As you are no doubt aware the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, which marks the start of the traditional Christmas shopping season (did you know about Cyber Monday, though?). Black Friday is a day to revel in all-out consumerism with many people camping out at night to stake their place in line for that limited supply must-have item.
For me however, and many of my dieting brethren, Thursday is the truly dark day - Black Thursday if you will. For that is the day we are tempted to gorge ourselves at the dinner trough, crash on the plush couch and take in a little football on the boob tube until the Tryptophan kicks in and we snooze away the day.
The funny thing about this is turkey is actually healthy. Many of us during the course of a normal week will substitute ground turkey for ground beef in an effort to be more health conscious. But of course on Thanksgiving the turkey isn’t ground - it comes with skin that has been slathered in butter. And mashed potatoes with gravy, and yams, and corn pudding, and bread, and my all-time favorite that my dad makes - Cajun oyster stuffing. I’ve seen the recipe and it is more laden with butter than your average Black Friday shopper is with credit card debt. But mmm, mmm is it good.
Did I mention the pies?
So, what this means is that a plan is needed when heading into the day. Without a plan I will be stuffed and asleep by 4:00pm, and that is a fact. I don’t want to be stuffed and asleep - I want to be satisfyingly full and alertly watching the Cowboys destroy the Seahawks.
Frankly it doesn’t matter what your plan is as long as you have one. For me, it’s all about turkey skin and cajun oyster stuffing. I am going to skip the appetizers no matter how tempting, and when I load up my plate at the buffet I am going to go very light on every side dish except for the cajun oyster stuffing, which I will enjoy immensely. A couple of spoon-fulls of mashed potatoes - and a cup of stuffing sounds like a good ratio. And I will make sure that I grab extra turkey skin with my turkey.
For me, this Black Thursday is going to be all about enjoying the taste of two things I really enjoy and don’t often get - turkey skin and cajun oyster stuffing.
Oh, and did I mention the pie? A single slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream.
I’m not going to be a grazing bunny rabbit this Thanksgiving but I’m not going to be a gorging pig either - somewhere in the middle ought to ensure I have the energy to get out the next day on the real dark day - Black Friday.
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