For many of us, this is the time of year when finding a balance with food can be a challenge.

Sweets, desserts, drinks, and treats are plastered all over cooking shows, magazines, blogs, and grocery stores everywhere we turn. I think I even have a pair of holiday socks with cookies on them! It’s easy to start thinking that chocolate fudge makes the perfect daily breakfast staple or washing vitamins down with spiked cider is totally normal.

Well, some days I guess. I won’t judge.

But let’s be real for a minute. Sugar overload doesn’t make most of us feel our best on a day to day basis. I love sweets and indulgences as much as the next person (ok maybe more…), but I’ll be the first to admit that too much of it can leave me feeling tired, unmotivated, and blah. Over the years, I’ve realized that food and winter blahs can be closely related. When I eat crappy, I tend to feel crappy too.

Einstein said that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” and I kind of live my life by that theory. When something doesn’t work, change it up! So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

[Did I really just quote Einstein in a food post?]

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be featuring 12 days of healthy meal recipes** that will hopefully inspire us to stay on a healthy path over the holiday season. That’s not to say that I won’t be indulging or posting a couple holiday sweet recipes (it is me you’re talking to!), but I also want to make more of an effort to fit in healthy meals whenever possible. Eric and I are both busy with work right now (he just started a new position and I’m wrapping up my cookbook proposal), so we need these healthy meals to stay at the top of our game. Plus, more healthy food means more room for Secret-Ingredient Chocolate Pudding, of course.

**subject to change, based on how many casseroles I burn, how many gifts I have left to wrap, and how many cats I have to remove from the Christmas tree.