Kevin Harper

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. These holidays tend to have a negative nutritional reputation… Right?

LOL. Not at my parents’, they don’t! For the past 20 years my parents have focused on natural, organic, as chemical free cooking as possible. To date, they do not own a microwave. They take caution to not combine certain foods (as suggested by several nutritionists and health nuts in the past couple of decades), things like not combining fruits and vegetables, or sweet fruits with sour fruits, etc. To make a long story short, they take real care of what they cook and even better care of what they eat. Seriously, they have practiced the “if I can’t pronounce it, I don’t eat it” rule before reading was publicly suggested. They will pass on ANYTHING that has artificial colors or ingredients that only a biochemist could pronounce.

Today many people are being more proactive about their health and making smarter food choices. Or so it seems. In my opinion most changes people make only look better but may in fact be as bad. But that’s not the point of this post.

Why this post?

I want to share healthy alternatives to the ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving dinner. Please note that the produce was purchased at local farmer’s markets, at Whole Foods, or at Trader Joe’s. The biggest concern here is buying food that has ripened (as much as possible) on a vine/tree that is still rooted into the ground, there is concern over pesticide use (there is plenty of this already present in organic, pesticide free food, no need to buy ones that are deliberately sprayed). And for those who don’t believe there are any differences, let me just say that my parents are doing something right. My dad is 57, my mom is 52, and neither depends on a prescription. My mom has no menopause symptoms and they have the energy of teenagers. It’s amazing when I see my dad or mom next to someone their age, they look at least 10 years younger than that other person.

Menu

My dad has never been the grilling type. But that all changed earlier this year, sometime in April. I saw my mom making some corn and I told her that I had never had roasted/grilled corn. She said it was a favorite treat of hers as a kid and bahm… I got the fire going and we grilled corn and a whole bunch of other good stuff. Since then, we have experimented with various foods and for Thanksgiving we decided to grill up our favorites.

The very first thing that was made was something that doesn’t really go with Thanksgiving but my mom made it because I begged her to do so.

Tomatoes, feta cheese, extra virgin olive oli, spices… Soooo good.

Start with corn, turkey breasts, and green onions.

Next veggies.. our favorite are asparagus. Be sure to keep them al-dente (don’t over cook).

Now, ready for dessert! We did three kinds:

Pinapples with brown sugar on them

Yams… love ‘em.

And although you could eat these as is, I like to eat them with syrup. The syrup that goes on these yams is normally made from brown sugar. But being that this is high glycemic, I substitute it with:

There was also vanilla ice cream from Breyer’s.