Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I LOVE this time of year.
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Turkey and Gravy
Photo courtesy
culturemob.com
Turkey
Here’s a really good
brine recipe with detailed instructions from allrecipes.com. These instructions call for you to put the turkey in a bucket overnight in your fridge, but I know that I wouldn’t be able to fit a big bucket in my fridge. You can buy a brining bag at grocery stores, instead.
Here are some instructions for doing it that way. Brining will make a moister, more flavorful turkey every time. After you brine it, you can cook it whichever way you like – roast it, BBQ it.. Just don’t deep fry it in vegetable oil!
Gravy
This recipe is from Jim Lytton!
4 cups water
4 cups (1 quart) chicken stock
drippings from turkey
5-6 large carrots
5 stalks celery
1 medium onion
2 large cloves garlic
same herb mix you used on turkey
salt to taste (optional)
Dice the carrots, onion, and celery and mince the garlic. Save the innards and the neck from the turkey. Combine the water, stock, vegetables, herbs of choice, innards and neck in a large pot and heat on medium high until it starts to boil. Turn it down to low for a couple of hours until it starts to thicken and the meat starts to fall off the neck. Remove the neck and cut off the meat from it – discard the cartilage and bone. Place the neck meat back in the pot and blend with a submergible blender until smooth. Alternatively, you can use a regular blender. When your turkey is done roasting, place the drippings (skim off the big fat globules) into the gravy mixture and incorporate with the blender until smooth. At the very end, add salt to taste.
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Cauliflower Mashers
Photo courtesy Whole Foods
One head of cauliflower serves about 4 people.
1 large head cauliflower
1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
2 Tbs coconut oil
1/3 cup fresh chives
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 sprig fresh rosemary
sea salt, pepper to taste
Roughly chop the cauliflower, removing all leaves. Place in steamer and cook until it’s easy to stick a fork in it. In the meantime, mince the garlic and finely chop the chives. Sauté the garlic, chives and rosemary in coconut oil until the garlic is light golden brown. Use a food processor or a masher to mash up the florets. Put the mashed florets into a pot on the stove and add coconut milk, coconut oil, and the chive and garlic mixture. Cook on medium low heat and mash with a masher in the meantime. Or if you have a submergible blender, use that to blend mixture while it’s in the pot. Add sea salt and pepper to taste.
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Paleo Stuffing
Photo courtesy Everyday Paleo
This recipe came verbatim from Everyday Paleo
here. It serves 5-8 adults.
1 lb mild Italian pork or chicken sausage, casing removed (Sarah used chicken sausages from her local butcher)
4 ½ cups mushrooms, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
6 celery stalks, diced
4 carrots, diced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon diced fresh sage
½ tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
½ cup dried cherries, finely chopped
½ cup slivered almonds
½ tablespoon garlic powder
4 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. In a large soup pot, sauté onions in olive oil until translucent. Add the sausage and brown. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, chicken broth, cherries, almonds, sage, thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well, bring to a simmer, and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the veggies begin to absorb the chicken broth. Transfer to a large glass baking dish, cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
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This is SORT OF what your salad will look like - minus the cheese, etc... (photo courtesy myrecipes.com)
Adapted from yummyfitness.com
here. Serves about 6 people.
4-8 cups greens (spinach, lettuce, chard, etc.)
1 red bell pepper
1-1/2 cup grape tomatoes (Set a few aside to put on top of the salad.)
6 jumbo black olives
12 oz cubed chicken breast
4 hard-boiled eggs
2 avocados
Chop up the red pepper into small cubes, and slice your tomatoes in half. Cook (roast or pan-fry) the chicken breast and chop it up into small cubes. Boil the eggs and then slice them into layers. Slice the avocados up into bite-sized pieces. Put the lettuce on the bottom of a medium-sized bowl (preferably clear so you can see the layers) and then layer the sliced eggs on top of the lettuce. Then add the chicken cubes, tomatoes, avocados, and red peppers in individual layers. You can get as creative with this as you want – add a layer of mushrooms, nuts, broccoli, bacon, artichoke hearts, or anything else that you like.
Next make the
dressing (recipe below) in a separate bowl. Pour the dressing on top of the salad and let it saturate the salad layers to taste. Put the remaining tomatoes and black olives on top.
Keep refrigerated.
Simple salad dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp raw honey
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dried herbs of choice (basil, thyme, chives, rosemary, oregano, tarragon)
Instructions
- Whisk (or put in blender) balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, minced garlic, raw honey and lemon juice until blended.
- Gradually add olive oil while whisking (or blending).
- Mix salt, pepper and dried herbs in to taste.
- Store in the refrigerator.
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Sweet Potato Casserole
Photo courtesy tastespotting.com
3 large sweet potatoes, or about 2 pounds (any kind)
juice from one orange
1 tbs orange zest
3/4 cup chopped nuts of choice (just not peanuts)
1/4 cup full fat coconut milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
2 tbs coconut oil
2 tbs raw honey (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 400. Cut sweet potatoes into square inch cubes. Place sweet potatoes in a casserole dish and pour dried cherries, orange juice, orange zest, coconut milk, cinnamon, allspice, coconut oil, and honey (optional) over the top of the sweet potatoes and place the chopped nuts over the top of it all. Cover and bake for about 60 minutes or until sweet potatoes are easy to pierce with a fork.
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Cranberry Sauce
Photo courtesy blogs.babble.com
Serves about 5-8 people.
2 12-oz bags of fresh or frozen cranberries
juice of 1 orange
zest of 1 orange
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbs honey (optional)
Combine cranberries, orange juice, orange zest, cinnamon and optional honey in a saucepan and heat on medium. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until consistency is jam-like. Smash the cranberries with a spoon while they’re cooking, or leave them whole for a chunkier consistency.
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Everyday Paleo Pumpkin Pie
Photo courtesy CrossFit Reebok Firepower
I’m gonna leave this one to Sarah Fragoso at
everydaypaleo.com, as my attempts at pumpkin pie have not gone over well lately :( She has an instructional video and everything, along with this recipe verbatim
here. Serves 5-8 adults.
Crust
1/2 cup hazelnuts
1 cup pecans
4 tablespoons melted organic grass fed butter
pinch of sea salt
Preheat oven to 350. Place the nuts in a food processor and process until the nuts are a flour like or almond meal like consistency. Pour into a small mixing bowl, add the butter and salt and mix into a thick dough. Using your hands, spread evenly into a pie pan and back for 10 minutes.
Filling
14 oz can of organic pumpkin puree (nothing added, just pumpkin)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2 eggs
1/2 cup raw organic honey
1/2 cup coconut milk
While the crust is in the oven, whisk all of the pie filling ingredients together. Pour into the crust that has been baked for 10 minutes, return to the oven and bake for and additional 45 minutes.
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Vanilla Ice Cream
Photo courtesy Whole Foods
You need an ice cream maker for this one. You can buy a good Cuisinart for $70 at Bed Bath and Beyond. This is a regular in our household and was adapted from
Hula Lula Ice Cream.Makes about 2 cups of ice cream.
1 can full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup raw honey or coconut sap
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
dash sea salt
Blend all ingredients in blender. Place in ice cream maker until mixture takes on ice cream consistency. Store in freezer (if there’s any left over!).
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