Paleo-Friendly Creamed Spinach
Ingredients
1T. Bacon Fat
1lb Fresh Baby Spinach ( I use slightly more)
3 Garlic Cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 can of Coconut Milk (full fat)
1/2T. Chipotle Powder
Sea Salt and Black Pepper
- In a large saute pan, heat oil over medium heat.
- Add spinach and garlic to heated pan and toss to coat. Saute until slightly wilted, about 3 minutes.
- Add
coconut milk and chipotle. Stir. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a
simmer and then reduce the heat. Cook until coconut milk had been
absorbed and reduced, about 25 minutes. The mixture can be transferred
to a baking dish and kept warm while other dishes are cooked or put a
lid on the pan and reheat when ready to serve.
This creamed spinach recipe is one of my favorites, we have it for special occasions, besides Thanksgiving throughout the year. I like to cook up a couple slices of bacon chopped small, then us the grease to cook the in and add the bacon to the final product...yum! Hope you enjoy it too, it has a nice little smokey kick to it!
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Cranberry Sauce
Half Cranberry Sauce and Half Sour Cherry Orange Cranberry Sauce.
This recipe is from Jen's Gone Paleo and her recipe for Sour-Cherry Orange Cranberry Sauce, I have made some modifications to the original recipe, which you can find here.
Cherry-Orange Cranberry Sauce
Cherry Orange Cranberry SauceO
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup juice fresh squeezed juice from orange
1/2-1 TBSP Orange zest (depending on your preference)
1/3 cup dried sour cherries or craisins (juice sweetened is preferred)
2 tsp raw honey (optional)
2 TBSP Water
Cranberry Sauce
Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until all the cranberries are popped and the mixture is nice and thick. If at any point during the cooking process the mixture appears to be to thick you can add more water if you would like. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, remove from heat, let cool and serve.
I personally prefer the Cherry version but for those of you looking for a more tradition Cranberry sauce, the second is a very tasty version! Enjoy!
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Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts
These are a family favorite!
2 pounds of brussels sprouts ( I use a bag from Costco)
1/3 cup of olive oil (honestly I just drizzle mine and coat them well and don't measure)
Sea Salt
Course ground pepper
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Trim your Brussels Sprouts Slice in half and place in a shallow baking pan ( I use a jelly roll pan), drizzle olive oil over and stir to coat evenly. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Place baking sheet on the middle rack of your oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes. Stirring or shaking about every 10 minutes. When they are dark brown, and almost black they are done. We love the almost burnt crispy parts the best...very yummy!
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Sweet Potatoes
You have lot's of options with these, baking them, mashing them, or there are an assortment of recipes out on the internet for Paleo Sweet Potato Casserole. I think I am going to go with baked this year with a dollop of butter.
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Dressing or Stuffing
I have not had time to test any of these recipes out yet, and personally I am not a big sausage or mushroom fan, so I am offering some recipes from my favorite sites. I have not tried these yet and personally I think I am going to try making a loaf of paleo bread and then making it into stuffing. So here are some options to think about:
Here is Sarah Fragoso of Everyday Paleo's Recipe for Stuffing:
Stuffing
1 lb mild Italian pork or chicken sausage, casing removed (I used chicken sausages from my 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.
To view all of Sarah's Thanksgiving recipes from last year
look here.
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Jen's Gone Paleo's
For more of her Thanksgiving recipes see her post
here.
Paleo Dressing/Stuffing...Depending on Where You Cook It.
Ingredients
3T. Ghee
2T. Olive Oil
1.5lbs Mushrooms (I used baby bellas), chopped
4 Celery Stalk, chopped
1 Leek, white and light green portions chopped
1lb Ground Sausage (It's all about the sausage, so use something good!)
1T. Fresh Thyme Leaves
1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Sage
1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Parsley, plus extra for garnish
1.5-2lbs Butternut Squash, cut into 1/2" cubes
Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste
Turkey Neck (if you've got one from your bird)
- In
a large fry pan over medium heat, heat the oil and ghee. Add the
mushrooms, toss in oil to coat, and cook until browned, about 5-7
minutes. Add the sausage, leek, celery, sage, thyme, season with a
little salt and pepper and cook, breaking up the meat into small pieces
with a wooden spoon, until the meat browns and is cooked through and the
vegetables are translucent, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and fold in the butternut squash and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer
mixture to a baking dish, lay the turkey neck on top, and cover. Cook,
covered at 375F for 1 hour and 1/2 hour uncovered, until squash is
cooked through and liquid is mostly absorbed.
- Serve with turkey and enjoy!
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Food Lover's Primal Palate Pork Stuffing and more Thanksgiving recipes can be found here.
Ingredients For Stuffing:
1 pound ground pork
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 packs of button mushrooms, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons each, rosemary, thyme, and sage, minced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tsp each, fennel seeds, anise, and paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp coconut oil
**Note:
Adjust stuffing measurements accordingly depending on amount of people
being served. This stuffing filled a 16 lb turkey, as well as a 5 qt
braising pan.
Process For Stuffing:
- Heat coconut oil in a large skillet on medium heat.
- Place bell pepper, mushrooms, and celery into skillet and saute.
- In
a large mixing bowl, combine ground pork, onion, garlic, rosemary,
thyme, sage, fennel seeds, anise, paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper.
- Add ground pork mixture to skillet, and cook until pork is browned slightly.
- Remove from heat, and discard any liquid in the pan.
Dessert
For the
pies I used my favorite pie crust recipe which is taken from the cookbook, The
Food Lovers Make It Paleo (by the bloggers of Primal Palate). It is on
page 380 in their cookblook, it makes a thick crust and you may want to use
slightly less of the dough, but I liked it with the thick crust. It is
very unlike a wheat pie crust, and has a slightly sweet taste. I don't
enjoy traditional pie crust to much but this one is yummy and I enjoyed it with
my pie very much!
Almond Flour Pie Crust
Stir ingredients well, I found
mixing it with my hands the easiest way to
2 1/2 cups
almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup palm
shortening ( I subbed coconut oil), melted
2 TBSP vanilla
2 TBSP Pure
Maple Syrup
Preheat your
oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl combine all the dry ingredients and
addd the wet ingredients to it.
do this.
My dough was
really soft so I chilled it in the fridge for 20 minutses. Then greased a
glass pyrex pie pan and patted the dough in evenly. I then baked it for 15 minutes. Removed and poured in the pumpkin
pie mix or the apples and baked accordingly.
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Pumpkin Pie Filling
1 3/4 cups or
14 oz. can pumpkin (not pumkin pie mix, just pumkin)
2 eggs
1/2 cup raw
honey
1/2 cup full
fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons
siagon cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground
cloves
1/8 tsp ground
ginger
While your
crust is baking is the perfect time to combine all these ingredients using a
hand mixer. Remove crust from oven, pour pumpkin pie filling in then
return to oven. Bake at 325 degrees for 45-55 minutes, until set in the
middle. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack until ready to
serve. Enjoy
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Paleo Apple Pie Filling
5 apples
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
(optional)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
For Crumble
topping:
3/4 cup almond
meal
1/2 cup
shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup chopped
pecans
1/2 tsp
cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp sea
salt
2 1/2 TBSP+ 1
tsp coconut oil or butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 TBSP Pure
Maple syrup
I used 1 TSBP of coconut flour but
felt it made the pie a little dry, so next time I will either exlcude it or
reduce it.
Start by
preparing your crumble topping and then set it aside.
Then peel and
very thinly slice your apples, placing them in a large mixing bowl. Add
the spices and stir well to coat them all. Then pour the apples into your
pie crust after it comes out of the oven. Using some of the crumble topping (or
all if you like a lot), top your pie. Then place the pie back in your 325
degree oven and bake for about another hour ( I would start checking it at
about 45 minuts). I covered my pie after about 20-30 minutes with foil to
keep it from over browning and lowered the rack in the oven a bit.
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Baked Dates
This recipe is
quick and easy and is for those of you looking for alternative to baking
pies. They are super yummy with the carmelized date and roasted
pecan. You could even add a little cinnamon if you like.
Ingredients:
fresh dates,
pits removed
unroasted
pecans
coconut oil
Preheat your
oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8x8 pan. Slice into your dates
lenghtwise, being careful not to slice all the way through. Then place a whole
pecan in the slit you made and place it in your prepared pan. When your pan is
full or you have made the amount you need place the pan in the oven and bake
for about 10 minutes. Again it depends on your oven. It may take a
little longer, what you are looking for is for the dates to carmelize a bit and
the pecan to get a little toasted. Cool slightly and enjoy! This
are a yummy treat just be careful you don't eat to many!
