8 Healthy Recipe Swaps for Thanksgiving

Nov 18 2016
Get this: Americans eat around 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. Lighten up your feast with these calorie-slashed swaps! Occasionally unconventional, but always delicious...



Toasty Marshmallow Sweet Potato Skins

1/10th of recipe (1 skin): 74 calories, <0.5g total fat (0g sat. fat), 94mg sodium, 17.5g carbs, 1.5g fiber, 7.5g sugars, 1g protein

SmartPoints® value 3*

Move over, sweet potato pie... There's a tasty new sheriff in town! You'll save lots of calories by opting for these mallow-adorned 'tater skins. Want something a little more traditional? Try our Sans Sweet Potato Casserole, made with butternut squash!

Rockin' Lean Bean Casserole

1/8th of casserole: 95 calories, 2.5g total fat (0.5g sat. fat), 539mg sodium, 16g carbs, 3.5g fiber, 5g sugars, 3.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 2*

We all have that one relative who'll throw a huge fit if there's not a creamy green-bean dish on the table. To satisfy their need without the excess calories, try this HG classic! Onion-flavored soy crisps or popped chips are the perfect replacement for those fatty fried onions.

Bacon Cornbread Muffins

1/12th of recipe (1 muffin): 174 calories, 3g total fat (1.5g sat. fat), 422mg sodium, 28.5g carbs, 1.5g fiber, 11g sugars, 8.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 6*

Good news: There's no need to banish freshly baked bread from the table. Just stick with this lightened-up, flavor-packed cornbread! The best part? Built-in portion control, since it's baked up in a muffin pan. Get ready to wow the crowd with these sweet 'n savory muffins...

Holiday Stuffed Portabellas

1/6th of recipe (1 stuffed mushroom): 188 calories, 2.5g total fat (0.5g sat. fat), 449mg sodium, 38.5g carbs, 4g fiber, 14g sugars, 6.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 5*

No one is disputing that a) stuffing is great and b) Thanksgiving's not quite right without it. But stuffing is so darn calorie dense, and it's too easy to go overboard with it! Enter this recipe. Perfectly portioned, and the mushroom base makes it mega filling. Another great option is this recipe for Cornbread Stuffin' Muffins. Yes!

Twice-Baked Cheesy Acorn Squash

1/4th of recipe (1 stuffed squash half): 177 calories, 6g total fat (3g sat. fat), 288mg sodium, 27g carbs, 4g fiber, 0.5g sugars, 6.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 3*

Decadent stuffed squash recipes are totally in season, but they don't have to be stuffed with a silly number of calories. We adore this cheesy squash dish, and so will your family. Multiply the simple recipe to feed a crowd of any size. Acorn squash is amazing, people... Trust us!

Roasted Veggie Mac & Cheese

1/4th of recipe (about 1 1/2 cups): 217 calories, 4.5g total fat (2.5g sat. fat), 600mg sodium, 34g carbs, 5.5g fiber, 6g sugars, 11.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 6*

Mac & cheese might be the ultimate comfort food, and comfort food is the name of the game on Thanksgiving. Roasting veggies is one of the best ways to enhance their flavor, so why not bulk up your mac with roasty broccoli and cauliflower? Yum! Wanna make mac in the slow cooker? No problem...

Cherry Cranberry Sauce

1/12th of recipe (about 1/3 cup): 33 calories, 0g total fat (0g sat. fat), 25mg sodium, 11.5g carbs, 2g fiber, 4.5g sugars, 1.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 0*

Halloween has passed for the year, but if you want a good scare, check out how much sugar is in a 1/4-cup serving of standard cranberry sauce: 22 grams! That's more than the amount in 8 Hershey's Kisses. Would you put 8 Hershey's Kisses over your turkey? No way! This cranberry sauce recipe gets its sweetness from real fruit and natural no-calorie sweetener. A much better choice.

Perfect Pumpkin Cheesecake

1/8th of recipe (1 slice): 143 calories, 5.5g total fat (3.5g sat. fat), 299mg sodium, 18g carbs, 1.5g fiber, 5.5g sugars, 10.5g protein

SmartPoints® value 5*

Fact: We'd rather spend calories on cheese than crust, and we're pretty sure we're not the only ones. So we created this amazing pumpkin cheesecake sans crust, with a topping of crushed graham crackers to finish it off. For a more traditional pumpkin pie, check out this recipe. It also rocks the crustless, crumbs-on-top format -- just the way we like it!

Chew on this:

November is National Georgia Pecan Month. Pecan pie fans should have a batch of these babies on standby…

Quick, before your buddies spend another second in pre-holiday panic: Click "Send to a Friend" right now.

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