Newbie here and what to do about Thnksgiving

(Pam Fraser) #1

I changed my lifestyle to Keto just under one month ago and I’ve lost over 10lbs. I’m quite happy about the change I’m seeing. I do have family Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of weeks and my usual menu would have been turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnip with brown sugar, peas with almonds, gravy and apple crisp. My family will expect the same meal but I’ll need some alternatives. Does anyone have any suggestions? I don’t want to revert to carbs for this meal as I still have 30 lbs to go…and then maintenance

(Crippie) #2

The dudes did a great thanksgiving episode where Carl shared his entire Keto thanksgiving menu, recipes and all.

Here’s a link to it if you are interested:

I am not sure on my plan yet. usually big family get together with the only keto item being the turkey.

May need to bring a couple dishes and have the turkey and then the couple I bring.

(David Cumming) #3

I don’t think your diet should completely control your life - I think your diet should enhance your life - if you want to eat normal food for one meal, why not - I personally refuse to be that guy who only eats certain things in social situations - most of the weight you gain after a cheat meal is water weight anyways - if you are really concerned, just do a 24 hour fast after the thanksgiving meal to reset

(Michelle) #4

You can turn a ton of turkey day stuff into keto. I am going to find (and make) Carrie Brown’s stuffing recipe. I heard it’s better than the regular stuff (I think made with pork rinds). You can make mashed potatoes out of riced cauliflower, sour cream and cheese, and add bacon. yummmm. You can make a lot of stuff keto for yourself (or others) and still have a great holiday.

#5

My stuffing is usually onion celery mushrooms garlic and possibly a can of oysters

#6

I remember years and years of eating all the normal Thanksgiving food and then following with all the pies. I also remember how sleepy and overly stuffed and downright miserable I felt. I had my first keto Thanksgiving last year along with lots of keto treats. I didn’t feel deprived and after the meal I actually felt good and energetic. Eating this way does enhance my life. There were plenty of carbs on the table for whoever wanted then so no one was negatively impacted in any way by me staying keto.

(Crippie) #7

My wife and I were thinking the same thing. I mean the odd slip up happens, figured it would be maybe 2-4 times a year.

But I did have a slip up at a friends VERY fancy wedding, talking $200 a plate food. And I was not passing that up, keto or not. It was my first true “cheat” and afterwards I didn’t think it was worth it. I felt horrible that night and the days to follow, carb cravings came, I bloated up, gained weight, and took me a couple weeks to get back to where I felt before. So yea in the end not worth it.

BUT at the same time it was a good eye opener and reminder of how crappy carbs make me feel, and what they do to me. So might be a good reminder every 6 months or so. And hey, I normally feel like crap after thanksgiving anyway haha!

I am really not going to worry about it until the time comes and even then I am just going to go with whatever comes out of the situation, I totally agree with @David_Cumming’s statement below.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #8

My holiday meal plans are to have one thing that says “This is the holiday” at each holiday meal. The rest will be keto friendly.

I do like homemade cranberry & orange sauce with roasted chicken/turkey, so will make that as my Thanksgiving non keto holiday treat item.

Keto cheesecake, faux mashed potatoes, green beans with slivered almonds sauteed in butter, a big green leafy salad w/keto dressing, along with the protein and cranberriy sauce should do me just fine.

BTW, turnips make a great potato replacement, mash them up and season with heavy cream and butter, yumyum.

Have a good time sorting out what will work for you, ditchthecarbs.com is a good place to start looking for recipes, lots of other blogs with recipes are mentioned there as well.

(Alan Williamson) #9

I cook a brisket. It tastes so much better than a turkey.

(Khara) #10

Your post made me look up Carrie Brown. I never was a huge stuffing fan but some family is so it’d be fun to make a dish that they’d enjoy. I wasn’t able to find Carrie’s recipe. Looks like I’ll need to buy her book which is fine. The table of contents actually lists two versions, both of which sound good.

(Mike) #11

I plan to eat the meal my family eats at thanksgiving… Of course, since I host it here, I can make sure there is plenty of keto friendly options to fill up on and then I’ll go easy on the higher carb items. The only issue is the dressing… I certainly will NOT make 20 net grams that day but I also won’t be eating the 300+ I used to.

(Val Bundy) #12

OH man…I wish I was coming to your place! I’m not the biggest turkey fan…

(Mike W.) #13

We’re doing Brussels au gratin for our side. I’ve done the “cheat” thing and it’s just not worth it to me. Gonna load on lots of dark meat and real gravy!

(Ross) #14

Here’s what I do:

I brine the bird. There is sugar in the brine, but hey, it’s Thanksgiving.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Chronicle-Classic-Best-Way-Brined-Turkey-2466350.php

I cook the turkey breast side down in a 500 F (260 C) oven. This keeps all the good juice and fat in the bird.
I put the bird on a bed of mixed seasonal veggies like onions, carrots, celery and lots of garlic and maybe a cut up apple and enough water so the drippings won’t burn. I add some white wine when i deglaze. Bird cooks very fast with this method and requires no basting at all.

I stuff the bird with a southwestern cornbread stuffing with peppers and hot pork sausage made with southern style unsweetened cornbread using non-gmo blue corn cornmeal. Red cornmeal would work very well also. I tested myself and I reacted to standard yellow cornmeal but not at all to the blue cornmeal stuffing. Blue corn is pretty much the same as it was 100 or 200 years ago. Pretty safe. Non-gmo corn was added to the updated Banting lists after much testing so… If you don’t want to use the cornmeal for whatever reason, then flaxseed meal works too for flax seed cornbread. Just toast it and dry it out good because it tends to be more mushy.

http://www.thejoykitchen.com/recipe/southern-corn-bread-or-without-ramps

Sides:


sprouts fried in garlic & butter and olive oil with Parmesan. Hard to go wrong there. I eat the garlic too.


These will knock your socks off.

Then we also have cranberry chutney.

Pie:


I add a little maple syrup too. Works either way.

(Pam Fraser) #15

Thanks for the tips. I appreciate it

(Pam Fraser) #16

Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out

(Pam Fraser) #17

Thanks for the tip on the cauliflour ‘potatoes’ and the stuffing. Looks like this meal is shaping up

(Sheri Knauer) #18

Last Thanksgiving my entire meal was keto. It can be done. The dudes have some great recipes. Also check out cookbooks by Carrie Brown and Maria Emmerich. They both have really good recipes. If you can make it keto, then why not? Stick with recipes from those I mentioned and you won’t feel like your missing out on anything and you won’t feel crappy from eating a lot of carbs you weaned yourself off of.

(Keto in Katy) #19

I agree, and likewise I won’t have “tradition” or the expectations of others dictate how I eat. I have never liked turkey anyway so that makes it easier.

I feel great when I stay keto and that enhances my life, so I do it at all times.

(Lauren) #20

If it was just my household, the meal would be completely keto, but there are 6 others (13 total). Each household brings 1-2 dishes.

I do the turkey. It’s been my job for the last several years since everyone else dries theirs out. There’s some secret stuff done to the bird, then I inject it all over with melted butter. I peel back the fat and skin and give the bird corpse a butter/herb massage, then I put the skin/fat back back in place and rub more butter/herbs. I stuff the cavity with onions, carrots, and celery, and I make a bed in the roaster of the same veggies. Finally, I wrap the whole thing in bacon and toss it in the oven.

I’ll also be bringing my broccoli casserole or a squash/zucchini casserole. Still working on perfecting that last one.

With these things, plus a keto dessert, I’ll have plenty to eat.