One medium-sized zucchini will give you about a cup to a cup-and-a-half of grated zucchini.

You can cut calories and fat from your Zucchini Bread without cutting the flavor, as this recipe from Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts illustrates.

Zucchini Bread

3/4 cup low-fat milk
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla in a medium bowl. Stir in zucchini. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake until golden brown and a wooden skewer in the center comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn on to a wire rack. Let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Makes 12 servings.

Approximate nutritional value per serving: 197 calories, 7 g fat, 29 g carbohydrates, 2 g dietary fiber, 4 g protein.

From Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts

Check the farmers market for fresh-picked carrots.

Baking carrots with honey, as in this recipe from the Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts collection, adds color, not calories to your Thanksgiving dinner. Your family won’t know the difference.

Honey-Baked Carrots

8 carrots, peeled
1/4 cup honey
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the whole carrots into a baking dish and pour on the honey, then season to taste with salt and pepper; mix until evenly coated.

Bake in the preheated oven until just tender, or cooked to your desired degree of doneness, 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Makes 8 servings.

Approximate nutritional value per serving: 57 calories, 0.1 g fat, 14.6 g carbohydrates, 1.7 g dietary fiber, 0.6 g protein.

From Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts

Kale can add color to a brown Thanksgiving meal.

Kale has become the trendy vegetable this year because of its health benefits as well as its flavor, which filled with dark green goodness.

This recipe comes from “Hawai’i's Holiday Cookbook” (Mutual Publishing, $16.95) and is listed under its Thanksgiving section. If you have started auditioning recipes for your holiday meal this year, give this one a try. It’s easy and would add color to a largely brown meal.

Kale with Fried Shallot Rings

2 pounds kale or other dark leafy greens, wash and trimmed (see note)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6 to 8 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced into rings
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add greens and cook until they wilt, 8 to 10 minutes. Plunge into ice water to stop cooking, then drain well, pressing out any moisture. (Cooked greens may be refrigerated a couple of days.)

Heat oil in shallow skillet on high. Reduce heat, add shallots and fry, stirring until uniformly golden. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reserve oil. (Shallots and oil will keep a couple of days tightly sealed.)

Chop kale. Heat 1 tablespoon shallot oil in skillet on medium-high. Toss greens in skillet until warmed through. Taste and season with salt and pepper; toss with lemon juice and top with fried shallots.

Note: Any leafy green may be used — spinach, kale, chard, collards, beet leaves, etc. Cook the stems, too; add them to the boiling water a few minutes before the leaves.

Makes 8 servings.

From “Hawai’i's Holiday Cookbook” by Muriel Miura and Betty Shimabukuro

Chef/restaurateur John Besh, of Luke restaurants in New Orleans and San Antonio.

We’re aiming today to get some color onto the Thanksgiving table. The turkey, dressing, gravy and even the top of the green bean casserole tend to be brown. So, here is one of three recipes we’re offering today to help out with that. This salad, from Lüke chef/restaurateur John Besh, is simple, especially if you roast the peppers in the oven. Grilled peppers? Even better. For Christmas, you could add green bell peppers to the blend, too. And, of course, this recipe would look great with a mix of colored bell peppers.

Roasted Red Pepper Salad

6-8 red bell peppers
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Leaves from one good-sized sprig fresh thyme
1 pinch pimentón (smoked Spanish red pepper)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat a gas or charcoal grill to high. Rub the peppers all over with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and place on grill. Grill until slightly charred and blistered on all sides. Transfer to a Ziploc bag and refrigerate until cool.

Once cool, use a paring knife to scrape and remove the skins and seeds. Rinse lightly in cold water. When they’re peeled, quarter the peppers.

Place peppers and onions in a bowl and toss with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, thyme and pimentón. Taste, season well with salt and pepper. Let sit 30 minutes before serving.

Note: if you want to do these peppers in the oven, put them on an oven rack in a 500-degree oven for 5-7 minutes until the skins blister. Proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Serves 6

From John Besh, “My Family Table”

“When Don (Strange) and his parents began to cater large parties serving their popular barbecue, Don wanted to serve side dishes that were also noteworthy, rather the same old menu of coleslaw, potato salad, and pinto beans,” writes Frances Strange in “Don Strange of Texas: His Life and Recipes” (Shearer Publishing, $34.95). “He settled on Corn Pudding, which no one else served with barbecue, and it became one of the company’s signature barbecue side dishes in the 1980s. … Hard to beat a good side dish!”

This easy-to-assemble dish will also go great with Thanksgiving turkey, grilled steaks or whatever you’re serving.

Corn Pudding

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup sour cream
2 cups cream-style corn
3 eggs, beaten
1 (6-ounce) package Pioneer Brand corn muffin mix
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; set aside. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until it is wilted and transparent, about 5 minutes. Do not allow it to brown. Remove from heat and blend the onions and sour cream in a bowl. Mix well; set aside.

In a separate large bowl, combine the creamed corn, eggs and muffin mix. Turn out into the prepared baking dish. Spoon the onion mixture evenly around the baking dish in dollops. Scatter the shredded cheese over the top and bake in preheated oven until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cut into squares and serve hot.

Makes 8 servings.

Variation: Cornshuck Pudding

For a striking presentation at a formal seated dinner, serve Corn Pudding in corn shuck “bowls,” which are made by lining a large muffin tin or popover tin with corn shucks.

Soak 12 corn shucks in a large bowl of lukewarm water for about 45 minutes, then drain and pat dry. Instead of a baking dish, use a muffin tin with 12 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) cups; spray each cup with nonstick vegetable spray. Push a softened corn shuck down into each up, letting the ends extend upward. Set aside and make the Corn Pudding as directed in the rcipe.

To bake the individual puddings, spoon equal portions of the corn batter into the muffin cups. Spoon equal portions of the sour cream mixture into the center of each cup. Scatter the shredded cheese on top of each serving and place the tin on a large baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden toothpick inserted in the enter of the cups comes out clean, for about 30 minutes.

To serve, grasp each end of the corn shucks and gently lift the puddings out. Place on individual serving plates and serve hot.

Makes 12 servings.

From “Don Strange of Texas: His Life and Recipes” by Frances Strange with Terry Thompson-Anderson