Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all of the things

To many, good nutrition and thanksgiving dinner seem to cancel each other out. However it should be possible and even easy to make a nutritious meal that is a pleasure to share with friends and family. Here are a few tips to help you make your holiday meals healthy ones too.

Prepare a wide variety of foods. Traditional thanksgiving stories tell us of meals that contained wide varieties of dishes reflecting the backgrounds of the many people who came together for these meals and to give thanks. The nutritional benefit of eating from a wide variety of foods is you gain a wider variety of nutrients. Also, you are less likely to overload on a single type of food. If you don’t have time to prepare a large number of dishes, many grocery stores sell prepared dishes that you can add to the variety of dishes you’re cooking yourself. Gourmet grocery stores often prepare these dishes on site.

Try some simple recipes. Instead of making the obligatory green bean casserole with mushroom soup and fried onions, how about a simple green bean dish with a dash of sea salt? Substitute yams, cooked in butter with marshmallows and brown sugar, with a more simple preparation of yams. You may be surprised at how much people enjoy the taste of the original ingredients.

Be careful of portion sizes. An ideal meal is derived from all of the food groups and should include a wide variety of individual foods. Instead of loading up your plate with mashed potatoes, start with smaller portions of everything that has been prepared. If you would like a second helping, follow the same procedure. By eating from a wider variety of foods you will be providing your body with a more complex array of nutrients and you’ll be able to enjoy the many flavors as well.

Pace yourself. Unless you’re on call for surgery, you probably have a little time. Instead of jumping right into your second helping, consider a short intermission and burn some calories by helping out with the dishes. By eating more slowly, your body will give you signals when you are full. If there are leftovers you can always eat them later.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all of the things that we have. It is a time for us to remember and reflect on the things that are important in our lives that we so often take for granted. The sharing of a meal with friends and family is a wonderful event and is cherished by nearly all cultures. So take pleasure in the eating and the sharing of food but also consider the nourishment that food gives you and be thankful and give honour to the abundance which you have to share.

Turkey Cooking: How to cook a turkey without killing anybody

Turkey Cooking Times Oven

Make sure the turkey is fully thawed as microwave thawing followed by microwave cooking creates uneven cooking. Safe storage, handling, cooking methods, and approximate cooking times for chicken. Cooking time can be reduced by as much as 30 minutes to an hour compared to traditional roasting timetable. Oven Cooking Bag Method – Preparing a turkey in an oven cooking bag can be a safe and a delicious alternative to the traditional roasting method. Paper Bag Method – This method involves placing the turkey in a large brown paper bag, the type used in grocery stores, and cooking the bird at a very low temperature. Pour off the wonderfully flavourful cooking liquid that accumulates in the bottom of the pan and use it for a side dish of dressing. Many variables can affect the roasting time of the whole bird: A partially frozen bird requires longer cooking.

Turkey Cooking Temperature

Cooking time may vary depending on temperature of the fire, wind and outdoor air temperature. When preparing turkey, use the chart of turkey cooking times below as a guide to how much time to cook the turkey. Plug in electric smoker or ignite charcoal about 30 minutes before cooking. To stop the meat drying out, baste it every 30 minutes during cooking. Instant read thermometers have plastic heads and cannot go into the oven while the turkey is cooking. Cooking time takes longer for a stuffed turkey. Tip: Cover your turkey with foil during cooking and uncover for the last 30 minutes to brown the skin. This is a much more assured way to achieve a proper kill of the vegetative bacteria as opposed to cooking the bird uncovered. Decisions about turkey size, cooking method, fresh or frozen, and other factors all come up in the weeks before the holidays. Cooking times will vary depending on wind, weather, altitude and type of equipment. It will allow you to check the internal temperature of the turkey while it is cooking. Allow ample space for the bag to expand during cooking so that it does not touch the top or sides of the oven or it will melt. Paper Bag Method This method involves placing the turkey in a large brown paper bag, the type used in grocery stores, and cooking the bird at a very low temperature. The use of a foil tent for the entire time can slow cooking.

Cooking Thanksgiving Turkey

Dust the turkey and spray it with olive oil, and do not baste it while cooking. The issue with a large bird is that the internal temperatures might be much different from the surface temperatures and cause uneven cooking and dryness (especially at the breast). No more overcooking while waiting for the stuffing to reach safe temperatures. If it is killed on Wednesday and cooked on Thursday, the turkey will not have got chilled thoroughly. Are you a busy person who just never got around to learning the basics of cooking? It is recommended limiting using this method for cooking turkey to turkeys of 20 lbs. It is true that stuffing will increase the cooking time. By reducing the overall cooking time, you get a cooler kitchen and energy savings. Many variables come into play when cooking a turkey. Whatever happened to the old timey way of cooking the bird slowly and for a long time?