Thanksgiving Goodness

Thanksgiving was kind of a revelation for me.  In searching for dishes, I found an abundance of options, all low on the glycemic index, all grain free, and all DELICIOUS!!!

I have found my all-time favorite pie crust.  It winds up having the texture of a graham cracker crust, and it is fabulously tasty!
1 1/2 cups of nut flour  (I used 1/2 C hazelnut flour and 1 C walnut flour)
4 tbsp grass fed organic butter
melt butter and mix with the nut meal/flour until it becomes a ball, then press into 8in pie plate.
Cook at 350 for 10-15 minutes

The finished product - TADA!!

In all of the recipe searching, I do not remember where I got this gem from, I am sorry. 

Another thing that I have learned is how incredibly easy it is to make my own nut meal/flour.  Dump whole nuts into a food processor and pulse until you have the consistency that you prefer.  I lucked into bags of walnuts for 99cents per 2 cup bag at Wal-Mart, so I bought all 18 bags and made walnut meal.  Therefore, walnut meal is my current favorite flour substitute. 

What about the worry of my nut meal going rancid, as nuts are wont to do, you ask?  I tossed the walnut meal into freezer bags and stored it in the freezer.  I have yet to have any nuts go bad before I can use them if I store them in the freezer.

I lifted most of my recipes directly from The Paleo Secret's website...  http://www.thepaleosecret.com/category/recipes/thanksgiving-recipes/

I made the Cranberry Relish, the Paleo Stuffing, The Sweet Potato Casserole, and the Raw Banana Pie from Paleo Secret's site.  OMG, the pie was SOOOOO good!

I had purchased some avocados very cheaply earlier this year, because I had read that they froze "beautifully".  It was not my personal experience that they freeze beautifully at all.  The texture was a little off for the guacamole, it would not chunk up well.  Guacamole loss is Raw Banana Pie's gain.  I was able to use my frozen avocados, and since it was blended in the food processor with bananas, the fact that they tend to mush up was actually an asset.

As I learn more and more to cook in a Paleo/Primal way, I am finding that I do not have to give anything up by way of taste.  I have been shocked by how colorful our dishes are now.  I had thought that Paleo would be a plainer diet, not as tasty as the diet that I was currently eating at the time.  I am happily wrong on that score.

At the end of this week, I will be doing some grocery shopping, and should be able to have a meal plan and grocery tally for a blog entry.

Cheers!
T