I am having sprial sliced ham, baked spinach casserole, roasted green beans with cherry tomatoes. potato salad for my hubby and a sugar free rasberry cheescake for dessert. Maybe a little high in carbs and fat but it is Thanksgiving.

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Last edited 11 months ago

I am going to have for Thanksgiving Dinner,Turkey and dressing,patato salad,green beans,corn on the cob,brocalli casserole, I will have pumpkin pie and german choclate cake. I will have just a small amount of my favorites. Then I will do the same for supper. I will have too much to eat by then. I will go to the pool Friday and do extra laps. I think it is ok to have small amounts of your favorites after all it is Thanksgiving.

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Last edited 11 months ago

for thanksgiving i will have the white meat of the turkey and mashed yams with a little butter on them, whole grain stuffing,a mixed vegie and fruit salad and my favorite pie at thanksgiving=PUMPKIN PIE with a little bit of coolwhip! i too think if you have a little bit of everything its ok remember you can eat almost anything as long as it is in moderation so enjoy and have A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

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You can have carbs at Thanksgiving, just not so much. Practice ahead of time with a measuring cup so you know how much you can have of your favorites. I'd rather have a little of them than none at all. :) Diabetes doesn't mean depriving yourself of your favorite things, it means learning to include them in your diet on special occasions by using smaller portions. Good luck

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I'm a type 2 insulin dependent.. this is the one I time I will be cheating on my diet, but take the extra insulin to make up for it. I take humalog with my meals and the amount is based on my current meter reading plus carbs I'm eating in my meal. So hopefully the insulin I take will offset me threw this day fine. David

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Last edited 11 months ago

I believe we will be cooking turkey, squash, yams, potatoes, green beans and sauteed mushrooms. You just have to prepare them so you are not adding extra carbs, like mashed yams with some butter/margarine rather than candied yams, and then make sure you know what portion size to eat.

Something people often overlook at big meals like this is the timing. Usually people have the highest tolerance for carbs later in the day so you may be able to push your 45g up a little and not see any increase in numbers. But also, special meals like this are usually a long affair which is good as well. If you eat all your carbs in a 15 minute window then they will pretty much increase your blood sugar at the same time. If you spread them out over say an hour or two then you have less carb but for a longer time which may leave you with a low but longer increase in blood sugar. Maybe take a plate of food with a small amount of carb on, eat that and when others go up for more you go up and eat another small serving of carb and then maybe even a third time. Do an experiment a few times. Make some mashed potatoes and eat 30g of carb worth and check your blood sugar after 1 and 2 hours. Then do the same but eat 15g of potatoes, sit around talking for a bit and then have another serving of 15g and check your blood sugar 1, 2 and 3 hours after the first bite. It may set you on the path to work out how your body works with food and the best way to 'trick' it so you can eat happily and have good numbers doing so.

One thing has always fascinated me about Americans when I'm at a buffet and I don't understand why people do it. I see people go down the line and just pile their plate up with everything regardless of if it goes together, especially at breakfast buffets, like fruit, bacon, eggs, waffle, pasta salad all on one plate. Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to put it all on your plate at the same time, you can serve yourself as many times as you want and there is no minimum portion. It's the same way with meals at home, just because it's on the table doesn't mean you have to put it on your plate all at once. You can take as many trips up there as you like and come back with as small amount of food as you like. Diabetes means you have to train yourself to think differently about eating in general. Not just what you eat but how you eat it as well.

You also have to remember that one day of slightly elevated numbers won't kill you, they will go up higher than normal but will come back down if your treatment is working. You may find that your fasting number doesn't even change but you went a little high after dinner. However, you still have to be in control and not make it a habit and most importantly, be comfortable doing that. Some people can do it, some people can't. Some people don't think it's worth it, some people do. You have to figure out which one you are first.

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The key to a great holiday is to make options. If you are like us, we have people who are not diabetic and expect the mashed potatoes and corn. The crescent rolls and the pecan pie. So we also make sure there are items on the table that are friendly, but don't scream "DIET!!!"

A kind of non traditonal thing I have found that also makes you eat less, is if you serve it buffet style. If people have to get up from the table to go gather more food, we are less inclined to keep nibbling at what is on the table. I am always playing mind games.

The other thing too, is to serve on your fine china. You will typically find that a dinner plate is MUCH smaller than your everyday plates. Smaller plates are a good thing.

I make my own cranberry sauce and I use lots of cinnamon, some apples and xylitol for the sweet. That works really well, and then relish it up with some walnuts or something. It is more like a chuttney, than a sauce.

Roast the turkey with a blend of olive oil and butter. that cuts the butter a good bit, but still gives you that flavor. I spice up my turkey with a rub of sage, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, rosemary, and anything else you desire. I rub it all over the turkey with some of the butter. We use a blend that has omega 3 in it. This makes the skin very golden brown, Oh, smells so good.

We also portion our stuffing. My mom always made her stuffing into one scoop balls (about 1/2c each) and baked them using the juices from the turkey for moistness. This keeps you from "digging" in, and you also don't have to have a measuring cup on the table. We also make ours from scratch, so we know what is in it.

We bake our sweet potatoes and let people put on them what they want. We make a cinnamon sugar butter for those who want it, but if you don't, just use some nutmeg and cinnamon with your butter. Or just salt and pepper.

I started a new tradition last year, and make a soup for the meal. I have posted a wonderful cream of cauliflower soup here on the site. It will be on our menu this year. Last year I did a carrot soup that was wonderful with ginger in it. These are special and friendly. No one will feel like they are missing out on anything.

We don't typically serve wine for our meal, but coffee is a must. Don't waste your carbs of coffee creamers, offer some real cream and a dash of spice. What we do is use flavored coffees, and then the plain cream or milk (I use soy milk in mine) just adds to the flavor.

Deserts are still sweet here, but I can skip the pacan pie (my husbands favorite) and go for some pumpkin custard. Or I have made pumpkin cheesecake. Xylitol works great in that, and it is so rich, no one will notice the missing sugar.

Steam some broccoli and garnish them with some toasted almonds.

Sear some green beans with some balsamic vinegar and garlic, these are posted on the site and they are yummy. Add a different falvor to your table.

There are all kinds of ways to make a healthy thanksgiving meal. The real problem is knowing when to stop eating.

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We are having sandwiches (ezekiel bread) for Thanksgiving. My Hubby is smoking a turkey and I will make oven baked yam fries and cranberry sauce. Our big family dinner will be in SC this year at Christmas.

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Gabby, can you please post your cranberry recipe. That would help me out a great deal. I love cranberries and I know I will really be missing them . I need a more diabetic friendly recipe and yours sounds pretty good. Thanks.

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Last edited 11 months ago

My traditional Thanksgiving really doesn't have to change too much - we always had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, baked yams (plain, without added butter or brown sugar), steamed asparagus or broccoli and green bean casserole (it's low carb to begin with). Dessert was always pumpkin pie that only I would eat (nobody else in my family likes it).

So this year I'm still going to make the turkey and the stuffing, the green bean casserole, the baked yams (plain as always), steamed asparagus or broccoli and instead of mashed potatoes, I'm going to make mashed cauliflower - probably that yummy recipe that was posted here on this site today.

We'll skip the pumpkin pie since nobody at all will eat it. I'm going to look for a good low carb substitute dessert. I'm sure I can find one.

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This year's Thanksgiving is going to be a lot smoother because of some of the recipes that I found at allrecipes.com. We are still going to try traditional turkey dinner & sides but will have to change up a little since I am on a low-sugar-low salt,low-carb and low-protein diet....very hard. Last year was our first experiment with the buffet style and it worked FAB as long as I used a dessert plate. But just like everyone says moderation counts. I have also found out that the sugar free whipped cream from Cool Whip is actually quite tasty and will be using that to have on my sliver of pumpkin pie.

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There will be 7 of us. We are doing different this year. My mother is baking 10 skinless-boneless stuffed chicken breast(4oz). Harvest roasted vegetables, cool cumber salad, giant tossed salad,Aparagus, pumpkin mousse, custard with nutmeg. Then of couse some of the regular stuff. Including mashed potatoes, gravy made with corn starch,etc.
We are doing the individuals this year because my family will help feed the needy after church. We have missed the last 3 years dur to my hospitalization. We feel this is the year to give back. Happy Thanksgiving everone!!!!...Debe

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One bad day is allowable as long as you don't over do it.

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This too is my first thanksgiving since dx and I'm really worrid I go over board, but my husband and kids keep an eye on me when I eat. My oldest daughter is 18 and is a waitress and when I go eat where she works she won't let me order anything bad for me( she watches me close, doesn't want to lose her mommy! lol) My in-laws are also diabetic so they don't have too much high carb stuff for thanksgiving dinner so everything should be good.

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This will also be my first Thanksgiving since being diagnosed with diabetes. I will continue to make all the same foods as always, only I will be counting my Carbs. I have already looked up calories and carbs for all the foods I will be making, so I think I will be alright as long as I stick to counting carbs. Since I always try counting carbs and eating only the amount I am allowed per meal, I should be fine. Although, this year I will be skipping the pumpkin pie.
Good luck to everyone.

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I will suggest to you that part of your thanksgiving dinner you can eat. Let's say you want the mashed potatoes that is okay with a small amount of gravy but go without the dressing and the candied yams. The best way to do your meal is as follows Turkey a dessert dish of dressing, an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes, with cranberry sauce check sugar level in sauce then maybe some green beans, or a small salad with vinegar and oil dressing. Save that piece of pumpkin pie for a small snack before bed.

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Last edited 11 months ago

Dear Apanda it's Thanksgiving,I know you're worried about your diet but you can have a little bit of each of your fave foods,it'll just be for one day sweetie.I'm having a bit of everything,and so what if my numbers are high for one day that's ok by me.I have 3 small meals a day so I will divide my carbs and try and even it out ,being diabetic doesn't mean we can't have the foods that we like to eat,just in moderation.

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I makae a tradional Thanksgiving dinner turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, gravy and corn. I make my potatoes with the skins on and use the water I boiled them in and add butter. I used cornstartch for my gravy. I eat only the turkey and squash, but I also make a salad for myself. Wishing everyone a Happy and safe Thanksgiving.

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