Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. You're probably already starting to plan your dinner menu or deciding what dish to bring to Aunt Linda's house to pass... fluffy mashed potatoes... creamy green bean casserole... apple pie. Delicious.

But along with all that goodness comes a whole lot of fat and calories. Thankfully, there are easy ways to tweak your favorite Thanksgiving recipes to lower the calorie count while keeping all the flavor. That way you can enjoy yourself guilt free and worry about more important things (like Free Black Friday shopping).

10 Recipe Tips for a Healthy Thanksgiving


1. The pilgrims didn't use a lot of refined sugar and you don't have to either. Sweeten dishes like sweet potatoes with cinnamon and vanilla instead of white sugar and save A LOT of calories.

2. Skip the canned ingredients, which often contain high-fructose corn syrup and high amounts of sodium, and choose fresh ingredients. Make your own cranberry sauce by pureeing fresh, frozen or dried cranberries in orange juice and water.

3. Seasonal vegetable soup (think butternut squash soup) is a healthy, light and filling way to start a Thanksgiving meal. Just use low-fat cream or half and half instead of full-fat cream or choose a chicken or vegetable broth based soup to start.

4. Instead of smothering cauliflower butter and cheddar cheese, try slicing it and roasting it with parmesan cheese for a delicious low-cal version of the popular vegetable dish. If you're making a casserole, choose skim milk cheese and low-fat ingredients.

5. Serve up green beans a different way this year - in a tasty pesto sauce instead of fried with bacon or smothered with cheese.

6. Make your own healthy stuffing with whole grain bread and substitute fruit and nuts for meat (or use turkey sausage) to save loads of fat and calories. Or stuff your turkey with a cornucopia of hot peppers for a spicy take on Thanksgiving that will really rev your metabolism.

7. For a juicier turkey, butterfly it (remove the backbone and flatten it before cooking) to reduce cooking time (and subsequent drying out of the meat). This way you'll need less oil and gravy.

8. Go light on the desserts. Substitute calorie-laden pies with sorbets or fruit tarts or a healthy apple cranberry crisp. If you simply can't skip the pumpkin pie, use fat free condensed milk and egg substitute to lighten the load.

9. Scalloped potatoes made with olive oil and fat-free milk are a healthy alternative to mashed potatoes (which tend to get covered in gravy, butter, sour cream and cheese at the table even if you keep the recipe lean).

10. Serve fresh vegetables or fruit as appetizers and skip the fatty chips and dip spread.

p.s. Any traditional recipe can be lightened by choosing low- or fat-free versions of milk, cheese, cream, half & half, egg substitute and sour cream or even using yogurt in some cases.

Have any light and delicious Thanksgiving recipes to share? We'd love to read them - please leave a comment below!