Food, Holiday, Recipes

Thanksgiving 2012!

Excuse me; but when did it become the middle of November?  Thanksgiving, Christmas? What???  I lost time in Italy.  Well, I guess I actually lost track of time and I felt as if everything stood still for a while. I expected to come home and to pick up exactly where I left off but even in our absence life kept on happening. I came home to the reality that a month had gone by, October had vanished, and I was faced with the realization that the holidays were upon us. Wow, time flew by, despite my best efforts to slow it down.

I really do love Thanksgiving.  I love being with family and watching my boys play with their zillions of cousins.  I love Thanksgiving food and staying up late and laughing and playing and just “being.”  I am Thankful this year, as always, for so many things; but most of all, I’m thankful for the health of my family.

Although I deeply miss our loved ones that are not with us, the blanket of love and comfort that being with family offers always softens the bite of grief that creeps up, especially during the holidays. Coming back from a long trip just in time to rest up with the people I care for most in this world is a wonderful thing to be thankful for.

Now, let’s move on to the FOOD!  I have several holiday recipes already on the blog that you can find here, here, here, and here but I got a wild hair last night and decided to try a couple of new recipes to share with all of you.  The turkey breast recipes was inspired by a particular dish that I was introduced to while in Italy and my amazing sister-in-law Dixie gave me the inspiration for the Wild Mango Sweet Potatoes, and my immersion stick blender is to blame for the Sweet Potato and Spinach Soup (I could have eaten the entire pot so consider yourself warned!)  The Apple Crumble is simply the crust to my Blackberry Cobbler but with apples instead of the berries.

I hope your holidays are filled with joy, family, and love and please stay tuned for more blogs outlining our Italy adventures.

As always, enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Spinach Soup

 2 tablespoons ghee or lard

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 cups sliced leeks (1 large or 2 small leeks)

1 tablespoon red curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen Brand)

5-6 cups cubed sweet potatoes (I used 2 white sweet potatoes and 2 garnite yams)

2 cups chicken broth (recipe for homemade is in the Family Cookbook and Everyday Paleo)

1 cup coconut milk (I used Native Forest brand)

4 cups baby spinach leaves

About a ½  teaspoon lemon zest

¼ teaspoon garam masala

Sea salt to taste

  1. In a large soup pot, sauté the crushed garlic clove and the sliced leek in the ghee or lard over medium heat until the leeks are tender.
  2. Add the curry paste and mix well until the leeks are coated.  Add the cubed sweet potatoes, coconut milk, and chicken stock, mix well and bring to a simmer.  Turn down to low or medium low and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender.
  3. Add the spinach leaves and cook for another 5 minutes.
  4. Add the garam masala and lemon zest and mix well.
  5. Using a handheld immersion blender, vitamix, or food processor, process the soup until smooth.
  6. Season with salt and serve immediately.

Serves 6-8

  

Herbed Turkey Breast with Prosciutto

2 tablespoons fresh minced sage (you’ll want to probably quadruple this recipe if using it for a entire Turkey)

1 tablespoon fresh minced thyme

1 garlic clove minced

1 tablespoon melted ghee

Thinly sliced prosciutto di Parma

Salt

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Mix together the minced herbs, garlic, and melted ghee.
  3. Remove the skin from the turkey breast.
  4. Sprinkle the entire breast with sea salt.
  5.  Rub the top of the breast evenly with the ghee, herb, and garlic mixture.
  6. Lay strips of prosciutto on top of the breast, entirely covering the meat, and bake covered tightly with foil in the preheated oven for 2 hours and uncovered for another 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 170. (Cooking time will vary dependent on the size of the turkey breast)

Wild Mango Sweet Potatoes

2lbs sweet potatoes

2 cups peeled and diced mango

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 tablespoon honey

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Sea salt to taste

2 tablespoons butter or ghee

2 tablespoons coconut milk

Sliced almonds

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the diced mango, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, honey, cayenne, and a bit of salt.
  3. In the meantime, either bake your sweet potatoes or cook them in a pressure cooker for 6-8 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, move the cooked potatoes from the pressure cooker to a large mixing bowl, or if you baked them, scoop the insides out of the skins into a large mixing bowl.
  4. To the potatoes add the ghee or butter and coconut milk and mash together with a potato masher until smooth.
  5. Spread the potatoes into a casserole dish and evenly spread the mango mixture on top of the potatoes.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes.
  7. Sprinkle the top of the sweet potatoes and mangos with sliced almonds and finish under the broiler until the almonds are toasted. As you can see in the picture, I got distracted and left mine in too long – it was still delicious but keep a close eye so that you do not burn your almonds!
Serves 6-8

Apple Crumble

Filling

5 green apples peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons honey

½ cup dried cranberries

Crumble

 1 ½ cups almond meal

1 egg

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Cinnamon

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the crumble ingredients.
  3. In a lare mixing bowl, mix together the filling ingredients.
  4. Spread the filling on the bottom of an 8×13 baking dish.
  5. Evenly crumble the crust over the top of the filling
  6. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Serves 8-10

Sarah Fragoso

Sarah Fragoso is an international best selling author of 6 books, co-owner of the Chico, CA based gym JS Strength and Conditioning, and founder of the Everyday Paleo franchise. Sarah is the co-host of the popular Sarah and Dr. Brooke Show podcast and she also conducts workshops and retreats on the subjects of nutrition, lifestyle and fitness.

Her message is from the heart and she carries a genuine desire to help other families looking for guidance. These attributes have contributed to her successes and provide the drive to keep the discoveries coming.

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11 Comments

  1. It all looks delicious, but I am definitely going to have to make that apple crumble. Thanks for giving me an idea for something to take to my mom’s on Thursday. 🙂

  2. Whoa, turkey wrapped in some form of pork—-yum! This reminds me of a recipe I saw on Giada De Laurentiis’ show, Everyday Italian, for pancetta-wrapped pork roast. It is still on the Food Network web site if anyone is interested. I was going to use another paleo/primal turkey breast recipe for Thanksgiving but Everyday Paleo’s will be on our table this year. Thanks Sarah.

  3. That all looks scrumptious! Can’t wait to see you all and hear more about Italy!

  4. Michelle says:

    These recipes sound great! I’d love to make the apple crumble this week. What could I substitute for the egg in the crumble’s crust? Unfortunately I can’t eat eggs right now because I’m nursing my son who has an egg allergy. Mama still wants some kind of dessert on Thanksgiving 😉

    1. I think you can just leave out the egg (maybe add more coconut oil). Also – I often use ground flax seeds in baking (also in combination with eggs) since they have a way of “sticking” – especially when you let the flaxseed flour “soak” a bit in a little bit of water to a sticky dough…
      I’m gonna have to try that apple crumble too – love the idea of dried cranberries in it…!

    2. Joanna says:

      You could try 1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water, let sit 10-15 minutes. Or use 1 tbsp. ground flax seed and 2-3 tbsp. water, simmer until it gels. Hope that helps 🙂

      (realfoodallergyfree.com)

  5. Andrea says:

    Made the apple crumble last night, so good and it was a hit with my non paleo family!

  6. Devona says:

    I would love to try the Apple Crumble and have, in fact, looked at the Berry Crumble recipe in the first cookbook many times. Howevr, my daughter has a nut allergy so we have to avoid all nut products. I have previously tried to subsitute coconut flour (i think for the muffin recipe in the EVeryday Paleo book), but the texture was not right. If you subsitute coconut flour for almond meal, is the ratio the same? Any suggestions are appreciated.

    Thanks.

    1. Joanna says:

      Coconut flour is very fibrous and therefore absorbs a LOT of liquid, resulting in dense baked goods if you use too much. Recipes calling for coconut flour tend to use very little. If you want to use coconut flour in a recipe calling for almond meal/flour, use 1/3 to 1/2 as much coconut flour as almond meal. Adding some applesauce, pumpkin or mashed banana to bulk up the batter might be good when substituting. For a crumble, I would actually use shredded coconut and golden flax meal instead of the almond meal, with some coconut flour to thicken if needed, maybe some sunflower seeds for crunch. 🙂

  7. I am a diabetic and the nutritional breakdown of recipes is important to me in counting carb portions. Also, my HDH (bad) cholesterol is too high and my Cardiologist wants me to reduce my saturated fats and reduce or eliminate all flesh except for fish. That leaves a low saturated vegan diet. I have already had one cabbage (single artery bi-pass) and one Temporary Eschemic Attack and don’t want a repeat. Does this diet accommodate for these conditions? And, where can I find suitable recipes? My weight is not an issue.

  8. I love wrapping things with proscuitto, it give you such a nice crispy exterior. I would eat my own arm if you wrapped it in proscuitto!

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