Vegetarian Thanksgiving - Healthy Foods To Eat During The Holidays

For those of us who do not eat poultry for whatever reasons or just prefer to NOT eat meat, Thanksgiving can be sketchy. I mean this is a holiday which revolves around Turkey! Although there are turkey molds where you can make tofu shaped turkey, I personally suggest you try something with more texture and firmness.

Tofu is one item but you want to use some mashed beans, lentils, chopped nuts, chopped veggies to form the turkey body and in the center you would push a ball of stuffing so that when you do remove the mold and cut into the turkey, it has stuffing in the center just like a real turkey but no bones or skin to deal with, much healthier and lighter. This firmer turkey version goes extremely well with candied yams, cranberry sauce, jello and marshmallow salad, green salad, and green beans.

You won't get any gravy from this turkey but what is even better? Miso mushroom gravy with Portobello and button mushrooms. To thicken the gravy you would use pureed tofu. Top with chopped fresh parsley and your gravy is ready, with the best zing you have ever tasted in gravy.

Candied yams are a popular side dish for thanksgiving but if you are not careful this dish can be very sugary and fattening. Try to work with the yams' natural sugars, add a tiny bit of apple cider which will enhance the caramelization and bake. I like to add garlic gloves whole, for a bite to the yams, then the garlic cloves pick up the sweetness of the yams and also being caramelized, are wonderful spread over rye bread.

Another sweet dish I remember my aunt including in her Thanksgiving meal was jello with marshmallows. Being a true Canadian born lady she expose me from an Italian/Portuguese household who had not eaten this other than at my aunts on this holiday, to this dish. She used unsweetened jello and a small amount of mini marshmallows so they would be a treat to find but not enough to rack up the sugar grams. Of course my family never did vegetarian cuisine, I was the odd man out and would still probably be so at their tables but they are better aware and used to this way of eating.

The great thing is we can still eat pumpkin pie and only need to look at our favorite recipe and see how we can adjust the ingredients to make the pie lower in sugars and fats yet still keep all the wonderful flavor. Things like replacing butter with apple sauce or flax seed oil is one sneaky trick which works. You can also cut sugar with sweetener or molasses which is incredibly healthy compared to sugars. The dough can be used for the cap only and for the bottom use graham, oats and ground up ancient grain type cereals. The crunch is to die for yet so much more healthy nutrients in the crust this way. Be creative this winter and try going meatless!

By Linda Cusmano