THANKSGIVING (and other food-centric family holidays)

Sausage and Sage lo carb stuffing

2 pounds sage flavored sausage
1 pound mushrooms
3 ribs celery
1 chopped onion
1 pound cauliflower
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 eggs

Slice or chop vegetables in a food processor. Be sure the cauliflower is shredded finely.
Brown sausage, celery and mushrooms in a skillet. Drain off grease. In a large bowl,
combine meat mixture, cauliflower, nuts, spices, Parmesan cheese and stir well.
In a small bowl, beat eggs. Add the eggs to the large bowl and mix well.
Transfer the stuffing to a sprayed large casserole dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.

Good for you for being so pro-active and putting everyone's mind at ease too.  It's also nice that your family is supportive.

I will be cooking for everyone so I plan to do the whole works. Bake a turkey and smoke a couple of turkey breasts as well as bake some pies and make some candies. I will also make the usual sides I make most holidays. Just because I can't eat doesn't mean everyone else shouldn't. Most of all, I love to cook so it's worth it to me to see my family enjoy my cooking!

Ceci

My first Thanksgiving post-surgery coming up this year.  LOL my family's favorite traditional side dish is Apple Mallow Yam Yums.  Covered in mini marshmallows and toasted.  We are not making that this year, but will do the traditional turkey, sausage stuffing, green beans, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, and cranberry sauce.  I plan to have a sugar free cranberry sauce, and hope to make a good pumpkin protein ice cream for one dessert.  My family will eat whatever they eat and I will do my best to eat on plan. Luckily most of what we are making is okay for me.

Little scared but my family is very supportive of my journey.

I just try to remember how bad I would feel after eating all of the food I did before surgery. It would always end up with me in the bathroom since my stomach didn't like a lot of foods that I out in there. 

This will be my third Thanksgiving since surgery. I am going to find a walk the morning of and do that. I am not going to eat stuff my stomach can't handle. 

I honestly have not worried about fat since having my RNY. I'm losing just fine without giving up on flavor.

My family has had several large feasts similar to Thanksgiving for various things in the past year (weddings, graduations, Baptisms) I do bring my little food scale with me or borrow my sister-in-laws if we are at her house. Our family has been going to WW for so many decades, this is not considered a strange thing to do and my SIL, mother and one of my other sisters all use the scales.

So, I will weigh out my 2 ounces of turkey meat. I'll put some gravy on it. I'll put two or three roasted Brussel sprouts on my plate, about 5 steamed green beans (I'll pass on the green bean mushroom soup casserole) -- again, several family members on WW program, so there will be both options available. If there is green salad I might have a few bites of that. Pass the potatoes, rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and all sweets (the dump is real for me). No drinking beverages at dinner, but I will also bring a couple of SF Torrani coffee flavoring syrups to share with others and to add to a nice after dinner decaf coffee when the others are eating pies. We do coordinate before hand regarding who is bringing and preparing what. The non-cooks in the family will often bring ingredients and the rest of us prepare them. It's sort of an all day event and the pre-feast meal around noon will normally consist of a vegetable tray with dips, cheese and crackers and maybe something like shrimp or smoked salmon. From that assortment, I'll focus on the proteins if I eat them at all. The biggest difference between what I eat and the WW family members is portion sizes and the carbs. I'm avoiding almost all carbs except what comes in the cheese and veggies and the WW folks seem to have no limits. My portions sizes are also considerably less. I also have no problem with being tempted to cheat as the nausea is a real deterrent when I have tried something with sugar or bread.

I see my NUT next week and am curious to know what she will recommend. Last year I was still on pureed foods at Thanksgiving, so I dined on turkey with gravy that was buzzed in the blender... sort of a turkey soup. Tasted wonderful to me at the time, but glad I can eat chewable foods this year.

This is my second thanksgiving post op. I'm glad I was home last year with just my little family of four- it was too early for me to deal with a large gathering with lots of offerings. I made a typical dinner and just ate protein first and a side or two. I will get seconds of protein- not the sides/ 

I don't make low sugar/carb, reality is for me if it's good- I'd eat it all thinking this is low sugar/fat etc, so I can. I limit to making only one dessert, my sweet potato pie- which I will eat, but 1 slice only, no seconds. 

If someone in my family were to send out a message essentially asking them asking to help them be good- I'd tell them to get over themselves. 

1. I have chosen to either be a no-show or a drive-separately, short attendee to relatives' family feasts no matter how offended or rude anyone may think it is.  2.  within my own immediate family, the meals are centered around meat/vegetables with an attempt to make holidays activity-based instead of food-based (breaking tradition has not stuck well, however).       Let us know how it goes.

My first Christmas, my family was watching me like a hawk.  I had a one inch square of turkey breast and seven kernels of corn.  I had had surgery Oct 16 so was a bit over two months out.

It was a great and filling meal, but I was told I should not have eaten the starch and that corn does not really absorb and I wasted those calories.

On holidays, I enjoy watching everyone eating and just stick to my piece of turkey and a bite of some side dishes.  I am going on ten years now and still maintaining.

Those seven kernels were the only corn I ate until a few years ago when I ate fresh corn on the cob a few times.  It made the scale go up quickly and I quit eating it.