The traditional Friday night dinner – a calorific nightmare.

With the Jewish Holi(y?)day season coming up, our stomachs are gearing up for what lies ahead. Food. Food. Food. And more

Food.

During the year, we are used to feasting every week over the Shabbat (Sabbath). However, during the upcoming month – we endure an extra 2 days a week of intensive eating, not that I’m complaining.

But getting back to the lovely Friday night meal...I thought I’d talk about this nutritious-nightmare we face on a weekly basis.

To start off, we eat our meal late at night. It consists of about 5 courses. We start the meal with drinking wine on an empty stomach. We also usually go straight to sleep after the meal, only to wake up the next day and do it all again.

And here’s something you’ve probably known but chosen to ignore. This delightful dinner easily contains about a days worth of calories or kilojoules (assuming a normal adult needs 2000 calories/day or 8000 kilojoules)

Let me break it down..

1 glass of wine – 109 cal

2 slices of sweet challah – 343 cal

2 tbs chummus (there is no such thing as challah without chummus) – 74 cal

1 piece of gefilte fish – 73 cal

1 spoon of chrein – 10 cal

1 tbsp mayo – 148 cal (being a little generous with the mayo)

½ cup of  garden salad – not much, but watch out for any salad croutons, nuts, oily/mayonnaise-y dressings..

1 bowl of chicken soup – 153 cal

1 matzohball – 84 cal

Handful of soup noodles – 90 cal

1 piece of roast chicken – 294 cal

1 piece of kugel – 250 cal

1/3 cup tzimmes – 150 cal

2 scoops of pareve israeli bright coloured ice cream – 200 cal

A whopping total of………..

1978 calories.. (in Australian terms – 8307 kilojoules)

Yikes

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration. But pretty close to the truth as well. Especially if you drink a few more glasses of wine, and eat a few more pieces of challah..

The meals over the holidays closely resemble this traditional Friday night meal, with a few exceptions. The challah is round. We dip it in honey. We eat weird fruits, and lots of sweet honey-like foods. But essentially, its quite similar.

So here are a few tips on how to take it easy over the Holiday season and give your stomach a break.

-          Try to have one slice of challah, and save room for other food

-          If spreading a dip on the challah – spread thinly

-          Avoid having soup noodles/niblets/matzoh balls/kreplach in your soup

-          If you can handle it, leave out one course at each meal. E.g. skip fish course or dessert. Actually, it’s probably a good idea to generally skip dessert, or just stick to fruit.

-          If you have a choice of fried or baked fish, choose the baked variety.

-          Aim to have only one serving of the foods that are being offered

-          Watch out for alcohol intake, and on that note...leave out any soft drinks. Water is awesome

-          If there are a choice of a few salads – choose the ones that without a mayonnaise based dressing.

-          And probably the best advice – only eat with interesting people. Boredom at a meal usually leads to overcompensating with eating. Better to keep your mouth busy with talking.

On that note, enjoy yourself – don’t over think it too much or you might drive yourself crazy!