My husband is a diabetic so when he is home I try to make sure suppers are more friendly for him. This means that I don't use as much sugar, I cut down on my carbs and fats. Great for the entire family!!!! The main issue we have come upon is the holiday meals. Thanksgiving and Christmas being the worst culprits of destroying the diet. This year I am putting in motion some "new" versions of some of our favorite things. Since he will not be home on the actual holiday we are having supper a few days late. Also I will be 36 weeks pregnant with our second little boy, so cooking the entire feast just isn't in the cards!
This years menu:
Crock Pot Turkey Breast- Easier to cook, less maintenance, less fat, and best of all we can still go to the town Santa Parade while it's cooking!!!!
Turkey Gravy- This is for me. I love gravy but the boys don't.
Mashed Sweet Potatoes- Yes I have posted these many times :) We love sweet potatoes and they are better to my husbands blood sugar than a traditional potato! To make this even better I will be cutting down the butter a bit!
Green Bean Casserole- No this is not the traditional canned soup and super processed onion recipe but OMG we love love love this recipe and have made it many times!
Cranberry Sauce- I admit this is the over processed and canned stuff... Why? Because well it reminds me of my childhood and denying a very pregnant woman this is not a smart idea :) I will be the only one partaking in this.
Whole Wheat Rolls- I will be getting them from a bakery because I admit me and breads that need to rise do NOT work. I manage to mess them up all the time.
Pumpkin Custard- This one is the biggie for us. We all LOVE Pumpkin Pie but as you know it is chocked full of Carbs, Fat, Calories, and Sugars. This custard has all the flavor with so much less of the bad stuff!!!!!!
This covers the basic meal. No there is not any Stuffing/Dressing. You just really can't make it healthy and it's not needed with the rolls already on the table.
Now recently I read an article about how many calories the average american consumes for Thanksgiving and frankly I was disgusted. 3000-5000 calories! That is the equivalent of my eating for 2-3 days (again I am pregnant here!). So I sat down and calculated my meal totals and then I padded it to account for the extra roll here or scoop of green beans.
Coming to a Grand Total of:
Calories-1500
Fat- 140
Carbs- 90
Protein-100
Is this perfect NO!!!! Next year I aim to drop the Fat and Carbs Down more! But for the first year trying to make this very heavy and traditional meal better I am pleased with how I did. Since our meal is not on the actual holiday we are able to go out and take a nice long walk after our supper to work off everything. We will have "free foods" for later in the night if someone get's hungry (points at self) and a lighter breakfast so that we keep our numbers under 2000 for the day. Making our day 1000 calories under the lower number for the "Average" Thanksgiving supper!
