Shared by DeniseM
Well, it’s November, and you know what that means! Thanksgiving! It will be fast approaching, and when you are following a ketogenic lifestyle, that can present some challenges! It can present A LOT of challenges! BUT! There is hope. It doesn’t have to be stressful or a torturous, unhappy experience if you go into it with the proper mindset. The number one thing to keep in mind is to concentrate on the celebration and to give thanks for the family and friends you will be celebrating with and don’t let all the food decisions bring you down. You need a game plan, and this will be my Virta Thanksgiving number six, so I have experimented and implemented it, and I have had successes and failures on several turkey days! So, hopefully, this guide will help you with the successes and avoid the failures! 😊
This is my thought process on holidays. I can either stay on track, or I’m not going to use the word “cheat” because we are human; we face all kinds of life situations, and we just need to try the best we can for our health! So, my very first Virta Thanksgiving, I decided NOT to get off track, but I spun around trying to make everyone else happy and forgot about myself! I cooked all the carby things that my family has always expected and just made one thing for me in addition to the turkey. I made a squash casserole. I just ran out of time, and this did not go well. So there I am at our Thanksgiving table, I have my plate with a small amount of turkey (I’m not that crazy about turkey, it’s OK) and a couple of spoonfuls of my squash casserole and I look around at everyone else’s plates and I just burst into tears! Incessant sobbing just kills the mood right there! So this is an easy one, don’t do what I did! Ha! 😄
Then, the next year, I just said to heck with it! I’m going to have whatever I want! I deserve it! 😃 What happened was I started cooking for about two to three days before Thanksgiving. So this is how my twisted carby mind works! Ha! I know I’m going to have whatever I want on Thanksgiving, so three days before when I’m cooking, I’m sampling, I’m nibbling, I am NOT following my keto diet at all. Thanksgiving day arrives, and I have what I want. The next day, there are ALL the leftovers, I can’t possibly get back on track now! Oh no! So I eat all the great leftovers for two days, then it’s even harder to get back on track, and my simple decision to have whatever I want for Thanksgiving has turned into a week-long debacle! 😱 My biomarkers are absolutely DESTROYED, I’m out of Ketosis, fluids have come rushing back on my body, my blood sugar is sky high, I’ve gained 10-15 pounds, and I’m so miserable and guilt-ridden I don’t know what to do! So another easy one, don’t do this! 😢
So what to do? 🤷♀️ This is your personal decision. Only you know what you can handle and what you can’t. I must say, though, now that I’m approaching Virta Thanksgiving number six, I have truly been the happiest when I have stayed on track and not had a biomarker mess to deal with afterward. It also takes me weeks and weeks to recover, so I don’t just pop back into place rapidly and all is rosy, it has taken me TWO MONTHS before to get back just where I started before the holiday! Does that seem worth it? It’s really not. You can make so many great keto recipes for yourself and your family, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal!
I do have some carby things for everyone else, but I try to have other people make them if possible. So a nice combination of keto and carby works out really well for me, but if this is what you choose to do just make sure YOU are hapoy too!😊
So here goes!
🦃Thanksgiving Game Plan🦃
7 DAYS OUT
Prepare your complete menu and make your grocery list. Don’t forget to plan several keto recipes for yourself and they most certainly will be dishes everyone will love like mashed cauliflower and green bean casserole. There are super yummy keto desserts like cheesecake that will be a big hit and healthy! Find as many yummy keto recipes as possible and delegate any carby recipes if you can. Tell people exactly what you want them to bring
6 DAYS OUT
Set the table. I like to use fruit, candles, sticks, greenery and anything else I can from the yard to make the table look pretty. Last year I tied each napkin with a Thanksgiving tag and brown string with their name on the front and something I was thankful for about the person on the back. I tried to be funny!
5 DAYS OUT
Grocery store trip#1. I’ll make two trips so I don’t get overwhelmed. I’m old!😀 This trip, I get everything I can that doesn’t have to be very fresh.
4 DAYS OUT
I rest, or you could set the table this day.
3 DAYS OUT
I get all the dishes and baking pans out, line them up and put a printed recipe in each pan. I’ll also include any ingredients and spices that are all measured out and don’t have to be refrigerated. You could do the same thing for anything that must be kept mainly cold, just put it in the fridge. This saves a lot of time. Take your frozen turkey/ham out of the freezer to thaw in the refrigerator.
2 DAYS OUT
Grocery store trip#2. I’ll get all the fresh items, plus anything else I’ve forgotten. I’ll start chopping everything that needs to be chopped and put that in Ziplock baggies.
1 DAY OUT
I’ll start preparing all the side dishes to be baked in the oven the next day. I’ll make any desserts today.
THANKSGIVING DAY!🎉🎉🎉
I’ll put the turkey on early in the morning. I will wait a while for the ham because it’s usually pre-cooked. A couple of hours before, I will start cooking the casseroles and anything else that needs to be cooked on the stove.
I set up a beverage center next to the sink with a large bag of ice. I have sweet tea, unsweetened tea, and a couple bottles of wine. People can get whatever they like to drink. Water glasses are on the table.
I slice all the desserts, set up a dessert area, and put out small plates and napkins.
I take the turkey out of the oven, let it rest, then carve it.
I put a fall tablecloth on the kitchen island and put everything out for people to serve themselves.
Then I breathe a sigh of relief, my work is done, let’s eat!😀
Thanksgiving recipes 🦃
These are just some suggestions of tried and true recipes made by me and the Community. 😊
APPETIZERS
Starters! I don’t usually start with much, but sometimes, I’ll put out a crudité tray. Here is one from our community members: Jacci’s cute turkey. Make sure to have a good low-carb dip and low-carb veggies for you!
Some mini cheese balls are a good low carb appetizer that everyone will love.
Are deviled eggs a Southern thing or does everyone do them? I usually include these with dinner, but you can do before also. We have to have deviled eggs, and they are the perfect keto food. So here are some to choose from:
SOUPS
Does anyone ever do soups for Thanksgiving? I don’t have it every year, but sometimes it’s just nice to change things up a bit. Have a nice simple soup, nothing too elaborate. It’s a wonderful time to take a moment and sit around the table, have some soup, and have a meaningful conversation about the day. You could of course talk about what you’re grateful and thankful for, you could talk about the best thing that’s happened to you since the last Thanksgiving, talk about someone who has inspired you, just something to reflect on and be grateful for before starting the big feast! Whatever you do, don’t bring up politics! That’s the kiss of death in my family! Ha! 😳
Here are some yummy, simple soups that you can have for Thanksgiving or any day. This pumpkin soup is so good and very festive! 🎃 (clockwise)
This bisque soup is great with crab or lobster.
Broccoli and cheese is a nice standard soup.
If you love mushrooms, you'll love this creamy mushroom soup.
BREADS
Bread! We can still have great bread! I just have discovered this! Most of my past attempts at Keto bread baking have been kind of disappointing, but I don’t know if the planets just aligned perfectly or what but these bread recipes turned out great! I consider it a success when it’s hard to tell the difference between the keto version and the carby version and that’s what these bread recipes do! We have had bread all week! Ha! I even toasted the rolls and had some sugarfree jam on them! Made the Cuban sliders! I could get very used to this! So I hope one of these breads looks like something you might want to try for Thanksgiving or any time! 🍞😊 Clockwise from top left😊
These were my favorite!
These tasted like King’s Hawaiian rolls!
Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread!
Garlic Parmesan Knots!
SALADS
Don’t you just love salad? 🥗 I think a beautiful salad is such an important addition to holiday meals. I love the ones with the berries! Also I’ve made the warm Spinach salad a few times and it is SO good! So see if one of these will make it to your table this year! 😊 Clockwise from top left.
Harvest Salad
Best Ever Broccoli Salad with Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
Mixed Berries Spinach Salad
THE MAIN EVENT
I have a love hate relationship with turkey! Actually it’s a hate hate relationship! Ha! I like it OK if someone else cooks it, but it’s ALWAYS me! 😳 I’ve got to wrestle this giant hunk of poultry, stick my hand inside and pull out the innards, have to find some kind of huge pan to cook it in, season it, smear it with butter, cook it for hours, have to guess when the darn thing is done, let it rest and take a big guess who always carves the thing? ME! Then I never wanted to waste it so I had to take the humongous carcass and make soup the next day! To top it all off, my husband LOVED turkey, would buy two at a time all during the year, they took up half the freezer, so I had to cook multiple never-ending turkeys! I’m having horrific flashbacks as I’m typing this! 🙄
Anyway, my hatred of turkey runs deep, but I always cook one, but I usually always have ham also and that’s what I prefer. Hams aren’t annoying and abusive! 👍🏼
So here are two turkey recipes for your roasting pleasure! That is IF you like turkey! You also don't have to do a large turkey. A turkey breast would be much easier, and you could even wrap it in bacon! 🦃
Now the nice protein, ham! 🐖(3 sf glazes or you could just not glaze the ham at all if you like)
You can’t go wrong with an air fryer baked chicken! 🐓
https://www.virtaworks.com/post/air-fryer-whole-chicken
Cute Cornish Hens! I love these and no wrestling or carving required!😊
Have to make some turkey gravy to pour over everything!👍🏼
STUFFING
Stuffings and dressings are the foods that are most questioned on whether they can be made keto or not? Of course, they can! My family always has cornbread dressing. What’s your favorite stuffing? I have not wanted to chance making my own keto cornbread because I’m keto-baking challenged! I get a mix from gooddees.com that is SO good! You can’t tell the difference. I’ll make cheesy jalapeño cornbread with it to go with chili and soup. But you certainly can make your own keto cornbread and either buy or make your own keto bread for these recipes. The bread and cornbread are going to have a few more carbs, but it is Thanksgiving! Just try to eat a smaller portion, but it’s likely your carb count for the day is going to be somewhat higher. Try not to stress and make a good plan with your coach.
BUT if you don’t want to make cornbread or bread, here is a chaffle stuffing! Can you believe it? I have not made this so I can’t personally vouch for how it tastes, but maybe?🤷♀️
Chaffle Stuffing! https://www.virtaworks.com/post/chaffle-stuffing
Here is a cornbread dressing. 🌽 (no corn used!)
Here are the delicious stuffings! 🥘
If you have a family recipe you always make, just sub the bread with keto bread! 🍞
These stuffed acorn squash recipes do not use bread but cauliflower rice! You know cauliflower had to sneak its way in somehow! This is what I’m making for my stuffing this year!
CASSEROLES
This might be a Texas thing but we always have to have Broccoli Rice Casserole. The regular recipe is basically low carb except for the rice. For Thanksgiving I make an exception for this casserole, that my son loves so much, and make it with regular rice, so I will just take some of the soup/cheese mixture and make a small one for me with cauliflower rice. Yes, there are more carbs this way because of the canned soups, but I just make a small portion for me and I just go with that to save time. It’s Thanksgiving! But I will include an all keto version which I have made also.
Here’s the carby version I just sub with cauliflower rice or you can use the hearts of palm rice, that would be great too! I sprinkle the top with pork panko toasted in butter. 🥦
Here are some all keto versions. 🥦
Now Green Bean Casserole! There are three recipes on virtaworks.com that are all good, so take a look there. 😊
If you always have Sweet Potato Casserole, there are some great keto versions that sub the sweet potato with pumpkin or butternut squash and of course cauliflower! 🎃
VEGGIES
Thanksgiving is all about the sides! So, much so that I dedicated a whole post about them.
DESERTS
I saved desserts for the big finale. These are ones I have mostly tried. I never made the large pumpkin pie, but thought that one looked really good. That website has excellent recipes so I’m trusting them for a great pumpkin pie! 🥧 I made the three mini pies in the photo below to try them out. It’s late right now and I just don’t want to eat pie and ruin my FBG but I did taste the fillings earlier. They will be fine for me, but not sure if non-keto people who are used to regular sugar will like them. I just am not a fan of Swerve sweetener! It has that cooling effect that really bothers me and I haven’t found another sweetener that I like to bake with. I use stevia for most things and I usually replace half the Swerve with half stevia and I like that better. I was in a rush and just didn’t think! But these mini pies will work for me. I’ll probably just have one. Now which one is the question? I think the chocolate one. 😊🍫 I hope you can find a dessert you like and that will make you happy on Thanksgiving. You can stay on track for Thanksgiving just plan ahead with some yummy things that will make for a wonderful meal. I’ve made it all three Virta Thanksgiving’s and this will be number four! So it can be done and just think how proud you will be of yourself! 😊 Here is the link to the desserts. 🍰 (My all time favorite Keto dessert is in the center! Sex in a Pan!😱)
and a pumpkin layer in this version
So this is my Thanksgiving game plan. I hope it can help you in some way with your plans! Don’t be overwhelmed, delegate! Ha! Wishing you the happiest and healthiest Virta Thanksgiving ever!
Love and Thanksgiving Blessings🩷
Denise
THANK YOU so much for this post! This is my first week on Virta, and I was already stressing about Thanksgiving! Because of your post, I will approach this much less emotionally! I CAN DO IT! I am going to use your recipe guides this year and see what works for me. I appreciate your honesty!