A healthy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is turkey day and that means by day's end, you could easily consume over 3000 calories.  Of course you want to enjoy all of the dishes and treats that come with a festive holiday BUT if you follow some simple guidelines you can enjoy the food fest without losing control.  Remember that one high fat, high calorie meal can indeed challenge even a healthy heart.

• Start by using smaller dinner plates so they will look full with less food.
• Don't squandor your calories on high calorie or creamy beverages since they don't tend to fill you up
• Do start with a tossed salad or broth soup with vegetables so you begin to fill up on fiber before the meal
• Add pureed vegetables to souffles, casseroles
• Substitute evaporated skim milk or plain soy milk for cream in recipes
• Substitute apple butter or pureed fruit (this is when you can use over-ripe fruit) in muffin, cake recipes to reduce your use of butter, oil
• Make gravy ahead of time and place it in the refrigerator overnight so the fat rises - you can skim off the fat, re-heat gravy for dinner
• Consider making baked apples for dessert (fill the cored center with a bit of cider, cinnamon and raisins) or skewer fresh fruit and drizzle with dark chocolate sauce
• Push away from the table between courses and especially before dessert
• Remember that filling your guests up so they have to open their belts is not the point of the holiday - enjoying family while you enjoy measured amounts of delicious food is a much healthier approach!!
• Pack up leftover desserts and high calorie dishes and send them off with family so that you are not tempted to nibble on them for
• Use leftover turkey for delicious whole grain wraps, a healthy turkey chili, add it to soup, add it to a vegetable salad or even use it in a healthy sitr fry.