Here are some ideas for dishes to include in your healthy feast this Thanksgiving:

Main Course:

• Skinless herbed turkey breast
• Pork loin with fig glaze
• Salmon filets with red wine-morel sauce
• Orange roasted duck
• Squash and leek lasagne
• Roasted chicken with lemon
• Mediterranean couscous cabbage rolls
• Acorn squash stuffed with chard and white beans

Side Dishes:

• Romaine and spinach salad with mixed vegetables
• Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and sage
• Maple roasted sweet potatoes
• Cranberry, cherry and walnut marmalade
• Rustic mushroom tart
• Ginger cranberry pilaf
• Cider glazed roots with cinnamon and walnuts
• Low-fat milk creamed onions
• Lemon dill green beans
• Layered mashed potatoes and mushroom casserole
• Roasted acorn squash with cider
• Wild mushroom stuffing

Breads:

• Whole wheat italian herb bread
• Pumpkin bread
• Yam corn bread
• Apple bran muffins
• Cranberry apple oat bread

Desserts:

• Lighter holiday pumpkin pie
• Pear, apple, cranberry tart
• Glazed chocolate-pumpkin bundt cake
• Cranberry upside-down cake
• Maple walnut cake
• Pear crumble
• Riesling baked pears
• Greek yogurt cheesecake with ouzo-poached figs

Drinks:

• Low-fat egg nog
• Pumpkin spiced black tea
• Hot cider
• Spiced turkish coffee
• Red wine
• Low-fat chai tea
• Water

With assistance provided by Colleen Poling

1. Do some homework. Find out what restaurant you are headed to in advance, and then look them up online to find out more about their menu options.  Look for Nutrition Fact information if possible, in order to avoid calorie bombs while enjoying a nice dinner out!
2. Be menu-savvy. Watch out for certain keywords in the descriptions of menu items that could indicate how they are prepared.  Pay attention to: deep-fried/pan-fried, basted, creamy, crispy, au gratin, breaded, and many more.  Choose options that are grilled, steamed, or baked for healthier choices.
3. Order outside of the box. Who says you have to order an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert?  If your healthy choices are limited, there’s no reason why you can’t instead order an appetizer and a side dish to come up with your own balanced meal.  Many appetizers are served as a decent portion size, and you can almost always order a side of steamed vegetables.
4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Unless I’m enjoying a celebratory glass of wine with dinner, I like to stick to water as my drink of choice.  Not only are the other drinks often over-priced, but it’s always better to avoid “liquid calories” where you can.  At the very least, order one glass of your favourite restaurant drink, and then switch to water after that.
5. Share desserts around the table. Yes, you’ve probably heard this one before.  Again, I certainly like to enjoy a splurge every once in a while for my favourite desserts, but if you’re out for a business dinner and don’t want to blow your healthy diet, consider sharing different desserts.  As a bonus, it allows you to try little bites of more than one dessert if you had a hard time making up your mind from the dessert menu!

Assistance provided by Megan Skinner

• Make the simple switches.  Traditional desserts have a lot of extra calories, fat and sugar added to them, but making a few simple substitutions can reduce these by quite a bit.   Try mashed bananas instead of oil, or whole-wheat flour instead of white flour.  Even Greek yogurt or canned pumpkin can be added to most dessert recipes!
• Find a way to include fruit.  Whether it’s apple slices baked with cinnamon atop frozen yogurt, roasted bananas with chopped nuts, or simply strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, fruit can always be part of a great dessert!  Make the focus on the fruit in the dessert, and you’ll end up eating less of the other high-calorie parts.

• Watch your portions. If you’re still stuck on your favorite desserts and refuse to give them up or make any recipe changes, you can still include them in your healthy diet.  The key is just to keep an eye on your portion sizes so that you don’t load up on too many calories at the end of your meal.  You can split restaurant desserts with family or friends, or even take half of it home to enjoy the next day!
• Swap milk chocolate for dark chocolate.  Let’s face it, we all love a nice chocolate dessert every now and again.  Why not make it the kind of chocolate known to have health benefits?  Dark chocolate is known to have antioxidant properties similar to that of red wine, while milk, white and other kinds of chocolate do not share this benefit.  As with all decadent treats, this doesn’t mean you can eat as much as you want – try to keep it in moderation – but if you’re going to eat chocolate, make sure it’s the dark variety!

How do you include desserts as part of your healthy lifestyles?  I’d love to hear your tips – leave me a comment below and fill me in!

Assistance provided by Megan Skinner