Thanksgiving Dinner

We had it early on account of being away this weekend. It turned out absolutely delicious. A few of the items are from the Everyday Paleo website… others are our own. Here they are:

APPETIZERS:

1. Stuffed Mushrooms:

* 20 white mushrooms
* zucchini
* chives
* red and yellow peppers
* red onion
* garlic

– Hollow out the mushrooms and place on a baking sheet
– Drizzle olive oil over the hollow part of the mushrooms
– Dice up all the other vegetables and saute
– Stuff the vegetable mixture into the mushrooms
– Top them with herb goat cheese if you want a little treat
– Bake for about 15 minutes
– Warn your guests to wait a few minutes and blow on them a lot before eating them 😉

2. Prosciutto Wrapped Pears:

* half a red onion thinly sliced
* 3-4 large pears
* 150 grams of prosciutto (thin but long slices work best)
* spinach (was supposed to go into this little treat, but somebody in my house ate the spinach earlier that day)
* 1 tbsp coconut oil
* 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

– saute the onion slices in the coconut oil until brown but not burned.
– peel and cut the pears into large slices
– top a piece of pear with onion, piece of spinach ( 🙁 ), and wrap with a strip of prosciutto
– bake on a baking sheet for 8 minutes.
– eat 3 before you serve them because by the time you go back over to the appetizer table they will be gone. seriously. The sweet and salty combo is so good.

MAINS:

1. Turduckin:

JF's big mit is ruining the scale of this picture!

Seriously, that is a full size baking sheet it’s sitting on!

We ordered this beast from Steve at The Cup. This one is a duck stuffed with turkey, chicken and bacon.

2. Stuffing: So. Good.

*1 package of Nester’s mild Italian pork sausage, casing removed
* 4 ½ cups mushrooms, diced
* 1 medium yellow onion, diced
* 6 celery stalks, diced
* 4 carrots from the farm garden, diced
* 1/2 cup organic salt reduced chicken broth
* 1 tablespoon diced fresh sage
* ½ tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
* ½ cup dried cherries, finely chopped
* ½ cup sliced almonds
* 4 large cloves of garlic
* 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.

3. Broccoli/Cauliflower Casserole – This one was shockingly delicious given the aversion you may have for it by the time it goes in the oven… why does broccoli always smell like a fart when it’s in dishes?

* 2 ½ cups broccoli florets, finely chopped
* 1 ½ cups of cauliflower, finely chopped
* 1 shallot finely chopped
* 2 eggs
* 1/3 cup coconut milk
* ½ teaspoon black pepper
* ½ teaspoon sea salt
* 4 garlic cloves, minced

– In a medium sized bowl, mix together the shallots, broccoli and cauliflower.
– In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, garlic, salt and pepper.
– Pour the egg/coconut milk mixture over the broccoli, cauliflower and shallots and mix well.
– Bake in an 11’ round glass baking dish (we used a medium size rectangular with a glass cover), covered at 350 for 45 minutes.

4. Coconut Mashed Yams:

* 2-4 large yams
* 1-2 tsp olive oil
* 4 large cloves of garlic (this is a good one to dose people with garlic)
* 1-2 tsp of dried thyme
* 1/4-1/2 tsp allspice
* 1-2 tsp sea salt
* 1/2-1 cup organic coconut milk
* 1/4 tsp ground pepper

– Heath oil, garlic and thyme and saute until garlic is golden
– Boil yams in small pieces
– Add all ingredients and mash
– Add more coconut milk for more moisture or more salt to taste

5. Cranberry Sauce: Oops no picture… you can probably guess what it looked like 🙂

*4 cups fresh cranberries
* 1 cup water
* 1 cup unfiltered apple juice
* Juice from 1 orange
* 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
* ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons raw organic honey (make it 4 tablespoons if you like a sweeter sauce)

– In a large soup pot add the cranberries, water, apple juice, and orange juice and bring to a boil.
– Add the ginger, cinnamon, and honey and simmer, stirring often until the cranberries are broken down and the sauce becomes thick, about 10-15 minutes.

DESSERT:

1. Pumpkin Pie topped with Coconut Bliss Icecream

– 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 bake for 10 minutes.

– Filling-
* 1 – 14oz can of organic pumpkin puree (nothing added, just pumpkin)
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 tbsp 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.
– Because of oven space we pre-made the crust and then put the whole back in the oven while we ate dinner.
– Top with Vanilla Coconut Bliss

2. Truffles: See previous post for recipe!

3. Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries:

This dinner was so delicious. We way over ate and the leftovers have been good all week for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Enjoy, Happy Thanksgiving! I will be eating weird runner food while you are all feasting on turkey.

Heather

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