Re-inventing Your Thanksgiving Dinner

As Thanksgiving is just around the corner, everyone’s minds would start to reel over a super long weekend holiday, massive department store discounts, and of course, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. A full blown Thanksgiving dinner is more like a feast rather than a meal, consisting of a 30-lb. roast turkey, numerous high-calorie-full-of-carbohydrate side dishes, and endless alcoholic beverages. Wow. This is too much food for one day – even if one decides to skip breakfast AND lunch.

As family units get smaller and people become busier, not to mention that there isn’t enough time nor budget remaining at year’s end for such a huge feast, the preparation of Thanksgiving dinner (if you decide to adhere to the ritual and celebrate) can become an extremely stressful project. There are plenty of alternatives available that can make your Thanksgiving dinner just as enjoyable, but stress-free. Here are some variations among the many:

1) There is absolutely no need to roast a huge turkey, unless you are going to feed the whole town. Yes. If you are wondering why use turkey, this is the primary purpose. The decision to use turkey originated with Abraham Lincoln in 1863, when he nationalized Thanksgiving as a public holiday. Because one turkey could feed more people simultaneously, that’s what he used to send to his soldiers, instead of chicken.

Therefore, chicken was the original food of choice. For those of you spending Thanksgiving with only 5 or 6 people in a cozy kitchen, and you can make this your own tradition. Go for an ‘oven-stuffer’ chicken and prepare it the same way as you would a roast turkey. The flavor can surpass that of a turkey, due to chicken meat being more tender and easier to absorb the flavor and juices; it takes significantly less time to cook; and you won’t be stuck with leftovers that last you till Christmas. Think turkey salad, turkey sandwich, turkey stew, turkey everything.

2) For vegetarians and for those who feel less obliged to eat meat during the holidays, you can try “Tofurkey“, which is fake turkey made of wheat gluten, tofu and other natural flavors. It is high in soy protein and substantially lower in fat content and cholesterol, while mimicking the elongated, stranded texture of white meat turkey. Tofurkey can be accompanied with regular turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce as delicious side dishes. However, depending on which brand of Tofurkey you decide to purchase, the overkilling of wheat gluten as the main ingredient can render the texture a little bit on the ‘rubbery’ side.

3) For the ultimate carnivores who think more meat is never enough, you might have faced with a choice to (literally) kill 3 birds in one stone and attempt the so-called Devil’s Main Course — the “Turducken“, a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. However, this alternative is not recommended, as it is enormous, extremely high in calories (about 800 calories in a tiny serving!), sodium, fat, and only about 2% (about 0.6 grams) of dietary fiber from the 3 birds combined.

The choices of what to prepare for a Thanksgiving dinner are endless, if one decides to deviate from tradition. Stuffing yourself like how you stuff your bird(s) is hardly an enjoyable experience at all. Likewise, watching your loved ones stuff themselves is not all that rejoicing either. As health experts advocate, eating has to be done in moderation, and one can still adhere to the traditional notion of a celebrating the occasion with a decent Thanksgiving dinner by not over-indulging in food. Being creative and having the courage to re-invent is always favorable, and it can end up being the better means to achieve the same ends.