Eating healthy shouldn’t mean missing out on Thanksgiving. Your Thanksgiving menu can be healthy without sacrificing amazing fall flavor. Whether it's a roast turkey, a protein-packed side dish or a heart-healthy dessert, these recipes take classic holiday dishes and give them a healthy spin. Try some of these lightened-up versions of your favorite classics instead. This is the year Thanksgiving isn’t going to kill your diet.
Turkey may be the centerpiece, but good stuffing is the heart and soul. In this healthy stuffing recipe, we show you how to take one of the most eagerly anticipated dishes at the Thanksgiving table and transform it into a dish you won’t feel guilty about indulging in. Fantastic by itself, we guaranteed that your guests will be requesting seconds.
STUFFING
Bread Ingredients:
Stuffing Ingredients:
Directions:
Bread: Preheat oven to 375° F. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together water, sweetener, butter, eggs and baking powder. Add crushed Quest Sea Salt Protein Chips and mix with wet ingredients. Add all-purpose flour, Quest Multi-Purpose Mix Protein Powder and salt. Mix everything together until incorporated. Form into a smooth ball of dough. (Note: dough will be sticky). Spray a sheet pan with non-stick spray and place dough in the middle of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes; cool for 10 minutes. Slice the loaf in half. Reserve half for another use. Cut remaining half into ½” slices, then cube the bread into small pieces; set aside.
Stuffing: Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and add butter. Once butter is melted, add carrots, onions, salt and thyme; cook about 5 minutes. Take cubed bread and place in medium-sized bowl; whisk 1 egg and toss cubed bread pieces in egg. Add chicken stock to sauté pan and bring to simmer. Add bread and crushed chips to pan and incorporate with other ingredients; simmer for an additional 3 minutes or until bread begins to absorb chicken stock. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and add stuffing mixture into pan. Bake for 20 minutes uncovered or until golden brown and crispy on top.
Nutrition (Per Serving):
GARLIC MASHED POTATOES
Ingredients:
Directions:
Microwave cauliflower in a bowl and cover for 5 minutes, then blend all ingredients together.
You can add any other spices you like.
Nutrition (Per Serving):
Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Poke several holes in each potato and wrap each in tin foil.
Bake for 45 minutes or until soft and tender. Remove from the oven.
Peel off the skin of the potatoes and place them inside a large food processor.
Unwrap and break up the Quest Bars into small pieces and place into a small microwave safe bowl with the almond milk and butter. Heat for 80 seconds.
Stir until the bar is soft and melted. Heat longer if needed.
Add the melted bar to the food processor along with the Greek yogurt, Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder, 1/3 cup syrup, zero-calorie sweetener, butter extract and cinnamon. Pulse several times as you incorporate all of the ingredients. Don’t over-process or the potatoes will become smooth and thin. Simply pulse to achieve a mashed sweet potato consistency.
Topping
Heat the tablespoon of zero-calorie sweetener and cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the pecans and coat. Sweetener should begin to melt and caramelize in 3-4 minutes.
Remove when the pecans have become candied. Sprinkle in the salt.
Scoop the potatoes into a medium serving dish. Sprinkle pecans on top.
Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons syrup. Serve immediately.
Nutrition (Per Serving):
DINNER ROLLS & GRAVY
This is the time of year that we get to spend the most time with the people we love, which is a wonderful feeling as the year comes to an end. But don’t forget to continue to love yourself and continue with your healthy eating habits.
Nothing brings a smile to the Thanksgiving table like the sight of dinner rolls and gravy.
In this healthy holiday recipe, we show you how to recreate one of your holiday mainstays. Pouring gravy over your biscuits has never been so guilt-free. Your smile will be even bigger.
Ingredients:
Directions:
GRAVY
Ingredients:
Directions:
Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 8 minutes, or until caramelized.Pour into a mini blender and add the cornstarch and protein powder. Blend a few seconds until smooth. Serve immediately or reheat.
Nutrition (Per Serving):
PUMPKIN PIE
Who says you can't have your pie and eat it, too? Cut carbs and fat—and keep the taste—with this healthy take on traditional pumpkin pie. The best part? If you whip it up for Thanksgiving, you can help yourself to a guilt-free serving of seconds.
Ingredients:
Base:
Filling:
Directions:
Make the base by blending the base ingredients until you get compact dough. Press the dough down into the bottom and along the sides of a pie mold. Remember to use a mold with a removable bottom that allows you to unmold your pie easily.
Bake the crust at 360 F (180 C) for 10-15 minutes, and then remove it from the oven. This step is optional, but it ensures your base cooks a bit longer than the pie so it's nice and crispy.
Make your filling by blending the filling ingredients together using an immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor. Pour this onto the base.
Bake at 320 F (160 C) for 45-50 minutes, or until the filling has cooked through. Be careful not to over bake it. To ensure a creamy center, remove your pie as soon as it's cooked through—you'll know when an inserted knife comes out clean.
Let the pie cool before slicing and … that's it! Eat with abandon!
Nutrition (Per Serving):
August is officially here which means summer is coming to an end and the back-to-school madness is right around the corner. It’s back to the lunch-packing grind for parents; many may be wondering what’s new in healthy options for their children?
It’s an important question, as each lunch offers an opportunity to improve your child’s diet. These choices can make a big difference toward the daily and weekly totals of calories, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugar, and sodium your child consumes.
How your child eats today will have a large impact on their health throughout childhood as well as adulthood. Consuming nutritious food helps children and teens develop, grow, do well academically, and feel good about themselves. Child and teen eating disorders, obesity, dental cavities and iron-deficiency anemia can be prevented with good nutrition.
Twenty-five percent of all children between the ages of 2 and 18 years old are overweight according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children who are overweight and obese have a greater risk of developing major health issues such as; high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, joint pain, and heart disease. We need to teach our children good nutrition habits to decrease the likelihood of them becoming overweight. Helping your child choose nutrient-dense foods over empty-calorie foods, such as cookies and sodas, can help prevent childhood obesity, and provide your child with a higher quality of life.
Parents must find a balance between packing healthy lunches and lunches their children will actually eat. Getting your child involved in preparing, choosing and packing his own lunch will make him more likely to eat it–so it’s great to let him lend a helping hand. CarbEssentials offers lots of healthy alternatives to the usual snacks you might be packing in your kids’ lunch.
Dr. Powell’s Sneals® increase satisfaction, decrease hunger, protect muscle mass, stabilize blood sugars and insulin levels, all while increasing energy levels. A Sneal® is a single serving food that ranges between 60 to 250 calories, that is quick, convenient, portable, great tasting, and has an equal protein to carb ratio and is as lean as possible.
So what's in your child’s lunch when they go back to school? Here are a few ideas;
IPS Chips
Quest Protein Bars
Simply Snackin’ Jerky
Nuero Drinks
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