Thanksgiving Meals

November is always a good month. It brings cool fall weather, beautiful trees and leaves, and most importantly the great holiday, Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, it reminds us of everything we have to be thankful for and we also get an excuse to be fed a wonderful and very delicious meal. Being college students, we get a break as well so we can go home and spend this holiday with family and friends. What is nice about this particular break is that most colleges have it around the same time; therefore we should all get a chance to see friends that go to other schools. This will be nice because a lot of my friends didn’t get an October break so when I went home for the weekend I didn’t get a chance to see many of my friends that went to other schools.

One of the many reasons I love this holiday is because I, like many, get to spend it with my family. Especially being away at college, I don’t get to see a lot of my relatives, so this is a chance for us to all get together and spend it together and just be thankful we have one another. Since I haven’t seen some of my relatives in a while I was thinking it might be a nice idea to make a special thanksgiving treat to share with all of them. After doing some brief ‘thanksgiving’ research on yummy desserts I could bake for my family I saw a few things of interest. First there is the traditional pumpkin pie of course, however this is too common, I figured someone would already make this, also I think this would be a bit complicated.

I found a dessert that sounded somewhat easy, but at the same time wasn’t just from a box, this way you could personalize it a little bit and know that you really did make it. The dessert is called pumpkin crumb squares. Basically what you do is get a yellow cake mix and pour it into a pan, after adding the eggs and butter of course. Then you add a pumpkin filling, which is made up of canned pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Then some more cake mix, sugar and chopped nuts are sprinkled over the top. After baking this you get your delicious pumpkin crumb squares. They sound really good and not too complicated, and I’m sure anyone would really appreciate a great tasting dessert after such a wonderful thanksgiving meal.

One of the reasons I, like many, love this holiday so much is because of the fantastic feast that always comes with it. I usually always end up over eating and feeling stuffed to the max after this dinner. Being college students, everyone hears of the ‘freshmen fifteen’ and many try to watch what they eat to avoid this. Contrary to popular belief, if you are trying to watch your calorie intake, there are ways to do this even on thanksgiving. I thought I would share a few tips with you, incase you were interested on how to try and eat good on such a food focused holiday. First, don’t go to the thanksgiving dinner hungry. Make sure you eat a wholesome breakfast and lunch prior to the big meal. If you don’t you will eat faster and possibly think it is okay to eat so much because you have barely eaten all day. Try and stock your plate with lots of vegetables, and remember to not over indulge in food, just stop when you are full. Of course you can eat turkey, just try and go skinless when picking out your preferred slice, this will help save calories and cholesterol. So there is most likely going to be various types of side dishes, it is okay to get a taste of each one. Just try to get each one in smaller portions; this will help you be able to sample each one. Just remember that moderation is key.

Also keep a few things in mind to try and avoid high fat items. Such as, lots of fat can be found in fried and creamy dishes, as well as dishes that contain a lot of cheese. Some times you forget that mashed potatoes are usually made with milk and butter or that green bean casseroles, even though they have vegetables in them, contain cream of mushroom soup, cheese and milk and topped with fried onions. It is okay to try these side dishes; I am not saying if you have a little you are instantly done for. The key is just moderation in these dishes.

These are some things to keep in mind if you are trying to watch your calorie intake. On the other hand, if you do overindulge in the meal, don’t waste time feeling guilty. Maybe make it a plan to do a little bit more exercise during the week than you normally would. Otherwise if you simply don’t care don’t feel all that bad, after all, thanksgiving only comes around once a year.

I hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving holiday as well as break and remember most importantly everything that you have to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!