Healthy, Clean Thanksgiving Recipes

Thanksgiving is my absolute FAVORITE holiday. I love the food, the family time, togetherness, and of course the FOOD! This year Tonii, Andi, Ziggy and I are heading to Richmond to celebrate with family and friends (Harrison is with family in Alabama. We're taking advantage of the last Thanksgiving we aren't obligated to spend away from our families haha).

ANWAY this is a post I did last year of a collection of my clean spin on traditional Thanksgiving dishes:

 

1. Almond Crusted Creamy Green Bean Casserole
2. Garlic Cauliflower Mash (Low Carb Mahsed Potato Substitute)
3. Baked Okra 
4. Green Beans
5. Mashed Sweet Potatoes
6. Fall Kale Salad
7. Deviled Eggs
8. Cranberry Sauce 

This Clean Eating Leftover Turkey Salad is my favorite way to use up leftover turkey:




Also, being the type A that I am, I have all these all-age-dinner-appropriate Pandora stations and a playlist made by Harrison ready to go for dinner:

Download DJ BEACH MCCARDLE BIRTHDAY part 1

Family-Friendly Pandora Stations
Van Morrison Pandora
Motown Pandora
Ayo Pandora
John Legend Pandora
The Temptations (Holiday) Pandora

Tell me: what's your favorite Thanksgiving meal? Do you keep it healthy on the holiday?

8 Cheap, Easy, CLEAN Thanksgiving Sides + Family Friendly Playlists

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday of the year!!! This year I got a little nervous thinking am I going to gain 10 pounds over the holiday? But you know what? We don't have to! Here are 8 of my favorite Thanksgiving sides cleaned up:

 

1. Almond Crusted Creamy Green Bean Casserole
2. Garlic Cauliflower Mash (Low Carb Mahsed Potato Substitute)
3. Baked Okra 
4. Green Beans
5. Mashed Sweet Potatoes
6. Fall Kale Salad
7. Deviled Eggs
8. Cranberry Sauce 

Also, is it just me or does picking appropriate-for-all-ages music get a little stressful on Thanksgiving? Below is the playlist the BF made for Thanksgiving last year (you can push play and play directly from the page, or follow the link to download), and my favorite family friendly Pandora stations.


Download DJ BEACH MCCARDLE BIRTHDAY part 1

Family-Friendly Pandora Stations
Van Morrison Pandora
Motown Pandora
Ayo Pandora
John Legend Pandora
The Temptations (Holiday) Pandora

Garlic Almond Crusted Green Bean Casserole

My favorite part of Thanksgiving green bean casseroles is the crust- wait the crust AND the creaminess- ahhh I just love everything about green bean casseroles! With all the cream and flour that goes into casseroles I thought for sure I'd have to pass this year and go for straight green beans, but thankfully an afternoon of experimenting in the kitchen led to something that tastes just as good as the original with the same texture!! (I'm a big texture person).

Sidenote: I took this dish to our Friendsgiving feast this weekend. The BF thought "the idea" of green bean casserole was so gross that he refused to try it (you may recall a previous post about casseroles in which he said "Casseroles sound like something I would be forced to eat as punishment", so I called the dish a "bake" and he loved it). It was a hit with everyone else, and people were really surprised to learn it's completely clean. I know it' a good dish when it tricks people.

Servings: 10
Prep Time: 25 mins (I chop REAL slow though..)
Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh green beans, halved longways ($3.00)
• 1 cup fat free Greek Yogurt ($.75)
• 1 medium onion, diced ($1.00)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.00)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 piece Ezekiel Bread, crumbled into tiny crumbs
• 1/8 cup stone ground corn meal
• 3/4 cup chopped almonds ($2.00)
• 3 Tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the halved green beans for 5 minutes. Remove the green beans and strain, then rinse with cold water to stop them from cooking. ***Once you finish this step you have cooked green beans! You can just add sea salt and garlic powder and serve that too! Easy.

In a medium sized frying pan cook the chopped onions over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic for about a minute, stirring constantly.

Remove the onions and garlic from the heat and throw in the cheese and mix until it's a big melty glop. Now add the Greek Yogurt, black pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper and mix thoroughly. Add the green beans and stir it all together until it's thoroughly mixed. Spread the mixture evenly into a 9x9 (sprayed) baking dish.

In a small mixing bowl mix the almonds, cornmeal and garlic powder. Sprinkle evenly over the green bean mixture in the baking dish.

Cook for 30 minutes.

Is there a fast way to halve these beans? Seriously.

This is where I was like, "this is going to be a disaster and unedible"

But then all this goodness came out!

You can serve just the baked green beans too! Yummm

Sweet Potato Recipes: Black Bean Honey Lime Stuffed Sweet Potatoes and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potato season = cheap sweet potatoes = I am hoarding sweet potatoes and finding every way possible to cook them. This is a recipe I found on Pinterest and cleaned up to make it something us clean eaters can enjoy, and added meat so the BF can enjoy. Since this recipe is essentially stuffed sweet potato skins, I used the guts to make one of my favorite Thanksgiving sides: mashed sweet potatoes!

For the Black Bean Honey Lime and Quinoa Stuffed:
Servings: 2
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes ($1.75)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa ($1.50)
• 1 cup chicken broth ($.50)
• 1 can black beans ($.80)
• 1/2 lb lean ground turkey ($1.75)
• 1 medium onion, diced ($.80)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup frozen corn, cooked ($.50)
• Lime juice of one lime ($.70)
• 2-3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced ($.25)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 Tablespoons honey ($.50)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.00)
• 1/2 cup low fat Greek Yogurt ($.50)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook the quinoa. Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes. Stab them Dexter-style with a fork all over--I stabbed mine about 12 times each. The little holes allow the steam to get out and helps them cook. Wrap your stabbed sweet potatoes in foil and place in the oven for an hour.

After an hour pull them out. You should be able to easily pierce them with a fork- if not put them back in for about 10 minutes. Scoop the guts leaving about 1/4-1/2 inch of the sweet potato on the skins. Use the sweet potato guts to make mashed sweet potatoes (below).

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, combine the chicken broth, garlic, onions and ground turkey in a frying pan. Cook until turkey is browned.

Combine the cooked quinoa, turkey/garlic/onion mixture, lime juice, black beans, cumin, cayenne pepper and honey in a bowl and mix well. Scoop the mixture onto the sweet potato skins and top with cilantro, mozarella cheese and Greek yogurt.

Zzzzomggg this was so good and I will cook this every week until sweet potato hoarding season is over!!




For the mashed sweet potatoes:
Servings: 2 (this is an easy one to double, triple, quadruple, etc)
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes ($1.75)
• 2-3 tablespoons coconut milk- depending on the consistency you're going for. Less milk = more thickness. ($.50)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon honey ($.10)  

 Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mash together with a spoon until it is mixed well. Yep, that's it. And yep, it tastes amazing.