re: Tips for a Healthy Thanksgiving Dinner

Almond — 11/27/2019 1:56:34 PM

Our Thanksgiving dinner will be part healthy and part pure indulgence. Much is homegrown or wild, but more store bought ingredients than usual. If you eat healthy the other days of the year, a single holiday meal will not hurt you. More important to fill your heart with gratitude.

If you serve especially unhealthy foods, only make enough for the one meal, not lots of leftovers.

Our menu is a very special turkey (unstuffed), yellow sunshine gravy made with wild mushrooms (dairy-free and actually vegetarian because it is so good that way), wild rice with shallots and (more) wild mushrooms, 5 kinds of thawed/drained mixed berries and cherries tossed together, Southern spoonbread made with homegrown cornmeal and spread with honey butter, olives and crock pickles, a pecan pie made with organic corn syrup, homemade wine or hard cider. So the super-unhealthy part is the pie.

We skip the stuffing and feel wild rice is adequate. Esp. with spoonbread as 2 "starches". Hubby did not want a vegetable, so he got his way this time. (OK, he gets homegrown squash, anyway.)

Moderation in moderation. A single holiday meal is a time to indulge.

Remember to save the carcass of the bird to make soup.

Skim off fat from pan drippings and freeze it as schmaltz to use throughout the winter months. (It will congeal on top of drippings after cooling. A bit of the juices that cling to it will do no harm, but most of the juices can be separated and used in other purposes.) Add 1/2-1 teaspoonful to a small soup recipe, instead of more butter, as a base, imparts a wonderful rich flavor. It is also wonderful for stir-frying shredded cabbage. Use only a tiny bit. You can only save schmaltz if you have an organic bird as toxins concentrate in fats.