Lightened Thanksgiving Recipes

As I mentioned in yesterday's post the husband and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for family for the first time this year.  When I was planning the menu I decided I wanted to do some lighter recipes, including a large salad so that all the choices were not super heavy and high in calories.  I went over to one of my favorite light recipe sources, skinnytaste.com and did a search for Thanksgiving recipes.  I found this great salad.

Baby Greens with Goat Cheese, Beets and Candied Pecans

Uh-mazing.  Instead of cooking the beets myself, I used a can of whole beets.  I drained, rinsed, and cut them into quarters.  Then I let them sit in some of the salad dressing to marinate while I prepared the rest of dinner.  It worked out great.

Close up yumminess.

The other recipe I was looking for was one for sweet potatoes.  I don't know about you, but I am not a big fan of the marshmellow-y over sweet candied yams.  I wanted to do a lightly sweet dish of sweet potatoes.  I found that recipe too!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes Brulee

This recipe was SO easy.  I boiled and mashed the sweet potatoes on Wednesday and refrigerated them.  I heated them up on Thanksgiving and added the brown sugar for broiling.  Simple.

Ignore the little burned bit of sugar on mine.  We ate around it and it was delicious.  If you are looking for lightened Thanksgiving recipes next year, bookmark this page on Skinny Taste.

This year we skipped the green bean casserole.  My sister steamed up some green beans and then sauteed them with a little bacon, tossed in some roasted baby bella mushrooms and topped with crispy bacon.  Super easy...super delicious.

The prep and cooking this year was so easy that I was actually wondering if I was forgetting something on Thanksgiving day.  No, it was just that easy.  Loved it.

Happy Tuesday friends!!