],"tags":[1000,942,1001,29],"class_list":["post-5937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","category-recipes","tag-fat-tuesday","tag-lent","tag-mardi-gras","tag-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5954,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937\/revisions\/5954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}