Healthy Holiday Eating Tips. -Chef Ryan Hutmacher
Cherry Champagne Punch
Looking for a refreshing cocktail to sip and savor, while being responsible and guilt-free? Enjoy Ryan's luscious and refreshing, antioxidant-packed sipper.
Ingredients
2 cups sparkling wine
½ cup tart cherry juice
1 ½ cups club soda
1/2 cup vodka
Orange twists for garnish
Preparation
Combine champagne, pomegranate juice, seltzer and vodka in a large bowl or pitcher. Serve over ice with a twist of lemon.
Serves six, 6 oz. servings
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Gingered Sweet Potato Puree with Tart Apple A simple mashed sweet potato, sweetened with apple sauce and seasoned with red wine vinegar and ginger is perfect example of satisfaction in both texture and flavor. It is a healthier option to the twice baked potatoes, with butter and garlic. Ingredients
1 lb peeled sweet potatoes, orange or purple varieties are nice, diced large
1/2 gallon water
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup hot water, reserved from potato cooking liquid
1 Tbsp ginger, grated
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 cup all-natural tart apple sauce, no sugar added
Pinch of salt to taste
Preparation Bring water to a boil and season with Kosher salt, then add the sweet potatoes. Cook for 25 minutes. Strain and mash when the sweet potatoes are fork-tender. Add in the ginger, red wine vinegar and apple sauce. Mix until creamy. For really smooth sweet potatoes, use a food processor to puree.
Serves 6 Yields 2 1/2- 3 cups
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// Editor's note: Chef, Ryan Hutmacher, CEO & Co-Founder of Centered Chef culinary studio in Chicago. As “The New Face Of Healthy Cooking,” Weight Watchers and ABC’s The CHEW talk show crowned Chef Ryan the national winner in “The CHEW’s Search For The Weight Watchers Chef” competition. As the First Ever Weight Watchers Chef, he's nationally recognized as a 2014 Event Innovator by BizBash Magazine, his culinary expertise and media experience are featured regularly on local and national networks including the NBC’s TODAY Show, ABC’s The CHEW, CBS, FOX, WGN, CLTV, and WCIU, where he showcases functional ingredients that can be prepared both easily and healthfully. He contributes to publications including Weight Watchers Magazine, Chicago Athlete, USAT “Fuel Station” and Competitor Magazine and has been featured by Crain’s Business Chicago and Triathlete Magazine, for his work as an entrepreneur. As an Ironman and marathoner, he actively participates in the Chicago endurance sport community and focuses his passions around teaching his “clean, simple & sexy” cuisine. You’ll love his fun-loving, hard knocks story of turning his passion into a career in this practical approach to understanding ways to make healthy food more hip and appealing. //