{"id":9598,"date":"2009-11-30T17:49:57","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T21:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=9598"},"modified":"2009-11-30T17:49:57","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T21:49:57","slug":"what-i-learned-this-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2009\/11\/what-i-learned-this-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"What I learned this Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThanksgivingThis Thanksgiving was a bit different for our household this year.\u00a0 We’ve been eating clean for over a year now and have been reaping the benefits.\u00a0 Our eating habits aren’t even close to being the same as they were last year at this time.\u00a0 We eat way more produce and a lot less meat than we did a year ago.\u00a0 I’m a lot more consciousness about ingredients and what exactly goes into a dish.\u00a0 I’m also a lot more aware of where my food comes from and what I choose to put on my table.<\/p>\n

This year my focus was on making all of our favorite things yet keeping things healthy at the same time.\u00a0 Is it possible to live through the holidays eating fabulous food that not only feel like indulgences but are also healthy for you?\u00a0 I was going to try and find out.<\/p>\n

What I learned this Thanksgiving was that you have to pick and choose your battles in terms of the recipes and how you approach cooking the different components of the meal.\u00a0 I am not a vegan nor am I a vegetarian, however I don’t think that every dish needs a ton of butter, dairy, or eggs in order for it to be tasty or complete.\u00a0 Sure it’s the holidays so a bit of leniency here and there is fine but that said, just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean I need to start channeling Paula Deen by putting butter and bacon in everything.<\/p>\n

I also learned that because butter tastes good, that means I don’t need quite as much of it as previously thought.\u00a0 A TBSP or less provides enough richness and decadence, there is no reason to use a whole stick of butter.<\/p>\n

What I ended up doing was decreasing the amount of butter in a lot of dishes or sometimes I didn’t use it at all.\u00a0 Same for milk and eggs.\u00a0 I had a game plan and stuck to it.\u00a0 I wrote out what our menu was going to be and then I thought about the ingredients for those things.\u00a0 Where can I use less butter or none at all?\u00a0 Where can I use soymilk instead?\u00a0 Where can I use egg whites instead of whole eggs and where can I lose the eggs all together?<\/p>\n

Our Thanksgiving Dinner for 2009 was as follows:<\/em><\/p>\n

5lb Turkey breast<\/strong> (Organic, no hormones or meds, free range, Ohio Turkey (support local, buy local!))<\/p>\n

I used a turkey breast this year because we don’t eat nearly as much meat as we used to, most especially me.\u00a0 Cooking a whole turkey would be very wasteful and doesn’t really make sense for our lifestyle anymore.\u00a0 Previous years I would take a whole stick of butter and mix that with seasonings and fresh herbs to rub under the skin.\u00a0 That’s a lot of butter!\u00a0 Granted we had a much smaller amount this year (5lb breast instead of a 11 lb whole turkey), but I only used 1.5 TBSP of butter to rub under the skin and it was more than plenty.<\/p>\n

Homemade Greenbean casserole<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I say homemade I mean I made my own mushroom cream sauce.\u00a0 Campbell’s does not live at this house.\u00a0 My cream sauce only had a small amount of butter in it, about 1\/2 a TBSP, the rest of the fat for the roux came from olive oil.\u00a0 I did use unbleached flour for the roux and I used plain soymilk with beef stock to help make things creamy and rich.\u00a0 This is probably the dish I’m most proud of because it was so damn good. :D<\/p>\n

Sweet potato casserole<\/strong><\/p>\n

Used two bananas for sweetness and just a touch of maple syrup, and that’s it.\u00a0 In the past I made this dish with half and half, eggs, brown sugar, and flour, all mixed together.\u00a0 I realized that none of that stuff was needed in order to make a great sweet potato casserole.<\/p>\n

Stuffing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Was made with bread cubes from Whole Foods, no butter just olive oil, and organic chicken stock.\u00a0 In the past I would have used butter instead of oil for sauteeing the veggies and also added in an egg before baking as a binder for the stuffing.\u00a0 I realized this year that there is no need for an egg at all.\u00a0 If the stuffing is moist enough it will stay together on its own.<\/p>\n

Mashed potatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did use milk and butter in the potatoes, this was part of picking and choosing my battles.\u00a0 We don’t eat mashed potatoes often but it is something we have more than any of the other dishes.\u00a0 When I make it on occasion I don’t use butter and use soymilk for the liquid, so I thought I could splurge a little here and use milk and butter.\u00a0 However, I didn’t use much butter–about a TBSP–and the milk was 2% organic milk.<\/p>\n

Gravy<\/strong><\/p>\n

I used olive oil and whole wheat pastry flour for the roux.\u00a0 Yeah the WW<\/abbr> flour does make the gravy a bit grainy in texture but the taste is still awesome.<\/p>\n

Cranberry sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n

Made with cranberries, cider, and organic cane sugar.\u00a0 Delish!<\/p>\n

Dinner Rolls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott loves those dinner rolls that you buy at the store and finish cooking at home.\u00a0 You know what I’m talking about right?\u00a0 He always requests those for Thanksgiving, it’s the one thing his family always had that he enjoyed a lot.\u00a0 I always got them for him because I want him to have things that he enjoys.\u00a0 This year was different though because we did not have those rolls.\u00a0 I almost bought them.\u00a0 Almost.\u00a0 Then I thought to myself, “Okay, what exactly do they have to do to those rolls to keep them shelf stable for so long since they are half cooked?”\u00a0 I couldn’t think of anything positive for an answer.\u00a0 I explained to Scott that I could not in good conscience purchase and serve those rolls.\u00a0 I said that I would make him rolls instead and he was totally fine with that.\u00a0 Whew!\u00a0 I made whole wheat dinner rolls with soymilk instead of regular milk and got rid of the butter in the recipe.\u00a0 I did a light egg wash on the outside for color as they baked and these turned out to be great rolls!\u00a0 I loved them and Scott loved them, so I was a very happy lady.<\/p>\n

Pumpkin pie<\/strong><\/p>\n

The crust was vegan made with a mix of whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached all-purpose flour, ice water, and olive oil.\u00a0 The filling I used egg whites and soymilk but the egg whites could easily be subbed with flax + water for a binding agent instead.<\/p>\n

I’m extremely happy with the way our Thanksgiving turned out this year.\u00a0 I feel like our entire meal was a nice holiday treat.\u00a0 We didn’t have to compromise taste to get a healthier dish and I felt really good about everything I put on the table.\u00a0 Of course I’m already planning for next year!\u00a0 Always in the planning stage! :D<\/p>\n

But don’t just take it from me!\u00a0 Here’s what Scott had to say about our meal this year:<\/p>\n

As readers of OHC may have noticed, over the last year our healthy
\neating practices have coalesced into what we have now. \u00a0The changes
\nhave been gradual, but quite different from years past, and are
\ngenerally characterized by:<\/p>\n