Thanksgiving dinner is a great time to enjoy good food and family. AIM in most families there are family members who have dietary needs such as diabetics. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for a diabetic doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice taste. There are simple ways to make food healthier for the diabetic who loves to cook.
* Don’t miss out on the great Thanksgiving recipes for diabetics at the end!
Tips for Cooking Diabetic Recipes for Thanksgiving
– Avoid sugar
This may sound like common sense, but sugar can get into cooking faster than you might think.
High-sugar foods often served on Thanksgiving include:
Candied yam
Sweet potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Desserts, cookies, cakes and pies.
Small chocolates and candies scattered around the house.
Alcohol
Offer Smart Sugary Desserts
Consider offering low-sugar dessert options like:
Apple pie with no added sugar and no added sugar ice cream
A fruit bowl with low sugar cold smoothie, berries, apples and melons are low sugar fruits
Or consider cooking your favorite desserts with sugar substitutes like Splenda ™.
Stay away from carbohydrates
Carbohydrates (carbohydrates) are converted to sugars and processed as such in the body. This means that your body must process chocolate and bread using insulin in much the same way. For a diabetic diet, this means that carbohydrates are almost as bad as foods that are obviously sugar-based, such as desserts and sweets.
The carbohydrates to avoid on Thanksgiving are usually foods like:
Breads and buns
Potatoes
Rice
Filling
Foods for diabetics to fill their plate
Protein, vegetables, and low-fat foods are best for diabetics. This includes turkey!
Green beans, corn, carrots, broccoli, and other vegetables.
Salad
Serve bad foods in moderation
On vacation, it is easy to deviate from your normal diet. Many people splurge on parties or indulge in treats and foods that they normally avoid.
Living a healthy life as a diabetic means that your dietary choices must be manageable for you. Making things too strict can lead a diabetic to abandon the diabetic diet altogether.
On holidays, eat SOME of the foods that you like but normally avoid. This can mean a small piece of cake or a muffin or some mashed potatoes and gravy.
The important thing to remember is MODERATION. Take a little but don’t overdo it.
Tips for keeping diabetics healthy on Thanksgiving
-Have the diabetic at his Thanksgiving dinner monitor his blood sugar throughout the day.
-Offer to make the plate the plate for your diabetic guests and the portions of the plate according to the tips above: lots of protein and vegetables, little amount of sugars and carbohydrates.
-Consider serving food that meets the above recommendations. While these tips are specific to diabetics, these food choices are healthier for everyone.
-Most everyone enjoys time with their family and friends!
Here’s a great stuffing and turkey recipe for diabetics:
Roast Turkey with Wild Rice, Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Filling:
1 cup of wild rice
3 cups of water
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cooking apple, such as Golden Delicious, Gravenstein, or Rome, peeled, cored, and chopped
2 celery ribs with leaves, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
A pinch of ground mace or nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound fresh Italian-style turkey sausage, casing removed
1/2 cup of toasted walnut chunks (see note)
1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
Turkey:
1 (8 to 10 pounds) turkey, fresh or thawed
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the filling: Combine wild rice, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until rice is tender and just about to burst, about 30 minutes. (Times may vary depending on the brand of rice used). Drain and reserve. Set one oven rack to the lowest setting and remove other racks. Preheat to 325 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, apple, celery, garlic, thyme, mace, the remaining teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage, splitting it with a wooden spoon and cook until it loses most of its pink color, but not so much that it is dry, about 5 more minutes. Add the cooked wild rice, walnuts, and parsley to the vegetable mixture. (This can be done the day before).
For the turkey: Remove the turkey parts from the breast and neck cavities and reserve for other uses, if desired. Dry the bird thoroughly with paper towels, inside and out. Melt the butter together with the poultry seasoning. Salt and pepper inside the cavity of the bird. Loosely add stuffing to cavity and place bird on wire rack in roasting pan, breast side up, generously brushing with seasoned butter, then season with salt and pepper. Cover the top of the bird with aluminum foil.
Roast the turkey for about 2 hours undisturbed. Remove and discard the aluminum foil. Drizzle with the remaining butter. Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F and continue roasting until an instant read thermometer registers 165 degrees F when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, about 20 to 25 more minutes. Remove the turkey from the oven and cover with aluminum foil for 15 minutes before carving.
Note: To toast walnuts, spread out on a baking sheet and toast in a preheated 350 degree F oven until golden brown, about 7 minutes.
Nutritional information
Calories 407
Saturated fat 5 grams
Carbohydrates 22 grams
Fiber 3 grams
Protein 42 grams
Unsaturated fat 12 grams
Nicole Anderson offers excellent information on diabetic diets and diabetic recipes at [http://www.diabetic-food-recipes.com]. Cooking to maintain the health of a diabetic does not mean that you have to sacrifice taste. Cook smart and eat tasty food!