40+ Healthy and Delicious Thanksgiving Recipes

Happy Friday, everyone!

To spread the Thanksgiving love, instead of offering you a new recipe today, I decided to help you plan your Thanksgiving menu if you haven’t already and round up some Thanksgiving recipes from my blog and other blogs. One thing I love about Thanksgiving foods are the wide variety of options for even the simplest dishes such as mashed potatoes or stuffing: it’s a time when you can showcase your creativity as a cook!

40+ Healthy and Delicious Thanksgiving Recipes

Breakfast

I’m a firm believer in eating healthy and filling meals throughout the day on Thanksgiving, since it keeps me from overeating at the holiday meal itself. Have some fun with your breakfasts on Thanksgiving Day by adding squash or other popular Thanksgiving ingredients to your normal breakfast.

Whole Grain Pumpkin Spice Butternut Squash Muffins

Kabocha Squash Oatmeal 

Acorn Squash Pancakes

Cranberry Coffee Cake Muffins 

Apple Cinnamon Crockpot Steel Cut Oatmeal from The Roasted Root

Healthy Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes from Ambitious Kitchen

Sweet Potato Butternut Hash with Bacon from Paleo Running Momma

Salads and Soups

A healthy soup or a autumnal salad is a great way to a nutritional boost to your Thanksgiving meal while showcasing some of this season’s best produce.

Roasted Winter Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese and Pepitas

Warm Acorn Squash and Wild Rice Salad with Maple Lemon Dressing

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup  from Eat Spin Run Repeat

Butternut Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette and Hemp Hearts from Paleo Running Momma

Maple Bacon Brussel and Pear Salad from How Sweet It Is

Breads

Yes, there are already plenty of carbs at the Thanksgiving table, but Thanksgiving is one of the few special days of indulgence in the year (along with Mardi Gras, Christmas, and Easter). If you eat healthy most days of the year, let yourself indulge a bit and enjoy some of these breads with your Thanksgiving meal.

Whole Wheat Pecan Pumpkin Spice Bread

Sage Butter Biscuits from How Sweet It Is

Savory Spinach and Roasted Garlic Quick Bread from Edible Perspective

Homemade Sweet Potato Rolls from Oh Sweet Basil

Turkey/Main Dish

Ryan and I are turkey fans, through and through. Even when it’s just the two of us, we purchase a full turkey for our Thanksgiving meal and enjoy it for the next week (and then make stock from the bones, yummm!). We picked up a brining kit from a local organic market and will follow, as we did in the past couple years, Alton Brown’s fool-proof method for cooking turkey.

Applewood Smoked Turkey with Cider Bourbon Gravy from How Sweet It Is

Roasted Turkey with Herbed Butter and Roasted Shallots from Cookin’ Canuck

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Potatoes and Stuffing

No Thanksgiving spread is complete without mashed potatoes or candied sweet potatoes (or both!) and stuffing.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash

Lightened Up Sweet Potato Casserole from How Sweet It Is

Gluten Free Stuffing Salad with Warm Sweet Onion Dressing from Cotter Crunch

Garlic Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes from How Sweet It Is (I plan on using this recipe this year)

Wild Rice Stuffing with Butternut Squash, Pears, and Pecans from The Roasted Root

Cranberry Walnut Stuffing from The Fauxmartha

Other Side Dishes

Green bean casserole, roasted vegetables, and homemade cranberry sauces are musts for my Thanksgiving menu. Tasty side dishes are the easy way to add some vegetables to the meal!

Lightened Up Green Bean Casserole from How Sweet It Is (I’ve made this for every Thanksgiving since 2012, it’s so good!)

Crockpot Rosemary Carrot Parsnip Mash from Cotter Crunch

Pumpkin Sage Risotto from Edible Perspective

Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus from How Sweet It Is

5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce from Running to the Kitchen

Desserts

No matter how stuffed I am from the meal, I never turn down pie on Thanksgiving. My mom always made a delicious apple pie, while this year we will probably make pumpkin pie or butternut squash pie.

Butternut Squash Pie with Oat Crust

Gluten Free Apple Pear Crumble

The Best Pumpkin Pie

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

Maple Cupcakes with Pumpkin Pie Frosting from Amy’s Healthy Baking

Pumpkin Cake Cheesecake from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Paleo Pecan Pumpkin Pie Bars from Paleo Running Momma

Paleo Chocolate Pumpkin Pie from the Almond Eater

Drinks

Don’t let your menu end with the food! Be sure to pair delicious beer (see some pairings here), wine, or cocktails to enhance the flavors and lift the spirits of your Thanksgiving meal.

Maple Whiskey Sour from Gimme Some Oven

Cranberry Gin Fizz from Completely Delicious

Apple Cider Sangria from How Sweet It Is

All Natural Gin and Tonics from Minimalist Baker

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Questions of the Day:
What are you making for Thanksgiving this year?
Pumpkin pie, pecan pie, or apple pie?
What’s your favorite food blog? —> As you can tell from this round-up, I could eat everything How Sweet It Is makes. She is and always has been my favorite food blog.