POLL - Holiday Dinner Substitutes & Menus

Good Saturday PM ya'll!

What do you & your family will be having on your holiday menus? Do you have traditional MUST HAVE'S? When cooking for yourself/your family how do you prepare the classics in healthier ways? What new & different things are you incorporating in your holiday menus?

For Thanksgiving this year our menu is:

A roasting hen, ham, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, yams, gravy, stuffing, rolls (sweet potato & homemade buttermilk - both made with skim or 1% milk) & homemade sugar free pumpkin & apple pies. The veggies are no salt added. We use butter sparingly as well as gravy & limit our portion sizes.

Please share! You may give others wonderful & healthier tips to incorporate!

All best!  

This is the one day of the year that I chow down and don't worry about a thing that I eat.  My pouch is still tiny and works very well.  I still only eat about 6 ounces total and I do not drink when I eat ever.  I can not really consume enough to "hurt" me since I am only doing it one day a year.  Healthy and the way I should do things?  NO.  WIll I change things?  NO.  I am the only one in my family that eats like a WLS person so I am not going to modify things just for me.  The meal I cook for home is much smaller but still much the same way as my families is.  I am almost 5 years post op, have passed my personal and surgeons goals and have been maintaining for years.  Even after having a baby I have lost all that I gained plus some so I figure one day a year is worth it for me to really enjoy!  I will also add that I do not use any artificial sweetners since I am breast feeding and I do use real sugar...just sparingly.  I only have a bite or two of desserts, just enough to satisfy. 

I would say the first 3 years I kept to the basic recipes but I altered ones for me ..
such as .. Smashed Cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes .
I did whole sweet potatoes instead of baked yams with all the brown sugar .

Here are my substitues for the first couple years .


TURKEY - LOW FAT GRAVY .. ON THE SIDE
SMASHED CAULIFLOWER - ( IN PLACE OF MASHED POTATOES ) 
GREEN BEANS - NO FAT ADDED - MRS. DASH USED TO SEASON
SUGAR FREE PUMPKIN AND APPLE PIES
VEGGIE STUFFING - IN PLACE OF FULL BLOWN TURKEY STUFFING
DEVILED EGGS MADE WITH LOW FAT MAYO
SUGAR FREE CRANBERRY RELISH
HALF OF A BAKED SWEET POTOTOE - IN PLACE OF THE YAMS -
( butter substitue used on sweet potatoe ) 

I did not go for any rolls , puddings or other sweet things . I kept to those things that I knew where sugar free .



Now that I am further out , I do the normal things , much like your own .
I just do not eat as much as everyone else .. and totally go for the all the turkey first so I can get fuller fast and not rely on the mashed potatoes and other goodies .

The one thing I will not scrimp on is my home made macaroni and cheese .
I have request for this year round .. and it is very good .. So I do leave room for that . 
I know it was so hard for me the first year . I got through it . Lot's of prayer and will power .

Natalie

I'll be about 2/3 weeks out of surgery on this Thanksgiving...I love mashed potatos, but just in case that's out, how do you make smashed cauliflour?  I don't eat veggies, so I don't even know how to cook cauliflour normal!
thanks
Katie

Katie ,
Here is how I make it .
Get one Big head of Caulfour ..
Boil it until it is fork tender ...

Drain the water off of it .
Put it in a bowl , add about 3 tablespoons of Skim or Low Fat Mlk. I use Low Fat .
Add about a tablespoon of Butter substitute .
Get our your mixer - or put in mixing bowl . Mix until creamy . If it does not get creamy as you would like it , add a little more mil****il desired consistancy .

You can salt or pepper .. or if you want to watch your salt .. Use Mrs. Dash .
I am telling you , it really gives you the feel of mashed potatoes .
Best of luck to you .
Tink

Tink, my question is does it taste like "the real thing"  I am getting ready to try and fake out my family so just wondered since my taste buds are jacked up.  Ever since the surgery everything tastes blah to me or like metal.  Hard to explain

As much as I would love to tell you that it does taste creamy and dreamy like mashed potatoes ...Ughhh NO .. but it is close . Especially if you add the right amount of seasoning . I use Shed Spread for Butter , Salt and Pepper to taste .
It truly got me through . I think it will you too .

And yes .. after surgery things tasted wierd to me .. but your buds do come back .

Here is to good tasting for you ,

Tink

Morning Katie!  When I was first out of surgery and still on my mushy/soft foods, I did not go out of the way to really change menus.  I would just take what ever meat & veggies/fruit that were offered and blend them up to eat.  As for Thanksgiving, we always have mashed potatoe and sweet potatoes, the sweet potatoes being the healthier option I usually chose them.

Thanks Tink!

Even at almost 4 years out, I still eat like a WLS person even at Thanksgiving. I use splenda in the sweet potato bake and use fat sparingly - I do not eat rolls or potatoes - there is so much to eat and so little that I can eat that I just find it easier to fill up with turkey  and veg and throw away leftovers that are bad for me and that I may be tempted to pick at. As for desserts,  I make sugar free ones and just don't tell anyone - after all if I am cooking and they are coming to my house, then they eat what I make.... lol Selfish maybe but they don't notice......

I also think it is only one day of a year so why go crazy?  Of course I am Scottish so I have only celebrated Thanksgiving since I came here - so it is not inbuilt in me and I don't really care if I celebrate it or not.....

I tends to prefer turkey at Christmas.......

Jackie