I had already created my Thanksgiving meal strategy: eat lots of turkey (THANKfully, I love turkey) and thoroughly enjoy small portions of the foods I like the most. You’d think I’d incorporate a few low-cal dishes into the meal, but in our family, there are so many traditional dishes my men-folk are looking forward to I really don’t feel up to adding more (work) to the menu for the sake of my waistline. However, when I looked over the ideas from Chef Meg’s 500 calorie Thanksgiving menu, it gave me a few ideas I could incorporate easily without adding to the work load cooking frenzy menu.

100 Calorie Desserts

In Chef Meg’s menu, she gives recipes for Sweet Potato Tarts and Mini Apple Tarts. Those look good, but I had an idea that I could do without making anything extra (besides the tart shells) I now plan on buying a sheet of the Phyllo dough and making a 12-cupcake tin of tarts when I make the pies. I’m already making the traditional pumpkin pie recipe from 3  generations back (Libby’s original from the can, actually) and apple pie. I’m thinking if I create the 12 tart shells (or buy them made might be easier…) and while I’m making the pies, fill 6 of the phyllo shells with a tablespoon or so of the pumpkin pie filling and 6 shells with the apple pie filling. Skip the butter on top, and bake the shells according to Chef Meg’s time and temp for her tart recipes. How do I know they’re only 100 calories each? It’s called faith. (or a hopeful guess…) I’ll let you know if they turn out.

The Gravy Experiment

Chef Meg’s Apple Cider Gravy sounds delicious! I love apples in any form, so this sounds extra good to me. Our family isn’t really big on gravy anyway, so if it turns out weird, it won’t ruin the meal for others.

Roasted Veges

I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner, but roasting some vegetables with the turkey is a no-brainer, but I’ve don’t usually do it. Carrots are always good roasted, and I think I’ll even try a sweet potato or two in there. May even get more adventurous, I’ll have to look in my vegetable drawer and see what’s in there. . .

Cranberry Relish

In the past, we’ve always made the cranberry relish recipe on the Ocean Spray Cranberry bag, (when we didn’t resort to canned) but substituted fresh orange juice + a little zest for the water and only used 3/4 cup sugar. Using 1/2 Splenda will cut back a few calories, or may try all Splenda for sweetening and offer a canned version just in case it doesn’t work. Walmart has the Ocean Spray cans of cranberry sauce on sale for .88 this year! Ocean Spray has a great recipe website at http://www.oceanspray.com/recipes/

Green Beans & Cranberries

This isn’t on the list from Chef Meg, but a favorite and traditional favorite at our house is the green bean casserole and I don’t even want to know how many calories are in that! Looking at some of the low-cal options for this Thanksgiving staple look dangerous-it’s because it’s so delicious just the way it is that it’s one of the most common side dishes served on T-day in America. It’s going to have to be one of those dishes I’ll have a small portion of and SAVOR every bite.

However – one of my favorite vegetables lately would make a wonderful Thanksgiving side dish if you don’t happen to be a loyal fan of the infamous green bean casserole. Using the Allen Italian canned beans (or fresh would be extra nice), we add about 2 teaspoons of chicken broth flavoring and heat up the beans in their juice. Then, about 2 minutes before serving, I add 1-2 tablespoons of dried cranberries per 14 oz can of beans and cover while simmering. In the south, it’s very common to add a few tablespoons of oil to the beans while they’re cooking, but obviously I skip that ingredient. Personally I don’t notice a difference in the taste with or without the oil, but that’s just a personal preference, I’m sure.

There’s a host of low calorie options online for your Thanksgiving menu, but sometimes it’s easier to make small adjustments in traditional favorites. I know that in our house, changing some of the basics would be traumatic to many of my men-folk – (I have 3 sons, a son-in-law, and a husband with definite food opinions) and those that could care less about calories. There are 364 other days of the year to make adjustments . . . OK, 363 days, can’t forget Christmas. I just thought I’d share some of my ideas to insert some guilt-free options for those of you that don’t want to lose a month’s worth of dieting in one day-like me.

You can find Chef Meg’s recipes at: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/cookbooks.asp?cookbook=154743

Other great weight loss support at DailySpark.com

One more recipe I found at Diet Bites:

Using a purchased angel food cake, frost it with some light ‘Cool-Whip’ flavored with vanilla or rum extract (or almond) and add some fresh fruit in the middle. Sounds like it would look AND taste good. Find exact directions at http://www.dietbites.com/diet-frosty.html

Do you have any ways or dishes that shave some of the calories off the most calorie heavy meal of the year?