Chanukah Cookies

Doughnuts are the highlight of some people's Chanukah celebrations. Eating some is probably inevitable, but you may like to set up a doughnut-avoidance plan to limit the damage. If you have kids, making colorful Chanukah cookies with colored frosting is a wonderful idea. It's probably a bit too late to order dreidel-shaped cookie cutters now, but you can still create the shapes with your hands and a knife. You can make cookies in the shape of a menorah, Magen David, or Chanukah gelt as well. Get your kids on board for a fun family experience that will later become a treasured memory, and save yourself some work in the process (if you have older kids, at least).

A great frosting is easily created by adding some milk to icing sugar, and adding food coloring in the desired colors. White is obviously the original color, and your cookies will look great if you just have blue food coloring. You can also pipe thin lines of chocolate onto your cookies, using a pastry bag.

Matzo Ball Soup

How can you make your matzo ball soup healthier without actually changing the recipe much? Whole meat matzo meal is a great choice. You use a small amount of oil, like canola oil, instead of chicken fat. Using less salt, and egg whites only rather than whole eggs, will also make your matzo balls a lot healthier but not any less tasty.

Add in any of your favorite vegetables, regardless of whether you think they're a little odd in your soup. Kale, baby corn, Brussels sprouts and chunks of pumpkin are all wonderfully healthy ingredients that I bet you have never included in your soup before!

Low-Fat Hummus

Hummus is, with all its chickpeas, wonderfully nutritious. Chickpeas are an excellent source of protein, zinc, and the B vitamin folate (folic acid), which is essential for any individual who is trying to conceive a baby — men included. The problem with hummus is that it also tends to be very oily.

Do you want to make hummus as a side dish for a Chanukah dinner? You'll need canned chickpeas (well, you can also use dried ones but they are a huge pain, since you have to soak them, cook them, and then remove all the hard skins). Stick your chickpeas in the food processor, add a little bit of olive oil, some tahini, lemon juice, and low-fat yogurt. The yogurt really makes your hummus taste much fresher.

Or hey, just enjoy the holidays the old-fashioned way and set the whole family up with a diet plan later. Your choice.