I’d like to say we enjoyed a low-carb Thanksgiving, but I’d be telling a half-truth. Actually, we enjoyed a lower carb Thanksgiving.

I modified the ingredients in some foods and didn’t cook others to reduce the carb load. However, not everyone at my Thanksgiving table is on a low-carb eating plan so I made a few dishes to satisfy the high-carb eaters.

The modifications were small, but enough to lower the carb content. The stuffing, for example, was made with nut bread instead of the usual cornbread. Also, I added several more root vegetable dishes to make up for the lack of mashed potato and a few other high-carb foods.

I’ve got to say the cheesy, creamy rutabaga was a big hit.

Lower Carb Desserts

For dessert I made two versions of the mascarpone nutty chocolates, one with coconut and cashews, and the other with carob and cashews (minus the coconut because one finicky eater doesn’t like coconut).

Instead of making the little bite-sized drops, I created two long mascarpone logs and chilled them. Once chilled, I cut them into bite-sized pieces and topped them with the chocolate sauce (here’s the original recipe ).

Of course, we made the obligatory cheesecake but I used coconut crystals instead of white sugar. With ingredients like cream cheese, eggs and coconut crystals, how bad could it be? Okay, okay, I did use the store-bought pie crust that I had in the pantry. I only used it because I ran low on almonds and didn’t have enough to make the low-carb crust.

Atop the cheesecake, we used heavy cream and a sprinkle of coconut crystals to whip up healthy portions of whipped cream. The cheesecake was decadently delicious.

A Thanksgiving Low Carb Observation

We all stayed awake and didn’t get the usual after turkey sleepies. Yes, we were full, but full and awake. In all my years of celebrating Thanksgiving, this was the first year where no one fell asleep after dinner. Imagine that?