Thanksgiving, Dysfunction & Guilt Free Eating
Hey guys! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! How do you think my two dishes came out?
Miso Soup with Sweet Potato Dumplings — I loved this dish! So healthy, easy and delicious!
My own take on the Simple Butternut Squash Tart — Because I did these in phyllo shells and not a large tart form, the goat cheese was way too overpowering. When I swapped the goat cheese slice with a sliver of Laughing Cow cheese, they were perfection! These would be great appetizer options for any gatherings you host or attend.
Lessons learned when shopping for the ingredients for these dishes and when making them
- Won ton wrappers and miso paste are hard items to find. Don’t screw around — just go straight to Whole Foods.
- A lot of pastry dough has hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup (Pillsbury brand, for instance – go figure, right?). Also, I never was able to find a whole wheat version. Heidi from 101 Cookbooks recommends the Dufour brand though I did not find it at either Whole Foods or Pavilions. I ended up going with these mini phyllo shells since they had an ingredient list I was happy with (and they’re also really cute!).
- Miso paste is more expensive than I thought — $8! (hey, $8 is a lot when you’re a broke college student!)
- There are a wide variety of misos. I had to guess the right one since the recipe calls for “white miso” and that was not one of the miso designations on the varieties I encountered. Apparently miso can be classified by taste or ingredient. Whole Foods did not appear to have a white color miso paste (now I know it’s called Shiromiso). I ended up choosing the genmai (brown rice) miso — it has a nice rust color. Here’s the different varieties of miso, in case you’re interested.
- Won ton wrappers are awesome. I got the Nasoya brand. How have I not used these before? I am going to make the boyf some leftover turkey and mashed potato won tons tonight and make spinach and potato won tons for myself! I am also envisioning all sorts of dessert won tons in my future.
- I should always start cooking well before the “eating time” given to family members. The meal was to start at 3 p.m. and I was barely peeling the sweet potatoes at that point. Thankfully no one was waiting on my vegetarian dishes — the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing sufficed just fine.
- Holiday gatherings really are a test of those demons I referred to yesterday. In hindsight, I may have trivialized how family functions can be more of a dysfunction for someone who is recovering from disordered behaviors. Did you catch this NYT article on some of the quandaries faced when eating with family on holidays? I can relate to a lot of the experiences captured in the piece. I’ll have to keep this in mind for next time! Another thing I’m trying to keep in mind?
I’m a work of art in progress…
I think embracing how far I’ve come and yet still acknowledging the path before me is much healthier than either denying my need to evolve or dwelling on any perceived failures. Speaking of healthy attitudes, I wish I would have passed this along to you on Wednesday — hopefully these sentiments will help you more than the guilt-based holiday eating guides out there.
In terms of my eating behavior yesterday – I ate until I was full and then when I felt less full, I had some pumpkin cheesecake and later a slice of pumpkin pie. No dwelling shall ensue. No complaining. No guilt. Ya know why? When I woke up this morning and checked myself out in the mirror I was still me. I think we forget these things and think that after one day of convivial eating we’re going to wake up a different person or a person with an additional ass tacked on to her rear. Come on now.
How was your Thanksgiving? What was your favorite dish? Do you ever feel the “dys” making its way in your family -functions?
p.s. Complete nutritional break-down on the dishes prepared above to be amended to this post later today. I’ve got to get some studying done to appease the cranky one’s foreboding thoughts of paper failure!
<3, The Cranky One
Tags: appetizers, butternut squash, Nasoya, pastry dough, phyllo dough, Recipes, soup, thanksgiving meal options, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian meals, vegetarian recipes, won tons
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10 People have left comments on this post
what? you mean when you woke up this morning you didn’t get 10 pounds?!?!
why do we convince ourselves that gaining even an OUNCE weight from one day of minor indulgences is possible? I am so glad you were able to eat mindfully and with no guilt and realize that you can have your [cheese]cake and eat it too, metaphorically speaking 
amazing work, love!
Sounds like you had a good day! Sweet potato dumplings sound sooo good!
Even if you do overeat one day, it does not put on a ton of weight. I have to remember that, too.
3 cheers for no guilt eating!
That miso soup looks delicious! My favorite dish this Thanksgiving was mashed potatoes and gravy. It came out SO good this year!
amen about the mirror thing..it is still you! good for you girl!! and i agree, family gatherings can be tough.
but those little tart things look so cute and good!
I love wonton wrapper, actually made some wontons with thanksgiving leftovers
I also have those phyllo cups in my freezer but haven’t had the chance to put them to use (plan on making little apple crisps with them). My family is thankfully very civil, and I had a great time with everyone. No dysfunctional behavior at the dinner table 
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Looks like you did an awesome job with your cooking! Better than me since I can’t cook!!! I get to bring rolls or drinks or something like that!
I think our eating is always a work in process & the learning that goes with it about our choices to enjoy, not enjoy or something in between. We just have to learn to make the choices & feel no guilt about them afterwards. Tomorrow is another day so one day is fine as long as one day does not turn into weeks of “no control”. I love your mirror comment.. it is still you! I had a couple treats myself.. I planned for them & I was not worried about it!
I am behind on my blog reading, so forgive the late comment entry! Your soup looks a-maze-ing!!! Love it, must try it – hopefully I can find those wonton wrappers. No TJ’s around here, unfortunately.
Loved your thoughts on Thanksgiving and guilty eating in general. I still have a lot to learn about all that – still trying to sever the tie between my emotions and food.
I actually felt great about this thanksgiving – I ate one plate of food, was full, didn’t go back for seconds even though it was all SOOOO GOOD, and then split two pieces of pie with Zliten way later. There was lots of wine, of course, but I was most concerned with not stuffing myself. And I did just fine! Woo! No weight gain (even an itty loss) after so woohoo again!
Oops, hit post too quick. The food looks divine, and I LOVE WONTON WRAPPERS! So much fun. Hard to work with sometimes but so much fun. I posted a lumpia recipe a few weeks ago, and even without the pork they were DELISH.
You might also try to find an asian market in your area. I get huge tubs of miso paste in many different varieties (but I like the white stuff, it’s milder) for about 4 bucks. They also have about 20 different types of egg roll wrappers. And it’s got all sorts of fun sauces and condiments and neat things to drool over.
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