Thanksgiving- Doing It A New Way: Healthy!

First, I have to comment that I am currently on cloud nine. Not only did I have a very fun and successful Thanksgiving (did I mention it was my first year hosting), but I just watched my all-time favorite Christmas movie, Love, Actually. How can you not feel good after watching this movie? Warm, fuzzy feelings abound and I can't stop smiling thinking about it!

Like I said, this was my first year hosting Thanksgiving. I had the in-laws over and even though it was a small crowd, I had an excuse to break out my China and to FINALLY eat the Thanksgiving meal I want to eat after five long years of eating their food. Thanksgiving dinner is alright at my in-laws, but it's neither anything remotely the same as what I grew up with or healthy. Sure it features the same foods-- turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and some sides-- but the quality and flavor of the food just was never there for me. And did I mention that they use whole milk in everything? I'm pretty sure I have been sick every year since I started eating Thanksgiving with them- one year was so bad I had to drive home with the window rolled down in 20 degree temps so the cold air would keep me from feeling like vomiting. Gross, gross, gross. Needless to say, when the opportunity arose to host this year, I jumped at the chance- and not just to show of my culinary prowress.

The suprise of the day for me was that everyone liked- make that LOVED my food! Even my hubby's grandmother who is an extremely picky eater, asked for seconds and took some home! I couldn't believe it! I wish I had taken pictures of the feast, but completely forgot and I could kick myself for it. So I will attempt to describe the food as best I can.

The turkey was a Giada de Laurentiis recipe that I have made before with herbs d'Provence and citrus. The flavor and moisture of this turkey is second to none. I can't say enough about this recipe, and even though I usually alter recipes I make, this one I do not. It needs no changing. Mouth-watering.

The stuffing/dressing was a Clean Eating magazine recipe that uses whole wheat sourdough bread with sauteed portabello mushrooms, leeks, and celery (recipe orginally called for carrots, I left them out as an good food allergic person should do, naturally). Healthy, and fresh and the sourdough gave a whole new dimension to the dish. Turns out sourdough is a favorite of my hubby's grandmother, hence her attraction to the recipe! And did I mention it is far lower in calories, sodium, and fat than a traditional stuffing? Oh, and lots more fiber! This recipe is a keeper!

For mashed potatoes I took a slightly different approach and added parsnips to the mix. Also, rather than using milk, I substituted chicken stock which actually gives them a different dimension of flavor that is quite nice. No one noticed the lack of whole milk (or dairy altogether, with the exception of butter- which actually is very low in lactose so is tolerable for people like me) and the parsnips in the mash got rave reviews.

Wanting a solid vegetable with the meal I made Clean Eating magazine's green bean with shallot recipe. This recipe called for chestnuts, but I left them out because of my allergies and whatnot. Honestly though, I'm not sure why they needed to be in there in the first place? I often wonder this with recipes-- frequently recipes will have nuts or cheese or other garnishy-type additions to them that you can just leave out and not notice an ounce of difference in taste. So my question to these recipe writers is, "why?" Why do we need to keep throwing cheese and nuts on every dish known to man? It's getting harder and harder to find dishes without dairy in the grocery store, have you noticed? But I digress... back to green beans. One of my favorite tricks that CE mag does is to put fresh lemon juice on sauteed vegetables. Brightens the flavor right up, and did not go unnoticed in this dish. It was quite good, though I think everyone forgot about them with the other food offered!

Finally, cranberries. I wanted cranberry sauce with the dinner so I made the CE mag recipe for it that has ginger and lemon and honey- so refreshing! I think I didn't put quite enough ginger in, but I used everything I had left on hand so it was good enough without having to go out and buy more. I also am known for my signature cranberry-pear pie as the holidays, so I found a recipe to make it a little healthier and lighter as a crisp. Excellent substitute for the pie, and it was gobbled up by everyone, even though they were hesitant at first to veer from the pumpkin pie comfort zone (I don't care for pumpkin pie so I had someone else bring it). Once everyone had a bite of it they were sold, as I knew they would be.

So the holidays don't have to be unhealthy? Who knew, right? I think the highest compliment today was that everyone loved the food but no one felt so overstuffed they were uncomfortable- even though A LOT of food was eaten!