Thanksgiving dinner is a time for a fun family feast—but
it’s also a fat-eating fete where butter makes an appearance in almost every
dish on the table, and indigestion is frequently part of the last course. A
typical Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and sides can easily
reach 2,500 calories and that’s not counting drinks and
appetizers. For dieters, Thanksgiving is often a day of either self-imposed deprivation
or I-ate-too-much remorse.
The good news is you can have a traditional turkey dinner
and still stay within a reasonable caloric intake by tweaking your favorite
recipes just a bit, reducing the size of your portions, and eating as slowly as
possible. That way, you can enjoy everything on the table without guilt or
regret.
Turkey Talk
You’ll consume fewer calories and less fat if you eat breast
meat than if you dine on the dark, but the dark side of the turkey doesn’t
deserve the poor reputation it’s earned over the years. The nutritional
difference between servings of white and dark meat is really only
20 calories and 2 grams of fat, and dark meat actually contains predominantly
heart-healthy fats and a healthier high mineral content.
So, what’s the real belly-busting culprit? Turkey skin. Keep
the skin on during roasting to retain moisture, but skip adding it to your
plate and save yourself hundreds of calories and a significant serving of fat.
Skinny mashed potatoes
This Thanksgiving, indulge in spectacular spuds, mashed to
perfection, but banish the cream and butter and save a ton of gratuitous
calories and fat grams. Instead, make
your mashed with skim milk or chicken broth, and for less than 160
calories per serving, you can have a delicious mound of fluffy potatoes on your
plate.
Good gravy
The key to cutting calories in gravy is to make sure you
remove the fat. If you can make the gravy ahead of time, you can chill it and
remove almost all of the extra fat that rises to the top. If not, pour the pan
juices into a fat separator. Discard the fat, but keep all the tasty drippings.
Don’t over-thicken the gravy. A thin gravy has fewer calories than a thick,
gloppy gravy, and you’ll use less when you ladle it onto your potatoes or meat.
Simply superb stuffing
You can cut down on fat and calories in your turkey stuffing
without cutting out flavor. Load up your stuffing with a ton of fruits and
veggies and skip the sausage and butter. Use fat-free chicken broth to moisten
the stuffing and chop up apples, onions, celery, mushrooms, apricots, cranberries,
shallots, and parsley and mix with whole wheat cubes, similar to this recipe
from SparkPeople.
Naturally sweet potatoes
You don’t need a ton of butter, sugar, and nuts in or on
your sweet potatoes—and there’s certainly no need for marshmallows! Save the
super sweets for the last course, and enjoy the naturally sweet flavor of a yam
or sweet potato that is baked in its jacket.
Relish your cranberries
A half-inch slice of sweetened, canned cranberry sauce
contains about 86 calories,
but you can cut that number in half if you make your own homemade cranberry
sauce. Search the Internet for a recipe you like, or opt for this
recipe for a spiced cranberry sauce.
Dessert for the Deserving
You’ve saved so many calories this Thanksgiving by using
lower-calorie recipes and flinging fat to the curb—now you can indulge in your
favorite Thanksgiving desserts without worries. Pick two of the desserts at
your table and take one skinny slice of each treat. Sure, you can make a
dessert with low-fat ingredients or artificial sugar, but why not enjoy a small
bit of something amazing instead of a huge amount of something ho-hum? Just
make sure you think twice before going back for a second plate!
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