Two Can Play

My good friend Martha Stewart posted her Pumpkin Pie Thanksgiving escapades on her blog today... and I thought, well two can play at that game.

My mom and I are both being careful this year to stick to our healthy eating/food diary plans during the holidays.  We don't want to gain any weight or make ourselves sick in the usual abundance-of-food-fest that are our family holidays.  So, our Thanksgiving meal was prepared with this intention in mind.  We had stuffed chicken paillards again (our new Thanksgiving tradition) made with homemade stuffing that cut out most of the butter and made with homemade bread where I controlled the amount of sugar/water/etc.  We had roasted autumn veggies instead of mashed potatoes.  We drank water instead of the usual holiday punch.  We had salsa with our veggie tray instead of dip.

The highlight of the low-cal version of this meal in my mind, however, was my version of pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin puree is quite healthy and low in calories.  So I modified the recipe and made a bunch of healthier substitutions to bring my pie down to only about 100-110 calories per slice (as opposed to the 250+ per slice of the 'normal' recipe).  We subbed unsweetened soy milk for evaporated milk.  I used Splenda instead of sugar.  I used only egg whites instead of full eggs.  We switched in All-Bran cereal instead of cookies/graham crackers in the crust.  We used 'light' butter to hold the crust together with a little honey, instead of a lot of butter and brown sugar.  It was fun creating something that would taste good and hold together... I thought it was a great success, with only a few minor adjustments/improvements required for next time.

Granted, my pies were lovely and perfect looking.... but they surely did not look like the ones Martha posted on her blog!  However, she also had Chef Pierre helping her plus an industrial-sized kitchen.  I was, however, intrigued to learn that she did not have the style of cookie cutter she really wanted, so had to make a substitution of her own.  See... Martha and I are not so unalike after all.

All in all we both did a great job in sticking to our healthy eating plans and did not end the holiday with over-full stomachs and brains full of regret.  Here's hoping for an equally 'successful' Christmas and a food-diary-friendly New Year!

~lk