Make a homeade stock out of your Thanksgiving leftovers and turn it into 3 easy soups.
You can only heat up a plate of gravy-drenched turkey dinner leftovers so many times! Go a little lighter with your Thanksgiving memories by making any of these 3 easy and tasty soups. They all start out with a fresh pot of stock made with stuff you’ve got lying around the kitchen.
Turkey Stock
Don’t toss out the remnants of your turkey! Go the extra mile and turn it into an amazingly delicious stock. A large pot, some water and vegetable scraps (you’ve definitely got those around) and you’re set. Let it simmer away while the family settles into a cozy food coma.
Basic Turkey Stock
Makes 2 quarts
1 roasted turkey carcass (from a 10-pound turkey)
2 pounds raw vegetable scraps (carrots, celery, onions, leeks and garlic recommended)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Water
Combine ingredients in a large stockpot and add enough cold water to cover. Bring to a slow boil, reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered for 2 to 3 hours. Strain and transfer to quart containers. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Indulge, but don't overdo it on Turkey Day with our easy tips.
We’re not going to tell you to give up your beloved turkey and stuffing, so you can breathe easy and keep reading. But there are some super simple strategies you can use to help keep calories in check while still enjoying your meal.
Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday season where friends, family, and loved ones gather to have one fantastic meal after another. It’s not the time to skimp on those food safety habits that can make or break the festivities. Here are some simple reminders.
Purchasing the Goodies
At the market, be sure you check the quality of all the products you buy. Look at the color, firmness, and texture of the produce and meats and don’t forget to check the expiration dates on packaged foods. Once you pay for your groceries, be sure to get them stored in the proper place immediately—refrigerator, freezer or pantry. A few extra stops on the way home is plenty of time for bacteria to have a party on your food.
Make room for your turkey—overcrowding your freezer or fridge can actually raise temperatures dangerously high and spoil your food and ruin your equipment.
Here's one for the bread basket: homemade biscuits, portioned right.
Store-bought biscuit dough is full of hydrogenated oils (a.k.a. trans fats) but homemade biscuit recipes call for large servings of shortening or butter. We aren’t revolutionizing the biscuit, just making them in a more portion-conscious way.
Better Biscuits
Most recipe yields are for 8 to 10 pieces, which means a 300-plus calorie bread to go along with your meal. Below is a traditional biscuit recipe portioned out to keep the calories in check.
Ellie Krieger's homemade green bean casserole. Photo courtesy of Food Network Magazine
Even when attending a virtual Thanksgiving, where presumably, the calories, fat and additives aren’t actually real, we want to bring something healthy to the table. So when we were asked to contribute a dish to Food Network’s virtual Thanksgiving, the choice was easy — we signed up right away to “bring” Ellie Krieger’s Green Bean Casserole With Crispy Shallots. No proper Thanksgiving meal is complete without this traditional casserole. So don’t leave it off of your table, but do skip the canned soup and canned crunchy onions. Both the creamy sauce and crunchy onions (which make the dish) are as easy to make as it is to open a can, but the difference in taste from the original is enormous. The homemade version is so much more fresh and flavorful than the one made with canned stuff, plus it’s not heavy and loaded with sodium from the soup.
It probably comes as no surprise that a Thanksgiving meal can pack in tons of extra calories. What’s really eye-opening is how much exercise you need to burn those calories. Don’t get us wrong, Thanksgiving dinner is a meal to be savored; just keep some of these numbers in mind before you pile those goodies too high in your plate.
Your vegetarian friends won't mind if there's turkey on the table, as long as there's plenty of veg-friendly fare for them to eat.
A 2008 study called Vegetarianism in America, published by Vegetarian Times, showed that 7.3 million people, and growing, follow a vegetarian diet. That means that there’s a good chance a vegetarian may be coming to your Thanksgiving dinner this month. If you’re not a vegetarian, you may be wondering how to accommodate an herbivore while keeping your favorite foods on the table. With a few simple recipe tweaks, you’ll be able to please both the meat and non-meat eaters alike without having to overhaul your entire menu.
Sweet potato casserole is one of the quintessential Thanksgiving foods. It makes an appearance alongside the turkey on everyone’s holiday table. In my family, we have it again on Christmas, too. The version everyone expects is the one that’s covered in marshmallows. This year, I’m taking a stand against this marshmallow-topped calorie bomb. Not only does the traditional sweet potato dish deliver tons of extra sugar, fat and calories, it doesn’t even taste good. Not in my opinion, anyway. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet; they don’t need the help of marshmallows. They’re perfectly delicious on their own — baked, mashed, or turned into fries — or in a casserole, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and topped with pecans.
Cooking for a crowd this holiday? Stumped by how to accommodate family members with special dietary needs? We’ve got sweet ideas for everyone at your table.
Kid-Friendly
Little fingers will love scooping up these tiny cupcakes. They’re portion controlled for the adults, too.
