Why don't you ask you SIL what she means by "healthy"? That should give you the correct answer you're seeking.

Obviously, the question of what is "healthy" is different for each individual. Anyone watching their weight, fat intake, salt, sugar, or who must avoid gluten have specific concerns. If you are planning to feed all these folks at a family meal, then you need to plan ahead to have a little something for everyone. A fresh fruit compote, muffins, dried fruit, and purchased gluten-free cookies may be a good place to start.

If you are thinking food gifts, I would go to plan B and think about non-food gifts for the whole family - games, DVDs, gift cards, etc.

Teresa

I echo what Ruthanna says. People are different, they have different health concerns. They even have different tastes. That's why at holidays it seems like we make a lot of varieties of dishes because our varied family is going to be over enjoying the time with us so inevitably there's going to be a variety of treats. I also don't think it's up to my host to make stuff I deem "healthy." However, if they are looking for ways to make holiday treats more healthy and they enjoy trying new recipes, etc., then I might recommend some thing from my recipe collection. I actually have no taste for overly sugary, fatty treats so I tend to make baked goods that are lower fat and sugar and use whole grains and fruits and nuts. So for example, on the cookie tray, I would eschew the adorable gumdrop bars in favor of an oatmeal cookie. If an oatmeal cookie wasn't available and it was only gumdrop bars, I'd probably pass on the gumdrop bars and be none the less satisfied for it, since I'm not a huge dessert fan anyway. I don't mind indulging in a few rich holiday cookies a couple of times during the season, but really a little bit of that stuff goes a long way for me, I'm not that tempted by it all.

Frankly, there are few healthy "cookies" that I find palatable. Cookies that are lower in fat tend to be cakey, and while I don't exactly hate cakey cookies, they don't keep all that well, so I tend not to make them. I have a good lower fat oatmeal cookie recipe that I like in that category. In that class are also pumpkin and apple cookies. The other lower fat type of cookie that I like that is crispy is biscotti, which I have a few recipes for.

Other than that, I'm pretty much a cookie traditionalist, although I might tweak a recipe to shave a few calories here and there, mostly using less sugar, subbing two egg whites for one whole egg, subbing applesauce for some of the oil, using some whole grain flours, etc. But I don't go all out on it. I make the traditional cookies and just eat a few. I love molasses and decorated sugar cookies at Christmas time. I sometimes make bar cookies with fruit. I can't be bothered with all the shaped cookies, like rugalah, pizelles, kiffles, etc. but I enjoy eating the results of others efforts. If I was diabetic, gluten intolerant, or had serious heart disease, I'd just pass on the cookies and never look back. There are lots of other pleasures in life besides dessert, like playing with your grandkids.

Everybody has their own idea what healthy is; I limit carbs and sugars including fruit, but eat plenty of meat. Not to lose weight but to eat "healthy". I don't use canola oil ever but snack on "high fat" raw nuts. Won't touch most processed foods although occasionally I do for convenience.

So, I second the suggestion to ask her what she thinks is healthy.

Recently DH and I were at Whole Foods, and a lady was handing out samples of kale chips. We both chomped down, and, after swallowing, looked at each other, saying, well, it tastes healthy! Meaning, it tasted awful. Now, I'm all about healthy eating, but some things just focus too much on health and too little on taste.

I think the above answers are great. DH's cousin makes some very tasty oatmeal cookies, and I'm not a fan of oatmeal cookies at all, they taste too much like oatmeal. She said she uses the basic old fashioned oatmeal cookie recipe, but adds some almond extract and ground flax seed. She also uses dried apricots instead of raisons. They are the only oatmeal cookies I like, and I'd say, for cookies, they're somewhat healthy. (If you ignore the fact they still have butter and sugar in them.)

Sally

Wow, Bumblebeez, I don't eat very much meat at all--lots of fruit and vegetables, some meat and some carbs. I consider that to be very healthy. We all have our different definitions.

I will be following this post with interest. My son and his girlfriend are coming for a week in December. She is a very "healthy" eater. I am already thinking about what the heck to serve for dinner. I know that she only eats organic food, so look out Whole Foods, here I come.

I will definitely ask my son what she will and won't eat. My mom has already met her, and the girlfriend cooked the dinner. She had fish that she had caught herself and Israeli couscous with roasted organic veggies.

I feel odd serving fish because she is a competitive spear fisher(wo)man (I kid you not) and is used to fish that was swimming a few hours ago.

I am not the healthiest eater in the world, but would like to go more in that direction, so maybe this is a good start.

Healthy food is like sexual harrassment....it's whatever I SAY it is.
I consider my recipe for carrot cake healthy because it only contains 3/4 cup oil and 2 full cups of grated carrots.
Linda C

As everyone already expressed, "healthy" is pretty subjective. I'm a whole-foods "healthy" person, if I had to put a name to it. I use a long list of really strange ingredients I consider "healthy" and most people wouldn't even know about - let alone use (have you had your chia seeds, kefir, or wheatgrass juice today?).

I visit "Eat Better America" occasionally, a web site where they do a pretty good job on creating what they call "healthified" recipes - reducing calories, fat, sugars, salt, etc. It's a different "healthy" from my seeds/grains/beans/nuts "healthy", but I've found lots of recipes I have altered to meet my "healthy" standards. Maybe you can find something there.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Eat Better America

I think the largest "healthy" thing we do is control serving sizes. We also limit sodium. We do eat meat but use it sparingly with fish & chicken being served the most frequently. A lot of dried beans on our table also - at least twice/week in some form. I love fruit even though it's high in sugar, hence carbs, I figure the vitamins & fiber offset the high glucose ratings. In season, we eat lots of green veggies but not so much in the winter.

We haven't eliminated but do limit white things like white flour, white potatoes, white rice, white pasta & opt for whole grain alternatives & sweet potatoes.

I eat a lot of dairy. Should reduce my intake. :(

Mostly though staying strict with the serving sizes keeps us pretty honest.

When doing holiday baking, I usually stick to traditional with the exception that I do not add salt to baked goods. I figure, it's a once/twice a year gorge & unlikely to have much affect on our overall health. During the holiday season, if I want 6 cookies...I eat them & don't feel guilty.

/tricia

Beachlily, I eat plenty of vegetables too but little fruit.
And the meat is mostly lean. Things like ribs are just gross to me.

For a family birthday celebration in September, my sister made a vegetable lasagna for her vegetarian daughter. I took a small bite to taste it - it was not good. No one wanted the leftovers....and...her daughter did not finish her portion either. But I have had good vegetable lasagna in the past. So, taste is all to me!

Grainlady, Thank you for recommending that website. I've been looking through it. I really love the fact that they use "normal" ingredients that I won't need to go to a health food store with a note with the ingredient spelled out on it.

A friend had asked me to get her saatan well as some other things from a health food store in our town (when there was one.) I handed the clerk the list and asked for help finding the things. Needless to say the clerk gave me a funny look when "satan" was on the grocery list! LOL!

Tresa, good point. If it's "healthy" and no one eats it, it's garbage!

Healthy to me is fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts/seeds, and a little bit of whole grains. With most of the produce raw and the seeds sprouted.

No meat, dairy, eggs, flour, sugar, oil, salt.

I eat like this most of the time but I'm not perfect! And I realize most people would rather die 10 years earlier than to eat like this, lol.

Booberry, one of the vegan boards I read has a few people who have user names that play on seitan, like Son_of_Seitan and similar things. Did you ever try it? I love it.

Oh, I think the vegans are still playing games with me. I see I still have that wheat protein based food spelled wrong. It was another vegan who told me it was spelled saatan but that's wrong too!

It's seitan, I promise. :) You can usually find it in the refrigerated section with the other alternate proteins.

Lately I have been trying to avoid gmo foods and that is difficult.

I couldn't help but think of the "Cookie Madness" blog for you Becky, with lots of gluten free recipes although none of them looks to be low sugar, that's for sure. But I have found the recipes on there to be good overall so I would say that's a source of help for the gluten intolerant folks on your list. I'd like to try some but I am able to eat cookies so rarely it just doesn't pay for me to make them. I do try to limit wheat though, I don't want it with every meal. If I had a gluten intolerant friend come to visit I'd relish an opportunity to make some treats, because I would have someone to help me eat them up!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cookie Madness Gluten Free Recipes

My husband may consider it satan (LOL) - yet one more oddball food I make. Seitan is also known as wheat meat or gluten.

I've never purchased it - it's just too dang easy to make at home. Besides, living in the middle of nowhere, such a thing isn't readily available.

Hubby thinks it's best used as a high-protein granola-like cereal we call "gluten crunch". I can even make it into a "Nestle Crunch"-type candy bar, but I make all kinds of things out of seitan.

However, seitan would be deadly to someone with Celiac disease (gluten intolerance). While a "healthy" choice as a meat alternative to most people, definitely not all...

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Easiest Golden Veggie Chicken Cutlets - Seitan

Healthy to me is moderation and simplicity.

Processed and complex carbs like sugar, flour, rice, bread, pasta, carrots, peas, corn, etc. should be eaten in very small amounts, but not completely eliminated. Same with meat, dairy, and some fats. Watch the salt too.

Food should be made from fresh, real ingredients and eaten sensibly. If my grandmother can't recognize something as a real food item, then I stay away.

I wouldn't stress over trying to please everyone, but would just cook healthy. I was looking that the the website below and was amazed at how many products they have that are gluten free.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bob's Red Mill

There's a few blogs and websites I really like. Lpink already mentioned Cookie Madness. Great site and it's not just for cookies anymore.

Another is simplyrecipes.com - She has gluten free and vegetarian recipes

King Arthur Flour's website is also great and has gluten free recipes

Lastly there's Post Punk Kitchen (theppk.com) - it's mostly vegan friendly - definitely vegetarian

So, I guess I'm not devoid of "healthy." I just don't think "healthy" should be an adjective for "cookie."

Was it a bad thing that I was trying to figure out the most fattening and calorie laden things I could put into a cookie today? I came up with some really yummy combinations. Like I said this "healthy cookie thing" has backfired and has me running the other way! LOL!

You asked a dumb question, I give you my dumb answer. :-)

From what I have found, I have not come across any special diet system that will give you special health benifits. Yes, I know there are eating habits that can kill you.

So I go the easy simple minded method. I do a search on populations who have the longest life span/expectancy, and I find out what are their eating habits. So far that works for me wonderfully, and I might add, deliciously.

dcarch

To me, healthy is when I make cookies and save a few for our nightly treat and give the rest away. LOL

I think that's great Ruthanna! Healthy is not eating them all in one sitting!

As others have said there is no one answer to this question. What is healthy for one person could kill another. Each person has to define it for themselves. As a rule of thumb though "moderation in all things" pretty much sums it up for the average ordinary person.
Joann

I agree with everyone talking about moderation. I love the comment about if your grandmother doesn't recognize it as food, don't eat it, but that's probably best for people my age, cause some of today's grandmothers were at the forefront of "convenience" foods, such as oleo.

Dcarch, what you said about populations that live the longest makes some sense. Of course, genetics plays a role, too, but what I think is going on in some other cultures is the variety of food they eat. I'm very bad about eating the same things over and over again, especially for lunch and breakfast. It's so much easier to do that, takes less thinking.

DH and I went to check out a fitness program called Crossfit, which includes intense exercise and the paleo diet. the little the trainer told us about the paleo diet talked me out of it (The price of the program was the biggest factor, way too much $$$$). The paleo diet, from the little I know about it, which is very little, makes the mistake most diets do, in that it picks out a few problems that some foods cause, without looking at the whole picture. For instance this diet bans legumes because they increase the glycemic index. Forget about all the health benefits from eating legumes. That short sightedness drives me nuts. Other diets, or eating programs do similar stuff, banning some foods for being too high in carbs, or too high in protien, or too this or too that, without looking at the whole food and it's over all benefit. I guess I'm kind of channeling Michael Pollan right now.

So, I guess I feel that eating a wide variety of whole, or natural foods, in modest portions, makes for a healthy diet. Actually following that plan is the tricky part.

Sally

Last Feb, or thereabouts, Deb gave away a juicer on this forum. I was lucky enough to be the recipient. I quickly got into the habit of using it each day. Generally I would throw in a few good sized carrots, a couple of handfuls of spinach, a chunk of peeled ginger and a piece of fruit (usually an apple or a pear). It was the perfect jump start to a diet. I have lost most of my cravings for sugar and junk food. I have also lost 30 lbs. At this point I am trying not to lose anymore weight. I am going to have a physical this week and am curious to see if my cholesterol levels are at a healthy level (it was high before).
To me, healthy eating means no fast food and use wholesome ingredients whenever possible. I prefer the devil I know vs. the devil I don't know and will continue to bake sweets for my family. Moderation is key. I also have a general aversion to red meats, but love cheese. My new favorite meal is sliced polenta (made with chicken broth instead of water) on a bed of arrabiata sauce, covered with a mixture of sauteed spinach, carmelized onions, and garlic. To me, it is a healthy dinner.

Jo

I agree that each person's requirements make "healthy" something different for everyone.

As Grainlady mentioned, "Eat Better America" has a good website and they send me weekly emails. I also like Eating Well and Cooking Light, but I do not think that low-fat or low-salt or gluten free or whatever is automatically healthy.

To me, healthy is fresh and unprocessed, with as few chemicals and additives as possible. Sodium kept to a minimum and not mostly fat and sugar. I eat organic foods when I can, as I do not believe the pesticides/fungicides/herbicides/all other cides are healthy since they are menat to kill things. I do not believe in better living through chemicals and I avoid GMO when I can.

I also do not believe it is necessarily healthy, barring specific allergies and health issues, to avoid a specific food item or type. As has been mentioned, a moderate diet with a wide variety of food is healthy.

Oh, and bumblebeez, I LIKE the kale chips!

Annie

I decided to eat more "healthy" stuff lately so I'm starting with increasing vegetables. Dinner tonight shall be a 5 layer carrot cake with french fries, deep fried cauliflower & broccoli and zucchini bread. Haven't decided on dessert.

Healthy for one is deadly for another. I was just watching Alone in the Wilderness and if he didn't have a high fat, high energy diet he wouldn't have survived 30+ years in the Alaskan Wilderness. And the condition he was in, right up until his death would be the envy of any of us.

dedtired--just so you know--she will never know if it is actually organic...just saying.
I have been a veggie for 35 yrs. A vegan some. And REALLY! I have little idea anymore what is actually "healthy".
I look at my early vegetarian recipies and YIKES they do not look healthy--high cheese and such.
But if you stick with fresh foods and spices and some good oil such as cannolla, olive and such you will do fine.

AAH....Jo I would want that polenta browned in a little butter and served with organic maple syrup....
and there in lies my problem....
Linda C