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For nearly ten years now, Janice’s daughters have joined a few special neighborhood friends the week before Christmas for a fun-filled morning decorating gingerbread houses. Whoever hosts this annual event gets to mix up gobs of frosting, assemble the houses and prepare the work surface. The girls then spend a couple of hours sipping hot cocoa and attaching a rainbow of colorful candies to their houses as well as the “grounds.” After all, without walkways, snowmen and trees the houses wouldn’t be complete! Must-have confections for the rowdy candy crew: gum drops, nonpareils, Necco wafers, licorice, and candy canes of various sizes.

Courtney, Merri, Leah and Carolyn

Since there are always three sets of sisters working on three sets of houses, each girl gets two sides to decorate. After a decade of practice, the houses can get pretty elaborate, and there’s always a bit of competition to see who can create the most unique and whimsical look which may explain why Leah’s godmother Merri, added cool palm trees! This year’s gathering also included three wonderfully rambunctious boys from the neighborhood who added a whole new level of fun and frenzy to the event.

Liam, Brendan, and Ryan

And speaking of boys, though decorating gingerbread houses was never a tradition for Liz or her two sons, she recently decided to keep up with the Joneses — or shall we say, the Bissexes — and bought each of her boys a gingerbread house as a Hanukkah gift! Simon and Josh ate more candy than they stuck to their houses, and the mess was so bad it took Liz an hour to clean it up (notice how the oh-so-experienced Janice placed a tablecloth below her girls’ houses), but it was well worth the effort. Decorating gingerbread houses turned out to be a lot of laughs and a great hands-on activity for the boys — and wow, aren’t those houses beautiful? Next year, Liz will be ready with a plastic tablecloth … and the vacuum.

Simon and Josh

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, consider the abundance of vegetables that will undoubtedly appear on your holiday table. It’s an ideal time to introduce kids to old favorites – green bean casserole anyone? — and some new ones too. If you’ve never cooked Brussels sprouts before, we have a recipe for Finally-Edible Brussels Sprouts on page 317 of The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers that you and your family may like. We also have a new recipe for Maple Bacon Brussels Sprouts, featured earlier this year in an article we wrote for Kiwi magazine called Veggie Love! While we see Brussels sprouts as the Rodney Dangerfield of veggies (they get “no respect”), you’ll be surprised how much kids like them.

Sweet potato casserole is another vegetable side dish kids seem to want to eat. Years ago — 1996 to be exact — Liz found a recipe for Streusel Topped Sweet Potato Casserole in Cooking Light Magazine. She’s been making a version of that recipe ever since. Coincidentally, Janice found that same scrumptious side dish, and made her own recipe revisions for Thanksgiving (instead of folding in three beaten egg whites, she simply adds two whole eggs). Even though there are no marshmallows on top, we guarantee your guests – kids included – will gobble it up.

Streusel Topped Sweet Potato Casserole

Makes 12 Servings

Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine

• 3 pounds unpeeled sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind, optional
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 ¼ cups finely chopped, unpeeled Granny Smith apple
• 1/2 to 1 cup toasted, chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Cook sweet potatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes or until tender. Let cool; peel and mash. Combine potatoes, orange juice, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl and stir (orange zest, optional)
2. Beat egg whites (at room temperature) until soft peaks form. Add ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth egg white mixture into sweet potato mixture. Gently fold remaining egg white mixture into sweet potato mixture. Spoon mixture into 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray and set aside.
3. To make the topping, combine apples, pecans, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl and stir well. Spoon evenly over the sweet potato mixture. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until puffed. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Feel free to share your ideas and recipes right here on our blog!

Tonight, we face one of the biggest nutrition challenges of the year: candy overload. Liz’s 13-year old son Josh has been scheming all week to collect as much candy as is humanly possible. His goal: to amass 200 pieces. Janice faces the same scenario, though Leah (AKA Hannah Montana) has slightly lower candy aspirations. Clearly, we’ll both have to set some limits (because after all, a diet of sugary candy is more than most dietitians can cope with)!

While surfing the blogisphere today, we came across an uber-clever post on AlphaMom.com to create an advent calendar designed to portion out Halloween candy over a month or more. Check it out! We’d love to hear how you tame the candy beasts in your house!

It’s not too late to listen to our recent Healthier Halloween podcast or read our Halloween tip sheet. Have a ghoulishly fun-filled evening.

Liz & Janice