Five Recipes for a Less Fattening Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving is a time of family, friends and reflection. It is a day set aside to remember all our blessings and to express gratitude for the good things in our lives. It is also the beginning of the "holiday season", a time when we find our wallets getting thinner and our waistlines getting thicker. All too often, we use Thanksgiving as an excuse to fill our plates and our stomachs beyond capacity with rich foods laden with sugar and fat. There is no reason, however, that we cannot enjoy the bounty of a successful harvest and still maintain our healthier lifestyles. Below are recipes for five traditional Thanksgiving foods, prepared in less fattening ways. Every Thanksgiving dinner begins with Turkey. As Alexander Hamilton proclaimed, "No citizen of the United States should refrain from eating turkey on Thanksgiving Day." With its skin traditionally slathered with butter and its cavity stuffed with bread, the main course is, itself, a trip to cholesterol heaven. Instead of your regular turkey and stuffing, try this recipe for a lower-fat, less fattening alternative.

Roasted Turkey Stuffed with Brown Rice

8 lbs turkey

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

4 slices turkey bacon

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

non-stick cooking spray, if needed

In a medium sauté pan, slowly cook turkey bacon until crisp. Set aside until cool enough to crumble. (Turkey bacon gets crisper as it cools.) In the same pan, lightly sauté the onion and celery. As turkey bacon yields very little fat, it may be necessary to use a small amount of non-stick cooking spray. Combine onion, celery, crumbled bacon, salt and pepper with cooked rice.

Loosely stuff into cavity of turkey and place breast up on a wire rack inside the roasting pan. Cover with foil to keep the juices inside the bird. Roast at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 to 3 ½ hours, until the rice reaches at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once fully cooked, remove from the oven, remove the skin and allow bird to cool approximately 20 minutes. Skim the fat from the drippings in the bottom of the pan and throw away. Use the leaner drippings, without thickening, as a flavorful sauce to pour over your meat.

After the turkey and stuffing are taken care of, we start to think potatoes. I grew up with creamy mashed potatoes and gravy, side-by-side with sticky, sweet, candied yams. The only thing getting a workout on Thanksgiving Day at my house was my pancreas. Since then, I've learned a thing or two about potatoes. First, is that I don't need to add sugar to make them sweet. Yams are called "sweet potatoes" for a reason. Second is that white potatoes and sweet potatoes taste very well blended together. As an added bonus, the sweet potatoes are lower in carbohydrate than regular potatoes.

Easy Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2 large yams

4 medium potatoes

Small container plain yogurt

Skim milk as needed for desired creaminess

Salt to taste

Peel and quarter yams and potatoes. Boil until tender and drain. Mash potatoes by hand or with an electric mixer, adding yogurt and milk only after most of the lumps are out. Add milk only a few tablespoons at a time to avoid potatoes being too soft.

Now, we've taken care of the potatoes and the yams. We've also gotten rid of about a pound of brown sugar and marshmallow. Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be quite right without something sweet on the table, though. This fun twist on acorn squash keeps all the traditional flavor without all the traditional fat and carbs.

Microwave Baked Acorn Squash

2 medium acorn squash

¼ cup finely chopped walnuts

4 Tbsp granulated artificial sweetener

¼ cup yogurt-based butter substitute (or you can use an olive oil-based butter substitute. Either way, it cuts the cholesterol)

½ tsp maple flavoring

Microwave whole squash until tender. I usually start with 10 minutes, turning them over halfway through. Once fully cooked, remove from microwave, cut in half, dispose of seeds and scoop the flesh of the squashes into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add all ingredients, reserving 1 Tbsp of the walnuts to sprinkle over top before serving. Mash well, using a potato masher. If you want your squash sweeter, add more artificial sweetener. Your waist will never know the difference.

Have you ever attempted to have a Thanksgiving dinner without a pumpkin dessert? No matter what other desserts are found on the after-dinner buffet, there has to be at least one creamy something made with pumpkin. Add your own vegetables and bread to my menu, and follow up with one of these tasty favorites.

Baked Pumpkin Custard

This is basically the pumpkin pie without the crust. You keep the tasty filling and ditch the fat and flour at the bottom.

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp allspice

or

substitute 2 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice for the four spices above

3 eggs

1 - 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

1 - 12 ounce can evaporated milk

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Place a large baking pan on center rack of oven. Lightly butter an 8-inch pie plate or 8 individual custard cups. Place inside the baking pan then surround with about one inch of water. Fill the pie plate or custard cups with pumpkin mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a knife in the center comes out clean.

Chill and serve with fat-free whipped topping or serve warm with fat-free, sugar-free vanilla frozen yogurt.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Neufchatel cheese looks and tastes like cream cheese, but has 1/3 less fat for a healthier, less fattening cheesecake.

2 - 8 ounce packages Neufchatel cheese

¾ cup white sugar

1 - 15 ounce can pumpkin

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

¼ tsp salt

2 prepared graham cracker crusts

Mix together the first six ingredients and pour into graham cracker crusts. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Freeze one cheesecake for your Christmas dinner. Chill and serve remaining cheesecake with fat-free whipped topping.

Feasts are by their very nature fattening, and Thanksgiving dinner is no exception. Still, we can minimize the damage by limiting portions and preparing our traditional favorites with less fat and carbohydrate. I hope these recipes will help make your Thanksgiving Day feast one that is less fattening, more healthy and something to be truly thankful for.