What's everyone eating for Thanksgiving?

My wife and I will be sharing a 3 lb roasting chicken with mashed potatoes made from scratch, boiled green beans and mini carrots, gravy and cranberry jelly, and a bottle of Chilean red wine. There will probably be leftovers for the next day. Much easier than when kids were home and we had to make turkey.

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My 95-year-old mother fell last week and ended up in a rehabilitation home, so my husband and I had dinner with her in the rehab home. We were served a plate HEAPING with mashed potatoes, dressing, turkey, green beans, and a dinner roll, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. A small “side” of jelled cranberries and milk (at my request) completed the meal. Everything except the cranberries, pie, and beverage was swimming in gravy. So what did I actually eat? I ate the turkey, green beans, two forks full of potatoes, the tablespoon of cranberries, the milk, and the dinner roll. The mound of stuffing and the mountain of potatoes were sent back because no one needs that many carbs! I took a WAG of insulin that turned out to be adequate, so all was fine. And the food actually tasted good!

What saddened and surprised me, however, was the amount of food being served to mostly very aged people (and thus uneaten, sent back and thrown away) and the amount of carbs on the plate. Yes, the meal was “balanced” in that it had protein, carbs, fruit, vegetables, and dairy (milk, if requested), but it certainly was heavy on the carbs – potatoes, dressing, and dinner roll – and certainly did not fit the needs of many of the people in the room. The facility told me that by law they have to serve the same meal to all residents, and that would include anyone with diabetes. Wow! Some of the people in that room were too old and unaware to make choices of what they should or should not eat, and I would have hated to have had a dose of insulin to cover the meal based on some WAG from a doctor who probably had not visited the facility in two weeks. I shudder to think what will happen to any of us should we have to someday go into a nursing home!

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We had Tofurkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and peas! Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner!

I would have to say though that once a year, all the things you mentioned are traditional food for Thanksgiving and why not have a splurge for people that aren’t restricted on special days.

When I was younger I worked at convalescent hospital as a cook and we had our “regular” meals along with cards of people on restricted meals. From adding extra protein drinks to those that needed to gain weight to taking away the sugar and salt to one that literally if given the chance would pore both on her food to not allowing certain foods to certain people. I believe from the what I know they still keep track of who should have certain foods if there are problems. Otherwise let them have have fun once in a while! ( Some places are better at what foods they serve daily than others though, it depends on the Dietician in charge)

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As long as I retain decent cognitive ability, I think I could adapt just fine. If I lost my sense of dosing insulin then that would be a disaster for my health.

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Hopefully by then there will be both decent auto-looping systems to handle that, and autonomous vehicles to take us to our endos and everywhere else.

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I will request LSD and hope I can zone out to the end.

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Years ago our family had Thanksgiving at our parents assisted living facility.
I ate turkey and the rest I brought with me. The dietician was not ammused because she had a healthy eating plan. Oh my! Not healthy for me

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As always, a homemade feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, DRESSING!, cranberry sauce, rolls. The only reason I like thanksgiving meal is the dressing. I get it just once a year and my wife makes a lot extra so that I can have it for 4-5 meals! :slight_smile:

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I agree, Terry4, that having the ability to choose for one’s self is the key; however, in this facility the patients were not allowed to self-administer any medications and everything, including insulin, was ordered by a doctor. We all know that few MDs really have a clue as to what a diabetic patient needs on a daily basis, especially when exercise (or lack thereof), food, and stress all play a role in overall health.

Have a good trip!

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You are much more optimistic than I am. I have been at this D-game too long to think that (at least for me) the advances in the auto-loop systems and autonomous vehicles will be ready by the time I may really need them. However, if you are under 40, you may have a chance.

Whole turkey breasts - very easy, very pretty, very diabetic-and-obese-virtuous, and made a big impression on everybody. Why didn’t I ever do this before?

Cranberry sauce - Not as bad as you think, since one doesn’t really eat much of it.

Bread stuffing - I didn’t eat much of this myself, and if I didn’t make it they would simply lynch me.

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