Thanksgiving Food

The traditional Thanksgiving Food includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, ham, cranberries, rolls, green beans or corn, and topped off with pumpkin pie!  It's a high-fat, carbohydrate feast that would put us off, any other day of the year, but is a must for Thanksgiving!  Or is it?

These simple tips can make your Thanksgiving feast a simpler, stress-free, healthier meal:

• Skip the pre-meal appetizers.  You know...those dips and chips that add hundreds of extra calories and fill you up before the serious eating begins! Save them for another holiday party like the Super Bowl.

• Downsize your turkey to a chicken, or Cornish game hens if you are cooking for a small group.  Turkey's are hard to cook, because they are so big.  Chickens taste better, are easier to handle, and are less fussy to cook and carve! Or you can just purchase a boneless turkey breast if everyone likes white meat.

• If you do decide to cook a turkey, you can always cook it the day ahead of time and just heat it up on Thanksgiving! This works out well if you decide to use a smoker to smoke your turkey.  We often would smoke two turkeys the day before, and freeze lots of leftovers.

• Make your dressing from scratch, rather than a box.  You will be amazed at how much better it tastes.  No stove top stuffing in a pouch!  Fill it full of celery, onions, and any chopped vegetables that you love.  You can prepare all ingredients the day before and whip it together at the last minute. See Kerry's Light Cornbread Dressing Recipe on her Healthy Diet Habits website (link opens in a new browser)

• Unless you just love the last minute hassle of gravy; buy healthy pre-made gravy.  This will greatly cut out last minute stress, or have a relative make it at home and bring it! If you cook your turkey the day before, go ahead and make your gravy from the turkey and just reheat it the day of.

• Make your cranberry sauce from scratch rather than buying it from the can.  You can add less sugar or even better use healthy sugar substitutes, and the end product does not even taste similar.

• Choose only one other carbohydrate between potatoes, yams, corn or peas.  Enjoy the real vegetable, rather than adding lots of fattening goodies.  Simple foods taste great! mashed potatoes can be made ahead of time and kept warm in the oven, to eliminate the last-minute stress too.

• Choose only one potato recipe and remember that a serving is half a cup. You do not need mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Do not use cheese or butter in your potatoes. They will taste great if you add a bit of lightened sour cream, garlic, green onions, and salt and pepper! You could also switch to roasted potatoes. Simply choose medium potatoes, quarter them, spray them lightly with oil and salt and pepper them. Bake them until they are crunchy!

• Skip the rolls! I know, but you can do rolls another day, when you are having a healthy meal and need a carbohydrate!

• Add a fresh low carbohydrate vegetable to the meal. Ditch the green bean casserole.  Fresh green beans taste so much better and can be served with some sliced toasted almonds.

• Fix a low carbohydrate fresh salad that is not full of fattening goodies!  A green salad full of fresh ingredients will be a highlight of the heavy meal!  Try making a Vegetable Turkey - pictured below! See our Tips on Making a Produce Tray.

• Fix a fresh fruit salad, rather than a Jello-O salad full of canned fruits or marshmallows.  Fresh fruits are a treat at this time of year.  Below, we just made a fruit platter and used a cantaloupe and a pear to form a turkey, and then added strawberry, grapes and cheese skewers poked into the cantaloupe to form the turkey feathers. We have some vegan and vegetarian eaters in the family who don't eat turkey, so we always serve an overabundance of fresh fruits and veggies, so they don't starve!

• Serve a chopped vegetable salad. Most people do not serve salads at this meal. Add a great one with a low-calorie dressing. Last year I simply chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, roasted green peppers, cilantro, and added a bit of balsamic vinaigrette. It was the hit of the meal.

• Stick with pumpkin pie, or a lower calorie dessert choice. Serve only small portions.  Remember that Costco pies are meant to be cut into 16th and not 8th! No need for huge pie pieces, when such a heavy meal has already been consumed.  You guests will thank you!  You can always take a walk after your meal and before dessert too.

• Eliminate all drink calories unless you allow a small glass of wine. This is such a heavy meal. There is no need to drink gallons of sparkling cider. Try ice water, iced cranberry tea, or a sparkling water with a splash of fresh fruit! Almost zero calories!

Veggie Turkey Tray - See our Tips to making Produce Trays

The goal of the Thanksgiving food should be simplicity!  Great ingredients fixed in a simple manner.  Fix as many of the dishes from simple, scratch recipes, using real foods.  Choose recipes that can be fixed the day before, to eliminate stress, and allow you to enjoy your family and friends!

This will still be a huge meal. Are you denying yourself? Nope! You will still end up being stuffed, but you will not end up with the traditional 3000 calorie meal from your Thanksgiving recipes!

Your lightened meal plan would be: turkey/gravy, mashed, roasted, potatoes or sweet potatoes, dressing, green vegetable, chopped salad or fruit salad (or both for a large group), cranberries, and a small piece of pie. Choosing this meal would be a healthy diet habit and help you to control holiday weight gain.

If you do decide to cook a Turkey, be sure to check out Kerry's Tips and Recipes on what to do with your Turkey Leftovers (link opens up a new browser in her Healthy Diet Habits website)

Pumpkin Pie - whip up some homemade whipped cream using Organic Heavy Cream

Healthy Thanksgiving Recipe Directories

The links below go to Kerry's Healthy Diet Habits website and will open in a new browser window:

• Healthy Holiday Meal Planning

• Leftover Ham Ideas and Recipes

• Light Cornbread Dressing Recipe

• Tips for Turkey Leftovers

Pinterest

Please Follow our Holidays and Observances Thanksgiving Food - Holiday Board on Pinterest - below you will see our 30 most recent pins to this photo board!

Click on the SEE ON PINTEREST bar right above, (link will take you to our Pinterest Boards) to see all the rest of our photo's on this board, and to Follow the board. New photos will be constantly added!