When you think of Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, green bean casserole, corn and rolls usually come to mind, but what about fruit? We all know that fruit is an important part of any healthy diet and should be offered at every meal, but for some reason it’s frequently missing from the Thanksgiving table. What can we do about that? How can we add fruit to the Thanksgiving menu?

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Cranberry Relish – combine fresh cranberries, an orange, an apple and a carrot, grind them all together and mix in a little sugar or sweetner to taste.

If you offer a salad bar, be sure to include fruit such as pomegranate seeds, dried cranberries and Mandarin orange slices.

Many families enjoy a fruit salad at summer reunions, why not add one to the Thanksgiving menu? Here are a few links to recipes you might want to try:

• Autumn Apple Salad II
• Creamy Fruit Salad
• Easy Fruit Salad
• Frozen Fruit Salad
• Sunday Best Fruit Salad 

For dessert or an appetizer offer a fruit tray with sliced pineapple, banana, apple, Clementines, kiwi, pears and something more exotic like maybe papaya or star fruit.

For dessert consider an angel food cake or cheesecake with a variety of fresh fruits to add as toppings.

When setting the table consider using fruit as the centerpiece. You can order a fresh fruit bouquet or you can simply use beautiful fresh fruits from the market. Martha Stewart recommends fruit as a Thanksgiving centerpiece here.