Some ways of making your holiday meal delicious and healthier....

Sweet Potatoes

Peel and cut up the sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes and put in a covered microwavable dish with some water on the bottom (1/4 inch or so).  Make sure the cover is on loosely, so that the steam can escape.  Microwave the potatoes on high until they are soft enough for a fork to go into them, but don't make them too mushy (the time depends on the number of potatoes you are using).  Drain the water and then arrange the sweet potatoes in a casserole dish which can be top-browned in the oven.  You should arrange the sweet potatoes in one layer with a little space in between each piece of sweet potato.  Spray the sweet potatoes with some butter spray.  Sprinkle some cinammon, some brown sugar (not a ton of it, just so each potato piece has a little brown sugar on it), drizzle some maple syrup (make some designs, do not have the sweet potatoes sitting in an ocean of syrup), and throw on some mini-marshmellows

 (Again, not a lot...it should just look attractive with some small marshmallows here and there).  If you have done a good job, then when you look at the casserole dish, you should see mainly sweet potatoes with some toppings of marshmellows, brown sugar, and syrup.  Put saran wrap over this and in the refrigerator.  On Thanksgiving day, all you have to do is TOP BROWN the casserole dish until the marshmallows are toasted perfectly and the sweet potatoes are heated up.  At this point, if you want, you can sprinkle some toasted almond slivers on top of the casserole.  To toast the almonds, just put a little olive oil into a microwavable cup and put in the almonds.  Microwave on high (watch carefully) until the almonds are toasted perfectly.  YUM YUM

Cranberry Sauce

Put one bag of cranberries into a medium pot filled with about 1//4 inch of water, already boiling.  Stirring the cranberries constantly.  In about 5 minutes, WHEN THE CRANBERRIES are mostly POPPED open, take the pot off the stove and let it cool.  When the cranberries are cool, sweeten them with some splenda or nutrasweet or sugar or a combination of sugar and artificial sweetener.  If you are going to use some sugar, it is better to put it in the boiling water, first.  Taste the cranberries to make sure they taste like you want.  Different batches of cranberries differ in their tartness and may require more sweetening than others.  Grate in the orange peel (not the white part) of one orange, sprinkle in some cinammon, and sprinkle in some raisins.  We usually add some SHERRY (yuim) or, if you want an non-alcoholic version, you can add some almond extract.  You can also add some chopped pecans if you want....not too many.  Remember, this is cranberry sauce, so you should see mostly cranberries.  This cranberry dish is delicious, easy to make and can made way ahead and stored in the refrigerator.  It will be the hit of the dinner.

Turkey Gravy

Also, don't forget the trick with the turkey gravy.  Buy some FAT FREE turkey gravy in a jar at the supermarket.  Then, pour the gravy into a microwavable serving dish, add a few teaspoons of turkey drippings from the pan, stir it around so it looks very homemade, microwave and serve.  People will love this and it will be so much lower fat than the other way of making turkey gravy.  Oh, yes, hide the supermarket jar...