1. I'm gluten intolerant. I had my suspicions before, but despite the blood tests coming up negative, eliminating it from my diet and bringing it back in is a big no-no. My body cannot tolerate it. Without cutting gluten I would not have known.
2. I like food. I like good food. I'm finding there are a lot of good recipes that are just plain delicious and are Paleo friendly.
3. Paleo cooking isn't hard. Most of the meals I have made have been extremely easy. The difficult part is saying no to the junk, finding substitutes for sugar, and my own personal problem -- alternates to all the coconut.
Some research has had to happen on my part, especially when creating a meal like today. Thanksgiving dinner for us was completely Paleo, except for some of the desserts.
In the picture above, starting at the top and going clockwise, turducken, ham, corn bread, maple bacon pecan butternut squash, green bean casserole, whipped sweet potatoes.
Look at those! Apple pie tartlets. Completely Paleo friendly and super yummy! My oven cooked a little hotter than the recipe needed, so I probably should have pulled them out a bit earlier. But, it didn't hurt and we all still loved them. You can find the recipe over at PaleoOMG.
Everything on that plate is Paleo friendly. The only thing that you can't see is the cranberry sauce that I made. Yes, I made it, in fact, I made everything from scratch. Well, I didn't make the turducken, I just bought that from the farmer's market and cooked it, I did buy the ham as well, but everything else I made. I'm not going to go into details on how I cooked everything so here are the recipe links to everything I made today: **note any place coconut oil is used I used bacon fat.
The whipped sweet potatoes were easy. I just boiled the sweet potatoes for a good long while and when they were cool enough to handle I peeled them and threw them in my crock pot. I mashed them with a potato masher, poured a little almond milk in, and put a nice coating of cinnamon over the top. Mix it all up and let it cook on low in the crock so it stayed warm for dinner. Easy dish to prepare in advance and let sit in the crock.
Look at those! Apple pie tartlets. Completely Paleo friendly and super yummy! My oven cooked a little hotter than the recipe needed, so I probably should have pulled them out a bit earlier. But, it didn't hurt and we all still loved them. You can find the recipe over at PaleoOMG.
Sooo good! I did make a pumpkin pie using a walnut pie crust but it wasn't Paleo friendly. It was gluten free, but with the molasses and brown sugar, we broke from the diet. But I say I'm ok eating it because it's my Grandpop's recipe for pumpkin pie and I just can't eat pumpkin pie unless it is his. It was different eating it with a walnut pie crust, but it was still really good.
Overall, I have to say this is the first year that my stomach isn't hurting after eating all this food! I don't feel sick or bloated, I feel good. I actually feel ready for round 2!
