Preparing for Thanksgiving

Today I bought most of my groceries--maybe all of them!--for Thanksgiving. I am planning ahead to have some nutritarian offerings I can enjoy fully but that won't be off-putting for our guests. So I have our traditional ambrosia (navel oranges, coconut) that I may put a spin on with a bit of variety in the citrus and less coconut than usual. And I'm planning plain steamed green beans and mashed potatoes without too much additional stuff in them. I'll still make turkey and dressing and gravy and a friend is bringing sweet potato casserole and homemade cranberry sauce, and I've purchased rolls ahead of time. One daughter is making pumpkin pies (not a great temptation to me, but I may have some) and I want to plan one real indulgence--pecan pie or pecan pie bars I made last year and that are wonderful.

I'm determined to have lots of healthy things around the holiday, too, so that I'm not derailed by days and days of holiday food. So I bought clementines and a pummelo today, plus brussels sprouts and a nice green squash I hope is one of the kind that are sweeter than acorn squash but look kind of like them. Tonight I'm making ribs for the family and will make collards and perhaps brown rice to go with that.

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Smoothie made of a mixed-berry one I had last week, frozen banana, lots of spinach, and flax seed meal with water to blend

Lunch--Salad of red leaf lettuce, mostly, with green pepper and jicama and onion and grape tomatoes, with black beans over the top and low-cal Italian dressing, plus a couple of olive bar olives and the teaspoon or so of oil in those; clementine (why are these so expensive this year?!); one reduced-fat Ritz cracker

Snack--1/4 cup Kashi Go Lean cereal with a few pecan halves

Supper--Half cup of brown rice topped with collard greens (cooked in a bit of bacon for the family), then with caramelized onions on top (sauteed in a tad of peanut oil); 3/4 cup of a mixture of 2/3 canned baked beans and 1/3 canned navy beans. The family is having bbq ribs with this, and I got a little for my portion (maybe an ounce of meat). For dessert, we shared my pumello.