Everyone was talking about Turkey Day and what we plan to eat so I started this thread to share some ideas. If you are hosting the dinner, you have a lot of control--if you are eating with family, you can carry a few CORE dishes with you so that you can be sure you have plenty of food to fill up on. At my house I plan to have:

Turkey (Core)
Cornbread Dressing (I will use Core cornbread, eggs, ff chicken broth, ff maragine and sage. Even though the dressing will need to be counted it will be core in that there will be no flour in the cornbread.)
Green Beans (flavored with olive oil)
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Fruit Salad

I'm still thinking about the dessert.

In addition to those things, I plan on having deviled eggs and a vegetable tray. For dessert, I was thinking about trying Spryng's pumpkin fluff, the crustless pumpkin pie, or the "almost" cheesecake with SF syrup. I can't wait!!

Hi there,

We always have mashed turnip with our Turkey dinner. CORE!! If you don't like the turnip alone you can layer it with apples or applesauce, add some cinnamon and margarine to it. It is a must. But I also like the butternut squash or pepper squash on its own. If you think you might be tempted to eat something not core make sure to have a fresh veggie plate on the table so you can nibble. I will have stuffing of some sort and count it in my WPA's even if I only have a couple of TBSP for the taste. What about a broccoli salad? You can adapt it to core by using ff mayo .....

broccoli cut up
ff shredded cheese
onion (red or white)
crisp bacon bits (or you can leave this out--not core)
sunflower seeds (or peanuts) (Is this core?)
(if you want variety add cauliflower and double the dressing recipe)

1 c ff mayo
2 tbsp vinegar
sugar or splenda just to sweeten

I am going to make the crustless pumpkin pie. Sounds yummy and who needs the crust anyway??

I am having all my traditional foods- just a lower fat version of everything. I am also offereing more variety this year. I am going to have tons CORE side dishes and starters- but no one will know it is CORE but me.

It will just be DH, myself, our 5 and 4 year old and MIL this year. Pretty easy to handle I think.

I will probably do turkey, dressing (small one), low fat green bean casserole, butternut squash, mashed potatoes (boiled for me). Crustless pumpkin pie for dessert.

Hmm My IL's and husbands Grandma are coming. My FIL was just diagnosed this week with diabetes and needs to lose 40 pounds. I am not sure what the plan is yet. I know I don't want to venture for from Core. That is for sure. Also, I can't have soy or eggs so that limits me even further.

DEVILED EGGS! I love that idea. It's core and everyone loves them. I'm adding that to my menu. Is cranberry sauce Core?

I'm thinking that the canned cranberry sauce isn't, but if you take a bag of frozen cranberries and cook them down yourself, adding Splenda instead of sugar, that would work. Some recipes also add mandarin oranges, etc. I'll bet we can adapt most any recipe to be Core though!

Thanks Bindy. I don't know if I am brave enough to try that. I do prefer the whole berry cranberry sauce though so maybe------

Bindy and Janette, canned cranberry sauce is definitely not Core. Too bad too because I love cranberry sauce. I've had cranberries made with splenda. My niece and I are doing Core and we had a practice run a couple of weeks ago. We thought they were GREAT! We thought they needed more splenda than the recipe called for and would increase it next time. They were a trifle runny but still very yummy! We are definitely having them for Thanksgiving. If you want the recipe, I'll look it up.

I make cranberries from scratch. I use Splenda and I also add some orange sections for color. Tastes great!

Yes! Recipe please!

Janette, here's the fresh cranberry sauce recipe. I didn't add any orange or anything else. I'm kind of a result of the 70's....I like whole cranberry sauce from the can. We never had any relish in my house so I never developed a taste for it!

Cranberry Sauce

2 cups (8 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup Splenda (This was an Equal recipe but we used Splenda)

Combine cranberries and water in medium saucepan. Bring just to boiling; reduce heat. Boil gently, uncovered, over medium heat 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until skins pop. Remove from heat.

Mash sauce slightly. Stir in Splenda. Cover and chill. Makes 6 servings.

85% calorie and carbohydrate reduction from traditional recipe!

I would consider reducing the water and putting the Splenda in during the cooking. I think the Splenda would hold up during boiling. You could just reduce the water a bit. The only other option would be to add maybe 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with some water. If you don't mind them a trifle soupy then don't change the recipe at all. I'm just so darned happy to be able to have cranberry sauce, I can deal with soupy!

We had Turkey, of course-- Core

Mashed potatoes (from scratch, with no butter, just broth and skim milk)-- Core

Wild Rice & brown rice stuffing-- Core

(Since we were also having potatoes, either the potatoes or the rice dish, while Core recipes, had to be counted for Points. We chose the mashed potatoes to count.)

Green beans-- Core

Crustless pumpkin pie with FF Cool Whip-- the pie was Core, but the FF Cool Whip wasn't.

My wife and I split a jar of FF turkey gravy-- not Core, but the whole jar was just 2 Points.

We estimated that we were way under 10 Points each, even taking into account the gravy, the FF Cool Whip, and the potatoes.

So, it was a good day. BUT we both ate too much... we were past the "satisfied" stage and well over into the "full" or even "stuffed". But compared to other Thanksgivings we've had, this was an unqualified triumph!