Do you have any High volume, low calorie and yummy Thanksgiving/ Christmas recipes?
Asked by
Judi (
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)
November 22nd, 2009
I heard somewhere that the average American Thanksgiving Dinner is about 4500 calories.
I like consuming mass quantities on thanksgiving, and plan to raid the relish tray and avoid the cheese and crackers, but do you have any good (preferably hot) recipes that are low in calories and high in volume for your Holiday feast?
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23 Answers
“Low-calorie Thanksgiving” seems like an oxymoron. A lot can be saved by modifying recipes to use chicken broth or fat free ingredients instead of butter and cream. And by portion control. The 4500 calories probably comes in the form of 2–3 helpings.
Turkey white meat is low calorie, unless it’s been basted in butter, and injected with fat. Skip eating the dark meat and the skin. Don’t make stuffing.
Serve baked sweet potatoes instead of casserole—let people garnish their own. You can roast them in crock pots instead of the oven.
Fresh green beans instead of casserole
Steamed carrots in orange juice no butter
Skinny mashed potoatoes
Pumpkin mousse made by mixing 1 can pumpkin pie filling with a container of no fat Cool-Whip. Serve with Pepperidge Farm gingerbread cookies
Pureed cauliflower with a litttle olive oil and herbs, a dash of grated parmesan cheese.
Ingredients in no-fat Cool-whip vv. Just eat real whipped cream, but half the amount.
“Cool Whip is made of water, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oil (CPKO), sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), natural and artificial flavor, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60 (glycosperse), and beta carotene
.In some markets, such as Canada and the United States, Cool Whip is available in an aerosol can using nitrous oxide as a propellant.”
@gailcalled, LOL no wonder it’s delicious—it can kill you.
I have an older, less expensive, not as fancy looking version of this. It was one of the best gifts I ever received. But it doesn’t work for the mousse recipe, and for some reason, the whipped cream made in the bowl doesn’t work with the canned pumpkin. It must need the chemical additives.
@PandoraBoxx: What about the old-fashioned Kitchen-Aid with the whisk attachment? It is easy except for the possibility of turning your back for a minute and ending up with butter.
We make low cal lower salt thanksgiving at my house. My father has a very strict diet during the year (basically vegetarian) and he cheats on Thanksgiving, but we still keep it all to a minimum. Both my parents have to avoid salt.
We make Turkey breast in a very basic way. We us store bought gravy in the packet (you know the powder one) because it does not use a rue (BUTTER) to thicken and add drippings from the turkey, which give it a “real” flavor and we add into the gravy sliced sauteed mushrooms and some wine.
If we make a green bean casserole with one low fat cream of mushroom soup and one regular (I use much less milk than called for, because I don’t like it runny). Sometimes we make green beens just slightly sauteed or roast asparagus instead.
Mashed potatoes we use fat free evaported milk and some 2% regular milk, which cuts the fat way down.
For dessert it varies. We have done chocolate pudding pie, which is only good if you can find Royal Dark and Sweet (only found in 4 states I think) but we make the pudding with ⅓ cup fat free evaporated milk and then the rest skim milk, almost zero fat except for what is in the graham cracker crust (I make this throughout the year).
Our thanksgiving is not much more caloric than a typical dinner at my house, except I think we tend to eat a little more, and we don’t usually have dessert on most days.
@gailcalled, even with the whisked attachment, something about the wetness of the pumpkin pie filling makes the whipped cream weepy.
I personally could skip the pumpkin, but everyone seems to expect pumpkin something. Maybe this is the year to head to Costco for the $5 pumpkin pie…
How about serving real whipped cream in a lovely dish (before you regift it) with a silver ladle, next to pie? Our family, with one exception, loathes pumpkin pie. We used to throw it out, year after year, with only one sliver removed.
We never have pumpkin pie. We don’t like it. And, doesn’t it have a bunch of eggs (cholesterol) in it?
Off topic—Wow! I found a really cool website for food management. Check out http://www.thedailyplate.com/. I was looking for the calories in Asian Coleslaw, and that popped up.
No. You can’t have Thanksgiving without high calorie, high fat food. Shame on you, Judi. I’d have thought you’d know better.
@AstroChuck; I have spent more than one Thanksgiving on a diet. This year, I still want to eat A LOT OF FOOD, but mitigate the damage. What do you know you skinny little six year old!~
@AstroChuck; I am sure you are as skinny as you are six!
AARGH,, I had to stop at don’t make stuffing!!
I forgot the stuffing. We make stuffing. We use cornbread stuffing, chicken broth and half the butter/margerine recommended, and add unsalted cashews.
Lurve to Gail for having the gumption to state that pumpkin pie ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. I can’t stand it.
I much prefer roasted squash or punkin slices with just a little salt and just a smidge of cinnamon during roasting. Or pumpkin or squash soup more on the savory than sweet side of the scale.
I first discovered how delicious the roasted sliced version when I was at the takeout section at Whole Foods and realized I could just as easily do my own version of same. The fewer ingredients and the simpler the better, I say.
I also abhor the whole tooth-achingly sweet marshmallow , brown sugar or honey sweet potatoes deal. Call me sacrilegious if you will, but I think sweet pots. with just a bit of soy sauce brings out it’s natural sweetness just fine.
don’t people still use these anymore to whip cream or beat egg whites?
We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in NZ but you seem to have a quite specific and traditional menu….
@Adagio very true, thanksgiving has little variation from house to house on thanksgiving.
@Adagio: Egg beaters are now considered articles to be used at the gym. My grandmothers had massive forearms form using the old-fashioned kitchen utensils, like the grinder that turned beef chunks into hamburger.
@gailcalled that is even more incentive to use an egg beater then, would not you agree?
@Adagio: Good point. One can also replace the crushed ice maker with ice cubes, a plastic bag and a rolling pin. Place cubes in bag, seal and beat to a pulp with rolling pin. (Same method for home-made bread crumbs.) And don’t forget the mallet to tenderize meat. Use gallon milk jugs for biceps and triceps exercises…stretch hamstrings on kitchen stool. Do phantom chair against dining room wall.
If I were actually going to whip cream or beat egg whites by hand, I’d use a balloon whisk and a pinch of cream of tartar.
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