Holiday foods good all year long

PERFECTLY PUMPKIN — Pumpkin lovers will appreciate this delightful, frosty version of pumpkin pie.

It’s over. The holidays, with their appealing foods and temptations to overindulge, have gone.

But do we really have to lose the enjoyment they bring just because it’s time to pack away the decorations and favorite recipes that are part of the season’s pleasures?

Thinking about this while recovering from my New Year’s festivities, I was struck by the health benefits found in so many of the foods associated with the holidays in the last months of the year, from Halloween through Christmas.

Cranberries, pumpkin, sweet potatoes (particularly the moist, orange-fleshed kind often called yams), nuts, even chocolate all deserve a place at the table year round.

I owe thanks to my mother for getting me to eat cranberries and sweet potatoes all the time, even through the summer.

Instead of ketchup, she always served cranberry relish and apple sauce with turkey burgers.

She made her relish with chopped up raw cranberries and an orange; when fresh berries were gone from the market, we ate the canned ones, though it felt weird loading it into our cart during the summer.

As for sweet potatoes, some kids came home from school to be served homemade cookies or brownies and milk.

I might come home to the sweet, toasty aroma of just-baked sweet potatoes.

Eventually, my mom convinced me to like them better than chocolate chip cookies and, on a snowy or wet winter day, I still luxuriate in peeling and eating a naturally sweet baked yam out of hand, as you would a banana.

Getting pumpkin into me was easy, too, because I adored pumpkin pie and the pumpkin ice cream served at a New Jersey stand we used to frequent.

My ever-creative mom decided to go them one better by whirling milk, vanilla ice cream and canned pumpkin together in the blender.

My updated version uses tangy frozen yogurt in place of the ice cream.

Pumpkin Pie Milk Shake

1 cup fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt

1/2 cup reduced fat (2 percent) milk

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 Tbsp. maple syrup

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice*

Pinch of salt

Unsweetened cocoa powder, or ground cinnamon for garnish

Place the frozen yogurt, milk, pumpkin, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a blender and whirl to combine.

Pour the shake into a glass and garnish with a sprinkling of cocoa powder or cinnamon. Serve immediately.

* In place of pumpkin pie spice, combine 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon each ground allspice, cloves and ginger, plus 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg.

Makes 2 servings. Per serving: 173 calories, 2 g. total fat (1 g. saturated fat), 34 g. carbohydrate, 8 g. protein, 2 g. dietary fiber, 239 mg. sodium.