Side item recipes/ideas for Thanksgiving Dinner

[CalyCoRose]

Okies ... Clementine, Clyde, and I are going to be going to Clyde's parents house for Thanksgiving.

Clem (BIL the younger) and his wife Casey are going to be there too. Casey has "requested" that anything we bring be "healthy". (I rolled my eyes so hard at that, eyes almost fell out of my head ).

So! I need ideas/recipes for side items that I can bring.

Casey is bringing a sweet potato casserole and biscuits. (2 starches - and that's healthy?!? Oi).

I was thinking of bringing a green bean casserole (with no salt green beans, lower sodium cream of mushroom soup, and mozzarella [one of the lower calorie cheeses] on top of said casserole).

My brain is too tired to think of anything else.

[Food Lady]

Do green beans, but get fresh, whole ones and roast them in olive oil. You cnd do it in the crockpot on high for 1 hour or in the oven/toaster oven at 350 for 15 to 20 mins, just until they begin to get tender. You can add raw walnut halves to the pan the last 5 to 7 mins. Another topping is crispy shallot slices (slice and fry in oil ahead of time til crispy and keep in covered container). If you want, before serving, dot with garlic butter (no garlicif you're using walnuts).

[Food Lady]

Also, you can roast carrots and peeled, cubed sweet potatoes like that, too; just watch carefully.

[CalyCoRose]

Thanks for the suggestions Food Lady!

I also found a macaroni and cheese recipe that I'm going to try out before Thanksgiving. I got when typing in "Eat That Not This Diet Recipes" and got a whole bunch of main dishes and side items. My MIL usually does the mac & cheese, but the only ones who eat it are her sons.

[protege]

Other than my late grandmother's dried corn...there's not much on my family's holiday list that could be considered "healthy" Seriously though, I forget who makes the dried corn...even though it's been a family tradition for nearly 40 years

[MaggieTheCat]

My homemade applesauce is pretty healthy. It works best if you have a big crockpot to make it in, since you can make a huge batch and don't really have to worry about the juice boiling off and the apples burning.

Peel and chop as many apples as will fit in your crock pot. Mine is a 4 quart (I think) and will hold about 15-20 apples. I like to use a variety of apples to get the best flavor. Add about 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid; could be water, or apple juice/cider, or cranberry juice, or any other kind of juice you think would go well with apples. You don't need too much liquid since the apples will produce a lot of juice as they cook. Throw the lid on and cook on high for about 2-3 hours, until the apples start falling apart. Mash with a potato masher, or put into a blender if you want a really fine texture. Season with cinnamon and add sugar to taste. Depending on what kinds of apples you use, you may not even need sugar, especially if you don't like applesauce overly sweet. I do like sweetened applesauce, but even I only add about 1/2 cup sugar total to the whole batch (and if you make as much as I do, it will easily feed 12+ people, or less people for multiple servings.)

If you don't have a crock pot, you can also do this in a big pot on the stove, but like I said, the liquid will boil off so you'll have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. You might have to add more liquid as it boils down. In a crock pot, you can toss it together and forget about it for a while.

[NorthernZel]

Though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here, my son's preschool used to have a lunch programme where pumpkin hummus was used instead of bean-dip - that could be a healthy AND seasonal alternative to normal snack dip! Of course, regular chickpea hummus will do as well. It also works as a yummy spread to put on bread.

[Jester]

I have a quick and easy (and pretty much healthy) recipe for tropical cranberry sauce, if you want it. Oh, and did I forget to mention that it's delicious, too?

[CalyCoRose]

Sure Jester! Do you want to PM me the recipe?

I'm going to be trying my hand at the home made apple sauce tomorrow. I've never made apple sauce so I'm going to try it out before hand so I know what I'm doing.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here, my son's preschool used to have a lunch programme where pumpkin hummus was used instead of bean-dip -

Pumpkin hummus? Does Lupo know about this?

[FormerCallingCardRep]

I have a recipe for Banana Split Pie that is diabetic. I make it for my Mom each year

[MaggieTheCat]

I'm going to be trying my hand at the home made apple sauce tomorrow. I've never made apple sauce so I'm going to try it out before hand so I know what I'm doing.

Let me know how it turns out and if you have any questions about it!

[Barracuda]

I would suggest mushrooms stuffed with crab or bacon bits. Recipes can be found online, most of them involve--Half the stems of the mushroom, chopped up fine with minced onion, sauteed in garlic, butter, and the crab meat (although I do use bacon,) then mixed with cream cheese, stirred until the mixture melts together, and then baked. Specific times and temperatures would be found in a recipe. However, it is easy to make and a great side dish, I have made it for Thanksgiving before.

[CalyCoRose]

Thanks everybody!

I might be jumping the gun right now. Clementine has a fever of 103 and is definitely Not Feeling Good. I'm not sure if we're going to be going down to the MIL's house as I don't want to make her worse & I don't want to infect anyone else. (As of right now, all she has is a fever, no other symptoms so I'm not sure what is going on. )

[MaggieTheCat]

Poor girl! I hope she feels better.

A note about the applesauce is that it will be good for weeks. If you make a batch early this week, you can either bring it with you if you go, or if you don't, just keep it in the fridge and your family can eat it over the next few weeks.