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Healthier Holiday Party Recipes

Try adding these yummy meatballs or the delicious dip to your holiday party repertoire. Simple choices make them healthier than traditional fare, but the taste remains special and festive!

Honey-Garlic Glazed Meatballs

Meatballs are a traditional party food and with good reason – they are easy, fun, can be made in small servings, and are a source of protein. However, they often contain high amounts of sodium, sugar and fat; sometimes from hidden sources. Our meatballs reduce sodium, sugar and fat, but remain high in flavor!

To reduce fat, we use extra-lean ground beef and little oil.
To reduce sodium, we use low-sodium soy sauce, no-salt-added tomato sauce, and lower-sodium ketchup.
We also use ketchup without corn syrup and with little added sugar.
To increase the nutrition even more, we use quick oats instead of bread crumbs. This increases protein and fiber and eliminates the potential for added sugars and sodium (often found in bread crumbs). Enjoy!

1 egg, slightly beaten
¼ cup minced onion
¼ cup tomato sauce (no salt added)
1 cup quick oats
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pound extra-lean ground beef

Glaze Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, minced
Oil, as needed
3/8 cup ketchup (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons)*
¼ cup honey
1½ tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

Preheat an oven to 400°F; then 350°

  1. In a large bowl combine egg, onion, tomato sauce, oats, and salt. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place on a large oiled baking sheet with sides. Bake, uncovered, in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink.
  2. If needed to remove excess fat, transfer cooked meatballs to paper towel-lined baking sheet.
  3. Meanwhile, in a medium-sized skillet, sauté garlic in oil until tender. Stir in the ketchup, honey, and soy sauce. Heat until warmed through. Remove from heat.
  4. Add a few meatballs to glaze. Carefully stir to evenly coat. Transfer coated meatballs to an oiled 9×13 baking dish. Repeat to coat all meatballs. Bake at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes to serving temperature.

Yield:  30 (1-inch) meatballs

*When purchasing ketchup, you might be surprised by the differences in ingredients between brands. We recommend avoiding brands that use corn syrup and prefer to limit the quantities of both sugar and sodium.

Dill Dip

This is a fun, easy, and tasty way to dress up low-fat sour cream.

For a fun and easy dip for raw veggies, stir garlic powder, onion powder and dried dill into low-fat sour cream. There’s no need to measure, but if you want a general guideline, try ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder, and 1 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill) for 1 cup of sour cream. Chill before serving for best flavor.

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