Tweeking your Thanksgiving Feast Favorites
By Jenny Shea Rawn, MS, MPH, RD
Thanksgiving - a day to give thanks for family and friends and to be together with our loved ones. And, of course, a day to cook and enjoy a wonderful feast together. It’s my favorite holiday, because you can spend hours with your family around the dinner table, just enjoying each other’s company. There are no presents, no drama (most of the time!) and the most wonderful memories are made.
Whether you’re cooking or contributing, we all our have our family Thanksgiving traditions that we look forward to each year. While Thanksgiving is not a time to be thinking about saving calories, there are small tweeks that you can make (if you’re cooking) to keep or boost the flavor, while lightening them up ever so slightly. These tweeks you won’t even notice and they’re easy to make a habit of – whether on Thanksgiving – or anytime during the year. Of course, some time-tested family favorites are to be savored and better left alone … like my mom’s mushroom stuffing and apple crisp, and family friend Helen’s green bean casserole. For the others, here are a few simple tweeks on some of your favorite side dishes and desserts (I left the turkey & stuffing alone!) that will lighten up the day without anyone knowing you tweeked a thing.
Skip the Apps:
You want to enjoy every bite of your Thanksgiving dinner, so why fill up on anything less than the main course
If you must have an appetizer, offer a veggie platter with hummus
Mashed Potatoes:
Use reduced-sodium chicken broth to add flavor so you can use less butter
Use half the butter
Skip the cream and use milk instead
Add garlic and fresh parsley for great flavor
Green Bean Casserole:
Use reduced-fat and reduced-sodium cream of mushroom soup
Top your casserole with flavorful caramelized onions instead of the crispy fried onion rings
Sweet Potatoes:
Sweeten with cinnamon and a bit of applesauce or apple cider instead of marshmallows and brown sugar
Cranberry Sauce:
Instead of canned cranberry sauce, make your own cranberry relish with 1 bag of fresh cranberries, one 15oz can of mandarin oranges in juice, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and a ¼ cup apple cider
Beverages:
Offer cranberry spritzers as a festive and low-calorie beverage – combine 4 oz lime flavored sparkling water and 2 oz cranberry juice. Garnish with fresh cranberries and a slice of lime
Dessert:
Make a crustless pumpkin pie or individual pumpkin trifles, laying vanilla Greek yogurt and pumpkin puree and topping with a graham cracker crumble
Make an apple crumble or single crust apple pie instead of a double crust apple pie
Also, sign up for a local turkey trot! In our family, each year we run or walk a 6 mile Turkey Trot in our local area, wherever we celebrate Thanksgiving. Participating in a walk or a run as a family on Thanksgiving morning, whether an official “trot” or not, is great family bonding time and will start your engine off ready to burn off those extra Thanksgiving feast calories!
Lastly and importantly, Thanksgiving is also a time to remember those that are less fortunate than ourselves and help those in need. Check out your local food bank to see how you can help hungry families in your community! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving – from our home to yours!