My Paleo Thanksgiving

Since we moved to another state in August and promptly started planting a church, traveling for Thanksgiving wasn't even on our radar. REST, however, needed to be! A week before Thanksgiving it dawned on me that Thanksgiving was in a week so I better get to planning. We picked our faves and must haves and I went to searching for their Paleo equivalents. What we came up with turned out to be delicious and just right for our little family. Here's the lineup:

Turkey
Rolls
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Pumpkin Pie
Something with Chocolate :)

Turkey:
Smoked by Dan, our friend who owns a food truck in town. Good thing, because if I was responsible for cooking that 10 pound bird, we might not have had Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. Maybe just a bunch of sides. Ha! But as it turned out, I pulled everything out of the oven at the same time. Could not have planned that better myself! I'm actually not even sure how that worked out so perfectly....because I didn't give it that much forethought. But I'm thankful it did!!

Rolls:
Hands down the BEST Paleo rolls I've ever had. I've had a few Paleo breads but this is by far the closest to the real thing. The texture!!! Perfect. I might make up a couple of batches of these and freeze them as dough balls to pull out for dinners from time to time. They are so quick and easy to make but to have some pre-made would be AWESOME! I also might try swapping the olive oil for some Kerrygold butter. Then it technically wouldn't be Paleo due to the dairy but this is when I am A-OK with adding some good fats via dairy from those Irish pasture raised cows. DELISH!!

Ingredients:
1 cup tapioca flour (starch) 

1/4 – 1/3 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup olive oil
 1 large egg, whisked

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the tapioca flour (you can substitute arrowroot flour/starch) with the salt and 1/4 cup of the coconut flour in a medium bowl. Mix well. 

Pour in oil and warm water and stir. Add the whisked egg and continue mixing until well combined.

If the mixture is too thin add one or two more tablespoons of coconut flour – one tablespoon at a time – until the mixture is a soft but somewhat sticky dough.

Scoop out about two tablespoons of the dough and roll into balls. You will be making about 8-10 rolls. Use extra tapioca flour in the palms of your hands so the dough does not stick.

Place each roll of dough onto a greased baking pan, parchment paper or one covered with a Silpat

Bake for 35 minutes

Green Bean Casserole:

This was so amazing and there was no sacrifice on flavor with this recipe. Although I shed many tears while chopping all the onions, garlic, and scallions, I would happily do it all over again for this delicious side dish. This looks lengthy but it isn't that hard once you get going. You could probably prep this the day before as well, all but the caramelized onions.

Ingredients:

1 lb Fresh Green Beans          

1/2 cup almond meal

1 1/2 cups almond milk

8 oz Roughly Chopped Mushrooms

4 oz Bacon (about 5 large strips)

1 cup Thinly Sliced Yellow Onions

1/2 cup Finely Chopped Shallots (about 3 shallots)

3 Cloves Garlic Minced

3 tsp sea salt

2 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tbsp EVOO

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Onion Topping:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Aluminum foil 

Drizzle 1 tbsp EVOO on the thinly sliced yellow onions and sprinkle with 1 tsp sea salt.

Massage the EVOO and salt evenly into the onions with your hands.

Spread the onions out on the baking sheet evenly.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350F, stirring/flipping every 10 minutes.

You’re looking for a brown/crispy texture.

[Note: cook for an additional 5+ minutes if they aren’t crispy enough].

Green Beans:

Put a large pot of water and salt on high heat and bring to a boil.

Trim the green beans and cut in half and add to the water when it starts boiling.

Boil for 5 minutes then strain the water and set green beans aside in a separate bowl.

Filling:

Roughly chop the bacon and add to a sauté pan on high heat.

Lightly crisp the bacon then add the chopped shallots.

Once the shallots are slightly clear, add the minced garlic.

After a few minutes, add the mushrooms and continue to stir on medium/high heat.

When the mushrooms have cooked down and have a golden color, remove the entire bacon/scallion/garlic/mushroom mixture and place aside in a separate bowl.

Cream:

In the pot you boiled the green beans in, place over med/low heat and add 1 tbsp EVOO and 1 cup of the almond milk and stir with a metal whisk.

Add half of the almond meal and whisk until it dissolves.

Carefully add the rest of the almond milk and almond meal, whisking the mixture together over a medium simmer.

Add 2 tsp sea salt and the 2 tsp pepper.

Whisk until the gravy thickens slightly to the texture of heavy cream.

Reduce the heat and add the bacon/mushroom mixture then stir.

Add the green beans to the sauté pan and stir.

Pour the entire mixture into a medium-sized casserole dish.

Cover with aluminum foil & the lid (if you have one) and bake at 350F for 15 minutes.

Remove the foil/lid and sprinkle the dried onions evenly on top.

Place back in oven for 5 minutes at 350F uncovered.

Sweet Potato Casserole:
This was my fourth time to make a Paleo Sweet Potato Casserole. This wasn't my favorite version so I will be hunting for the first one we (my hubby and I) ever made because it was quite a bit tastier than this one but this one isn't bad either. Although I doubled the Maple Syrup and added a bit extra on the spices because I remembered from the last time I made this that it was lacking in flavor and sweetness. I prepped the sweet potato mixture the day before and stored it in the casserole dish I was going to bake it in. I mixed up the topping just before it was time to bake it.

Ingredients:

4 large sweet potatoes                                          Pecan Topping:

1/2 cup canned coconut milk                               3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 Tbsp. coconut oil                                              1 tsp cinnamon

1-2 Tbsp. maple syrup (double this)                    1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp cinnamon                                                    1 tsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp nutmeg

juice of half an orange

Bake potatoes in oven at 350 degrees for an hour and a half or until done. Scoop out potatoes and place in a large mixing bowl with all other ingredients (except pecan topping ingredients). Adjust seasonings to taste.

In a small bowl, combine all topping ingredients until pecans are well coated.

Dump sweet potatoes into an oven safe dish and top with pecans.

Bake in preheated oven until topping is browned--about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Pie:
Call me crazy but Pumpkin Pie is not one of my must haves. I made it for the hubs and I was quite content with this recipe. Definitely a keeper. This recipe came from Danielle Walker's website:here.

The whipped cream was the cream (the hard stuff on top) from a can of coconut milk (opened and placed in fridge overnight) mixed well with some maple syrup and vanilla to taste.

Something Chocolate: 
I made two things. Sun Butter Bars and Almond Bark out of Ghiradeli dark chocolate. The Sun Butter bars sadly went into the trash. Pretty gross if you ask me but I guess I'm just too used to almond butter or peanut butter. I bet those bars would have been amazing with peanut butter! I might be making some of those in the near future. I know PB isn't exactly Paleo either but it is one more exception I am ok with from time to time. Recipe here.

The Almond Bark was delicious and beyond easy to make. Just melt the chocolate, stir in the almonds, pour over wax paper on a cookie sheet, refrigerate til hard, break into pieces and CONSUME. Yum.

And that was our Thanksgiving, ladies and gentlemen. All the flavors of Thanksgiving with a healthy twist! Next year I plan on making Paleo Stuffing but I just didn't get my act together fast enough to prep some paleo bread a few days ahead of time. Next year though. And maybe some kind of sub for mac n cheese for the kids. And their big kid parents. :)

Passage to Paleo Part One

I haven't always eaten this way. And it certainly didn't happen overnight. The very first change I made to my eating habits happened in February of 2008. The year I got married. But at the time of this change, I had no idea I would be getting married that August!

I was on a mission trip in Mexico for a month where we had been several times before. Upon arriving that February (seeing them last that previous November) our local friends had no problems pointing out that I had put on some weight. Of course I had! Thanksgiving? Christmas? New Years? Then back to Mexico at the beginning of February? Who doesn't pack on a few pounds over those holidays? They weren't pointing out anything I didn't already know though. I had been convicted of my eating patterns just before this trip so this was just another reminder to get with the program.

When I arrived home I met up with a friend of mine (pictured with my firstborn below) who had recently told me she was once addicted to food and had lost over 300 pounds by completely eliminating sugar and wheat. She taught me a few things, took me grocery shopping, and gave me a cookbook. Over the next few days and weeks I started making changes and eventually stuck to it 100%.

I had never felt better in my life.

I had struggled with acne from puberty up til that point and for the first time in my life my skin was CLEAR!

In May I started dating the man I was going to marry that August. We got engaged just 10 days after dating and left the country 12 days later. I stuck to my diet as BEST as I could working at a camp in Ecuador and Canada. I arrived home just 4 days before my wedding. Got married and 12 days or so later moved from Texas to Kentucky. Can you say whirlwind? Whirl. Wind.

In the process of getting settled I went back to fast food. And my face went back to breaking out. And shortly thereafter I entered into depression. It wasn't until my first Whole30 almost 5 years later that I realized the food I ate when I first got married more than likely was the main culprit in my depression.

We spent the first 3 1/2 years of our marriage in Louisville, Kentucky where we enjoyed eating at local restaurant's and I wanted to learn how to cook healthy things and I experimented once and awhile but mostly we ate out. We had our first baby in Louisville and 10 months later moved back to Texas.

The first month in our new house (March 2012), our first house ever, I followed Jillian Michael's one month plan to a T. I also found out I was pregnant around this time. I had little to no morning sickness and wonder if it was due to our healthy eating. We continued to eat far more healthy than we did before once that one month boot camp was up and we ate at home more as well. I didn't realize it at the time but we still had a long ways to go to get to Paleo.

That September of 2012 we started our first Gospel Community group in our home and we had a lot of Crossfitters and Paleo peeps in our GC. Zoe was born that October and within a week I weighed 7 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. All that healthy eating paid off!!

The following October (2013) my friend Abbey asked if I wanted to do a Whole30 with her. I said "yes" and for the first time ever I cooked three meals a day, seven days a week, for four weeks straight. It was SO. MUCH. WORK.

BUT...

My hubby and I never felt better. I laughed at his jokes (I never did that before...they were just annoying). I slept perfectly every single night. I felt energetic all day long, no slumps. My mind was CLEAR. My mood, wait for it....was STABLE. No depression. No sadness. I think I lost like 14 pounds too! I think I got down as low as 130 pounds. With no exercise. Just diet.

Our first meal post Whole30 was a pizza from West Crust. So good. I believe we got a gluten free crust so as to not totally destroy the last 30 days of work we put in. Slowly, but surely, old habits creeped back in and I was DONE cooking every meal! However, we still ate healthier, and certainly more Paleo, than we did before the Whole30 and now I had a lot of great healthy recipes to add to my rotation. Two steps forward, one step back. Slow progress. But progress, nonetheless.

The following Spring (2014) we found out we were pregnant with our third. And our third brought out some health problems. First my thyroid at 13 weeks or so, then high blood sugars around 18 weeks. I went strict no refined carbs, no sugar until 26 weeks when I passed my glucose tolerance test. After that I slowly allowed some things in my diet that I had previously cut out but I didn't go completely overboard. The last week of my pregnancy I finally gave in and had bowls of cereal (really my only pregnancy craving); gluten free chocolate chex was my fave! My gut did not approve. It was my 'last meal' before heading to the hospital to give birth and that bowl of cereal plus the stress of labor completely destroyed my gut. Abbey was born, no problems, and then a few days later after fried chicken and apple fritters (rewards for birthing a baby) I had the WORST abdominal cramps I had ever had. We searched for tums to no avail so I turned to my essential oils. I started taking basil in a capsule every 4 hours which took care of the cramps but didn't necessarily address the root cause.

Abbey's first month of life (January 2015) was another whirlwind of sorts. She spit up like no baby I had had before and was fussy as all get out! Gassy too! Not to mention jaundiced and tongue tied but thats another story for another time. I was determined to figure out what was causing her to be/do all those things! This led me to begin my second Whole30 sometime around March. We were also renovating our kitchen. I don't advise starting Whole30 during a kitchen reno. Or right after you have a baby. Ha. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Anywho, I quickly learned I was going to have to cut out even healthy things like sweet potatoes and broccoli to keep Abbey from getting gassy and spitting up. Dairy and soy could take up to 6 weeks to leave mine and Abbey's systems so I had to wait at least THAT long to see if food was affecting her spitting up.

I posted daily pics to Facebook of every meal I ate each day and occasionally commenting on Abbey's health. A FB friend of mine messaged me separately and we started chatting about all things food and babies. She was a wealth of information. And somewhere along the way another friend of mine mentioned Dr. Ben Edwards with Veritas Medical in Lubbock, TX and she sent me his intro videos. I watched them and was amazed.

This leads to Part 2. The part that put Paleo on steroids.

Writing this and reflecting on this journey has made me realize just how much has changed just in the last 6 months! When doing Whole30 I NEVER thought it was sustainable. And while we don't eat strict Whole30, it's pretty darn close. Stay tuned for Part 2.