Here’s to a clean, delicious, and company pleasing Thanksgiving dinner that is healthy to boot.
With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it might be a great idea to encourage you to plan a traditional dinner, but to use super healthy recipes.
Those of you who know me, are aware that the last few years have been a journey for me to get well and recover from Undefined Autoimmune Disease, and that I now eat totally different from the way I grew up.
It’s not a choice. Its self-defense. This has been a complete re-education to find foods that are good for me and that don’t make me sick.
I have discovered the many foods that trigger inflammation for me through a sensitivity test, and I avoid them now like the plague.
Having a flare is not worth eating a food, no matter how delicious it is, because a flare comes not only with me gaining 5 pounds over night, a flare includes brain fog and pain. Yep pain. And no food is worth that. Not only that, but the flare lasts, sometimes days, sometimes more than a week. Gone are the days when I hurt so bad I don’t want to get out of bed, and I am not going back there now if I can avoid it.
However, I am NOT deprived. I have learned to cook around my food idiosyncrasies. And the food is incredibly delicious.
In all honesty, since I am now cooking a major portion of what we eat, instead of being deprived, the quality of the food we eat and the deliciousness of the food we cook is “way better” than how we used to eat. My husband and I often look at each other as we sit down for some delicious dinner and joke that this is what deprivation looks like.
Before I got sick, I was a good cook. Retraining myself to eat this way has made me into a great cook
I cook many dinners as a short order cook. Thanksgiving is not one of those meals. But, even before I got sick, Thanksgiving dinner was a complicated, time consuming meal.
But it is also one of the meals that many of you are actually going to go to the kitchen and cook yourself. So it makes sense to me that this is a good place for me to start to entice you that you can eat healthy and clean and still make yummy food (that your company won’t even realize is so good for them)
This is also a good way for me to introduce me to some of my favorite cooks and cookbooks. So I am sharing the meal that I cooked last year, and my company was dazzled.
Nom Nom Paleo Butterflied Big Bird Spatchcocked Turkey
Against All Grain Grain Free Stuffing
Nom Nom Paleo Cran-cherry Sauce
Mashed Cauliflower by Deliciously Organic. A personal favorite in my house
Deliciously Organic Green Beans with Brown Butter and Pepitas
Kale Salad from Deliciously Organic with Cranberry Vinagrette and walnuts
Against all Grain Maple Pumpkin Pie
There are times when I read a recipe and then make variations to it, in order to eliminate something that attacks me. Since dairy is a problem for me, when it comes to butter, I use Ghee. Where certain herbs are called for, that are on my no no list, I simply eliminate them (like sage) The end product is still yummy, and my body thanks me for it.
I also have included the green bean recipe in spite of the fact that they are a food sensitivity for me. We will do a different vegetable this year, maybe Danielle Walkers creamed spinach, from her Celebrations cookbook. Total deliciousness.
One last comment, whenever possible, eat organic. I buy organic free run turkey from Whole Foods and most of our vegetables from the local Farmers market. Eliminating toxins is a big part of being healthy and well.
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