Monthly Archives: November 2015

The Holiday Meal Plate

As you load up your holiday plate with all of the delicious, traditional comfort food delights, your calorie count can easily spill right over the top. Our selection of holiday recipe classics provides a winning combo of great taste, easy portion control. and wholesome food. Here are some great tips to keep in mind as you are cooking away!

Perfect Portion Roasted Turkey Turkey: No need for sticks of butter! Simply watch the meat thermometer and make sure not to exceed 165° F. Baste with pan drippings frequently during cooking. As little as 2T of butter will give you a perfect bird. The perfect portion of turkey is 4 to 6 ounces, at a total of 300 calories. You can eat even more if you choose skinless white meat!
Perfect Portion Turkey Gravy Turkey Gravy: Skim off the turkey grease from the delicious pan juices, cook them down in order to super concentrate them, and then stir in a little creamy Greek yogurt for a smooth finish. Guilt-free gravy? Absolutely!
PerfectPortion_MashedPotatoes_03 Mashed Potatoes: Use Yukon Golds! This variety has a natural creamy and buttery texture, so you can add less butter of your own. Plus, keep the “skin (peel?) in the game” to add more fiber and keep you feeling fuller!
Perfect Portion Cranberry Sauce Cranberry Sauce: Make it fresh! It is so easy to make, and allows you to know exactly what’s going in! Orange juice and zest add great flavor.

Using these recipes, you will keep your plate count in the 100s rather the 1000s. You’ll be eating healthier as well . . . and you’ll hardly notice the difference! 🙂

TIP: Want some stuffing and mashed potatoes? Simply have just 1/3 cup for 100 calories, and have a 100 calorie portion of stuffing to get in all the tastes of the holidays! Don’t forget to add in some cooked veggies too to get you fuller faster, or start with a salad!
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Roasted Turkey

Roasted Turkey
 
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Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without a turkey, but as I’m sure you know, roasting them can be daunting. Many recipes spell success by loading on the butter, covering the turkey with an entire stick, or two! We use only 2 tablespoons of butter, and to make sure the bird is crispy, we baste the pan drippings onto the skin during cooking. If you have an eye on the clock and a meat thermometer, you don’t need a ton of butter to keep a turkey moist. The real secret is to simply not overcook it!
Recipe type: Holiday Favorites
Makes: 12 Dinner Portions
Ingredients
  • 1 (12-pound) young turkey, thawed
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¾ teaspoon pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon paprika
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place a rack into a roasting pan.
  2. Remove the neck and giblets from the turkey cavity (if included), and discard (or save) to add flavor to the Turkey Gravy (on the next page). Rinse the turkey inside and out with cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Transfer to the roasting pan.
  3. Place the butter, lemon juice, sage, thyme, salt, pepper, and paprika in a food processor or blender, and pulse only a few times, just until combined.
  4. Use your hands to rub the butter mixture over the entire surface of the bird.
  5. Bake for 2 ½–3 hours, basting every 45 minutes with juices from the roasting pan. Turkey is done when a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 165°F.
  6. Transfer to a carving board, and let rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing.
Perfect Portion Turkey 100 Calorie Count
Serving size: 3-100 calorie portions of the meat of your choice Calories: 300

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Home-Style Mashed Potatoes

Home-Style Mashed Potatoes
 
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Some would say that you can’t have a holiday meal without perfect mashed potatoes! Yukon Golds are our preferred potato for mashing because of their natural creamy, buttery texture. And since half of their fiber is in the skin, we leave the skins on for our mash, giving you the maximum nutrients at a fraction of the work. What could be better than that?
Recipe type: Holiday Favorites
Makes: 8 side dish portions
Ingredients
  • 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ¼ cup butter
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chives
Directions
  1. Chop potatoes (with skin, unless undesired) into 1-inch pieces, and add to a large pot.
  2. Add 1 teaspoon of the salt to the pot, and fill with enough water to cover potatoes.
  3. Place over high heat, and bring to a boil. Cover, and cook for 15–18 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender. Drain well, and return the potatoes to the pot.
  4. Add sour cream, butter, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt to the potatoes, and mash with a potato masher, just until mostly smooth.
  5. If potatoes have cooled, place the pot over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, just until hot. Stir in chopped chives before serving.
Serving size: ⅔ cup Calories: 200
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Real Cranberry Sauce

Real Cranberry Sauce
 
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Making homemade cranberry sauce from fresh berries is just about the easiest dish you can prepare for the holidays and a far better choice than grabbing a can of jellied high-fructose “sauce.” Not only does the real deal taste better, but the healthy fiber in the berries is still intact. The natural pectin in the cranberries thickens the sauce like gelatin, so for a thicker consistency, refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Recipe type: Holiday Favorites
Makes: 9 side dish portions
Ingredients
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange zest, divided
Directions
  1. In a medium-size sauce pot over medium-high heat, bring orange juice and sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.
  2. Add cranberries and 1 tablespoon of the orange zest to the pot. Bring to a simmer, and reduce heat to medium.
  3. Let simmer for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have split and begin to cook into the sauce. For a smoother sauce, use a heavy spoon or potato masher to lightly mash most of the softened berries into the sauce.
  4. Remove from heat, and let cool at least 10 minutes, to thicken. Serve warm or chilled, garnished with the remaining orange zest.
100 Calorie Portion
Serving size: ½ cup Calories: 100
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Turkey Gravy

Turkey Gravy
 
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Let’s face it, gravy is about as high in calories as it gets, but we’ve been able to significantly lower them and keep the same rich, savory taste. We skim the turkey grease off the very flavorful pan juices, reduce the juices to super concentrate them, and then stir in a little creamy Greek yogurt for a silky smooth finish. Guilt-free gravy? We think we’ve done it!
Recipe type: Holiday Favorites
Makes: 8 portions
Ingredients
  • Roasting pan juices from a cooked turkey (about 1 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
  • ½ teaspoon light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 cup (or more, if needed) chicken broth, divided
  • 3 ounces plain nonfat Greek yogurt
  • Salt and pepper
Directions
  1. Scrape any browned bits from the bottom of your turkey roasting pan.
  2. Pour all of the cooking liquid and browned turkey bits from the roasting pan into
  3. a tempered glass measuring cup (or other narrow container). This should be at least 1 cup of liquid. If less, add additional chicken stock in step 6.
  4. Place the measuring cup into the freezer, and chill for 15 minutes. (This will allow the fat to separate from the liquid and begin to harden.)
  5. Use a spoon to skim all of the fat that has floated to the top of the measuring cup; discard.
  6. Add the skimmed cooking liquid, chopped sage, brown sugar, and ¾ cup of the chicken broth to a sauce pot over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil. Boil until liquid has reduced by about ⅓.
  7. Whisk the cornstarch into the remaining ¼ cup chicken broth, and then
  8. whisk into the pot. Bring back up to a boil, and let simmer, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, or until thickened.
  9. Remove from heat, and stir in the Greek yogurt to thicken further before seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
Perfect Portion Gravy 100 Calorie count
Serving size: ½ cup Calories: 100
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