Turkey Day Dish Substitutes!!!!

Hi everyone!

As Thanksgiving is getting closer, I have found some recipes that I will make for myself and anyone in my family who would like to have healthier alternatives to the usual Thanksgiving sides. Here is my list, what's yours?

Instead of: Candied Yams

I'm Making: Roasted Root Vegetables (this also works for mashed potato subsitute!)

Instead of: Green Bean Casserole          

I'm Making: Steamed Green Beans (w/almonds and tomatos)

Instead of: French Bread

I'm Making: Whole Wheat Rolls

 Also to curb the desire to nosh on unhealthy snacks, I have purchased healthy options: Veggies with hummus dip, lean deli meat, reduced fat cheese and whole wheat crackers. And I am also armed with some ideas for healthy dessert alternatives.

I think I'm ready for a Thanksgiving that won't break the calorie bank!

Good ideas, but how do you get the family on board. Too many FOOD Traditions in my family!

My partner and I have already eaten our T-giving meal together. It's become a tradition for us to have ours the weekend before T-giving because we are always required to go to family events on the day itself so we have our special meal together early.

We made all the usual dishes except we made a few alterations.
I made cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie with Splenda instead of sugar for some calorie savings. Also used the fat free evaporated milk in the pie and reduced fat cream of mushroom soup in the green bean casserole. In order to reduce the use of the french fried onions we put freeze dried shallots & toasted minced onion in the green bean casserole then topped with a light sprinkling of the fried onions. Instead of the buttery, sugary, marshmallow-y sweet potatoes we simply roasted a couple sweet potatoes and topped with cinnamon. And we went with whole wheat rolls.

You may not be able to get the family on board, but you can have parallel choices.  You can have the healthy green beens AND the green bean casserole.  Also, start small with 1 or 2 changes at the most - no one will be receptive if you revamp the whole meal. 

Talking to other people about their TG traditions, it seems like the BIGGEST change you can make is to change the time of your dinner.  I've heard from a lot of people who gather around 12-1 PM, then nosh all afternoon, THEN eat dinner.  In my family, we have TG dinner at 1.  We gather by 12:45 :-)  No noshing allowed.  We then concentrate on the great meal - which is pretty healthy when you consider how veggie heavy it is.  We have butternut squash, steamed green beans, sweet potato pudding, creamed onions, mashed rutabaga, and mashed potatoes.

 

It doesn't taste as good as normal whipped cream, but Cool Whip free is AWESOME for how many calories are in it.

I worship a dallop of that on fresh strawberries. OOOOHhhh yummy.