omg im in lc heaven!! yay!! thanks so much for the GREAT ideas!! i cannot wait to try some of these out without telling anyone and seeing what their reactios will be!! hahahaha THANKS AGAIN

Nawchem-

I am a FIRM believer in the cooking bag -- LOVE IT! When you try to lift your turkey it will fall apart. It may turn out to be a funny looking lump of meat and bones but MAN! It will be the best turkey you ever tasted! Another nice thing is the cooking time is reduced and you don't have to worry about basting.

For my all-purpose turkeys I use about 2 sticks of butter and rub the bird down with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. It's good, easy and very traditional tasting. I have in the past tried different flavors. Once I did a soy sauce turkey that was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I don't have the recipe anymore but perhaps I'll search the net for it and share (with link provided!). A little Dijon mustard can be tasty rubbed on it and of course, minced garlic is tasty ANYWHERE (especially with butter!). You can marinade your turkey by sticking it an extra cooking bag the night before with whatever sauce you want to use. I'm currently into Drew's 10 minute marinades so that's an option. I'm not sure how I'll do mine this year and I always like to try new things. Anyone else have some turkey secrets they would like to share?

The only LC bread I've tried it Natural Ovens. It's good but REALLY grainy so I'm not sure how it would be as a stuffing. Brownberry makes one too but I have not tried it yet -- Anyone have a review on the "stuffing-ability" of the Brownberry? I'm currently looking into a few LC bread recipes too (EASY and no bread machine required type) -- I'll sample and let you know if I come up with anything decent.

Here is a soy turkey recipe I found on the net and it seems similar to the one I used before. The soy is a great flavor with the turkey. Try searching "soy sauce" "Thanksgiving turkey" --- there are quite a few more. This one seems the closest to what I made though. And of course, the link is provided!

http://www.sweetbabymedia.com/recip...r4/017207.shtml

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 2 garlic clove, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 turkey (12 to 13 pounds)

Instructions:
Combine the first seven ingredients; reserve 1 cup for basting. Pour remaining marinade into a 2-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add the turkey and seal bag; turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight, turning several times. Heat grill according to manufacturer's directions for indirect cooking or roast in a conventional oven. Tuck wings under turkey and place with breast side down on grill rack. Cover and grill for 1 hour. Add 10 briquettes to coals; turn the turkey breast-side up. Brush with reserved marinade. Cover and cook for 2 hours, adding 10 briquettes to maintain heat and brushing with marinade every 30 minutes until meat thermometer reads 185F. Cover and let stand 20 minutes before carving.

CONVENTIONAL ROASTING METHOD
Place turkey on a rack in large roaster. Bake, uncovered, at 325F for 4 to 4 1/2 hours or until meat thermometer reads 185F. Baste frequently with reserved marinade. When turkey begins to brown, cover lightly with a tent of aluminum foil.

french fried onions are o.k to have...just be careful of the quantities

Hi Sun! Just adding another LC dressing recipe

Stuffing for Poultry

1 bag of plain pork rinds, slightly crushed
1 egg beaten
1/2 can chicken broth
1/2 cup onion diced
2-3 stalks of celery, diced
sage to taste, about 1 tsp or more
2-4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp dried parsley

Cook the onions and celery in butter. Cool a bit and add sage. Toss this with the egg and add to the pork rinds. Add up to 1/2 can of broth, to desired consistancy. (I use it all, it will be absorbed)

Bake as for regular stuffing, in a casserole or in the bird. Tastes and looks like the real thing.

Carbs = 10.5 grams for the whole recipe

Cranberry Sauce Deluxe

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups of water
1 package diet (SF) lemon or orange gelatine
8 packets of sugar substitute (Splenda)
2 tablespoons of cranberry or orange liqueur
1 tablespoons Raspberry sugar free syrup
Pinch of salt

Cook cranberries in water over low heat until they pop open. Drain and press through sieve, and add boiling water until there are 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Dissolve gelatine, sugar substitute, liqueur, and syrup in hot liquid.

Chill until firm. Serves 8 ~ 4.2g carbs per serving


I got it from this website....I think

http://www.intheknow.us/cooking/for...PagePosition=10

I saw this in a recipe for Turkey Tetrazini. It says you can use guar or xanthan to thicken sauces.

Turkey Tetrazini from Dana Carpenter newsletter

2tb butter
1 small onion, diced
2 cans mushrooms, drained
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
2 tsp chicken bouillon crystals
2 tb dry sherry
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp guar or xanthan (optional, will make sauce thicker)
cooked spaghetti squash, scraped into strings, (about 3 cups)
3 cups dices leftover turkey

Over medium heat, melt butter in a heavy skillet, and start the onions and the mushrooms sauteing in it. While that's cooking, combine the cream, the half and half, bouillon crystals, sherry and guar, in a blender, and blend it for just ten seconds or so, to combine. Go back and stir your veggies. When the onion is limp and translucent, transfer half of the vegetables into the blender, add the Parmesan, and blend for another 20 seconds or so to puree the begetables. Combine the cream sauce with the spaghetti, the rest of the vegetables, and the turkey, and mix everything well. Put in a 10 cup casserole that you've sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake uncovered at 400 for 20 min unil bubbly.

6-8 servings. assuming 6 : 7g Carbs, trace of fiber, 24g protein, 492 cal

Sunspine that turkey marinade in the bag sounds great. I bought two turkeys so I'll try one in the bad and do a taste test. When you're cooking the bag you don't have to do anything else? And it will brown in there?

Yep, that's pretty much it. The instructions say to put a spoonful of flour in the bag. I have NEVER done this and I've been using the bags for years. Just make sure you poke a few air holes in the top of the bag so it does not fill up with air and explode.

After it is in, you can pretty much forget about it until it's done. Mine always browns. One tip-- a couple of times the top of the bag ended up sticking to the top of the turkey and I ended up ripping some of the browned skin off to get the bag unattached. The last few times I've been cutting the bag completely open for the last 20 mins or so. It seems to help prevent that from happening.

Gee, I just had a thought. Maybe did it stick those couple of times because of the no flour? Anyone know if that is what the flour is for? It's only 1 spoonful of flour, maybe I should add it to the bag this time and see if it makes any difference. Wait, I don't think I have any flour left in my house anymore!

BTW- the Turkey Tetrazini looks REALLY good!

wow!! IM IN LC HEAVEN!!! Thanx so much for all the great ideas!! I am sooooo excited to see how well i pull off a lc turkey day!! With all this info i can definitely do it!!!!

This is so goooooooooooood!!!!! I made this and took it to work, and my co-workers couldn't believe that it was that good. This recipe tastes just like pumkin pie without the crust!!! A little whipped cream and you have a great dessert!!!

Thanks for the recipe!!!

Pam

Here is something I like to make for the holidays...

Toasted pecan halves.

1/2 cube butter melted in a frying pan.
2 cups pecan halves
3 packets Splenda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon-Quantity depends on your desire for flavor.

Here is what I do...
Melt butter in a medium fry pan. Add pecans and cook on high heat but be careful not to burn (as it can easily.)
Cook until you start to smell the nuts brown stirring pretty constantly. Turn off fire and add the Splenda, mix well then add the vanilla extract. This will sizzle due to the alcohol then add the amount of cinnamon you desire. (I do it somewhat heavily)

Important to remove nuts to a bowl and cool completely before eating.

These nuts are great if you grind them for a pumpkin pie crust, or a topping on your fake sweet potatoes too.

Birdy...

Note: This is my recipe and if any similar are published by someone else then we are all "Good Cooks" who think alike.

Birdy-

That sounds GOOD! I just bought pecan halves at the grocery store. They were a buck a bag (1 lb I believe) and I couldn’t pass them up for such a deal. Now I have something I can make with these! Ohhh, I can’t WAIT! What a nice snack on-the-go this would make.

I do have another question. I don’t have a food processor but would love to do a pecan crust. How difficult would the roasted ones be to crush by hand? Anyone tried it? When I make spicy pork rind fried chicken fingers I crush them very finely by hand. It’s takes a little elbow grease but it comes out nice. Do you think crushing pecans would be the same way or am I nuts (pun intended!) for even considering it?

Sunspine
How about chopping them with a big butcher knife?? that might require a little less "elbow grease".
A really good investment - and a fairly small one is a coffee grinder. They work great for nut flours, and also for grinding flax seeds.

do you have a meat hammer? You might try putting them in a baggie and hammering them.

I got my coffee grinder for under $10 at Sam's, and it does a nice job on those nuts. Makes them much finer grind. A food processor would grind them to about cornmeal consistency.

You might even try a rolling pin instead of the hammer. Maybe if they were frozen first they would crush easier.

Just some thoughts.

BTW I roasted the pecans last night. GOOD STUFF. They do burn fast though don’t they? You are not kidding when you say “turn off the flame just as they start to get brown!” Even half burnt they were really tasty. I may do a tad more Splenda next time (believe me, there WILL be a next time!). It seemed some pieces were sweeter than others. Perhaps I didn’t mix it around enough (I wanted to get them out of the hot pan fast so they did not burn more). Or maybe I’ll use granular because it’s not as concentrated and will spread around more.

Regardless, very tasty! Reminded me of pecan pie

Thanks for the crushing tips everyone. I do have a coffee grinder but it’s for my coffee. I’ve heard if you grind other things in there it will get mixed up with the taste of the coffee. I’m also cheap so I’d rather not go out and but a second one unless I really HAVE to. Then again, if it grinds better than a food processor and is cheaper than one, that’s not a bad deal either. I’ll try some of the “by hand” suggestions first. If that does not work it’s off to Walmart I go!