If you’re hoping for tips on how to make your Thanksgiving dinner a low-cal, low-carb affair, tough. Embrace the horror — Thanksgiving is all about carbs, and with those carbs come loads of calories.

But what most people don’t realize is how easily fat can be trimmed from this otherwise heavy duty dinner. Take mashed potatoes, for instance. Keep the butter, but use skim milk and you’ve eliminated a load of fat while preserving the rich, buttery goodness we all love.

The stuffing is simple, too. Instead of butter, use olive oil (still fatty, but much healthier) and fat-free chicken broth. As for the turkey, skip the skin and stick with white meat for an exceptionally lean protein.

And if you normally whip butternut squash or sweet potatoes with butter and cream, try them cut into chunks and roasted with a bit of olive oil and fresh herbs (such as thyme and rosemary).

As for dessert ... also not as hard as you might think. In most pie recipes, it’s the crust that is the fatty culprit. Most prepared pie crusts, for example, have 7 grams of fat per serving (an eighth of a pie). Most pumpkin pies have 10 grams of fat per serving.

But pumpkin pie filling is relatively low in fat, getting just a few grams per serving from the eggs and milk.

My mother used to bake the filling in a casserole dish and call it pumpkin pudding. Made with whole milk and whole eggs, it has just 3 grams of fat per serving. Use egg whites and fat-free milk and you end up with a nearly fat-free dessert.

I’ve adapted her recipe to be baked in individual ramekins to make the presentation a little nicer (and cut cooking time).

Pumpkin Pudding

Ingredients

14-oz. can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup whole milk

3 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F. Bring a large teapot of water to a boil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs, then add them to the pumpkin mixture and whisk until smooth.

Arrange 8 ramekins in a shallow baking dish (about 2 inches deep) or lasagna pan. Spoon or ladle the pumpkin mixture into the ramekins. Place the baking pan in the oven.

With the oven open, carefully pour the hot water into the baking pan until it reaches about halfway up the ramekins. Push the baking pan to the center of the oven and bake 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake another 30 to 35 minutes, or until pumpkin is set.

Carefully remove the baking pan from the oven and remove the ramekins. Serve warm or cool.

Makes 8 servings.