Let’s recap the weekend. It was really fun. Friday night I went to bed at 9 after I rolled out on lacrosse ball on my living room floor while watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. Thrilling, I tell you. But it was needed. I had to get up extra early on Saturday morning to get my butt to MBS CrossFit for their Turkey Challenge. Super fun competition in a super awesome gym. No seriously, it’s in an airplane hanger. How freakin cool is that? Well, it was a really wonderful day. Colorado CrossFit athletes are pretty damn awesome. I got to see so many great athletes, some really good looking people, AND readers of my blog. So cool. Finding out people have actually tried some of MY recipes really means the world to me. Ok, now I’m just being emotional. I hate emotions.
But the real excitement of the day (other than eating a bag of dark chocolate almonds and a pint of coconut milk ice cream after the competition) were the half naked men. That’s the best part of CrossFit, right? Extremely good looking people taking off their clothes while lifting heavy objects and throwin down. Right. Good looking people should just never wear shirts. Just kidding…kind of. You know what good looking people should definitely not wear though? Five fingers. Oh sh*t, I just offended the hell out of some people reading this. CrossFitters love five fingers. They think they become incredibly quick, more nimble, and one with the earth. In my opinion, your shoes make me uncomfortable. Seeing a good looking guy with a fit bod then seeing his wiggly little toes in those shoes really makes me nervous. Legit nervous. I wore toe socks on Christmas day when I was 6 and found them in my stocking. It was cute then, and funny. It’s not cute now. I don’t care if your feet issues went away when you got them, you still look like a creeper. Get some minimal shoes that don’t put your toes on display like a porn star. That last sentence made sense in my brain.
Moving on. Holy sh*t, I’m full. I just ate a lot. Far too much. I guess that’s what Thanksgiving is all about though, right? I know, that’s wrong. Thanksgiving is all about pumpkin pie. But I had to come up with Thanksgiving recipes so I could fit in with all the other paleo bloggers out there. BUT, if you are looking for some fancy turkey recipes, don’t think you’re going to find them here. I honestly don’t give a sh*t about turkey. Thanksgiving, to me, is all about the comfort food. The side dishes. And the dessert. So that’s what you will be getting in the next 3 days. Two sides and one dessert.
Paleo Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1lb ground pork sausage
- 5 pieces of bacon, diced
- 5 stalks of celery, diced
- 1 yellow sweet potato (is that a yam? or a sweet potato? whatever.)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 container of mushrooms, diced
- 2 apples, diced
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil, throw diced sweet potatoes/yams on it, sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender, then set aside.
- While those cook, pull out a large skillet, place it under medium-high heat and place chopped bacon in it to begin to cook down. When some of the fat has seeped out and bacon has begun to cook, add your chopped apples, celery, and onions.
- When onions begin to become translucent, add ground pork and mushrooms and your white wine vinegar. Let that cook down until pork is almost completely cooked through. You will be placing it in the oven so you want it pretty close to done. (If you’re not sure how long that will be, use your eyes. Pink meat is not what we want here people.) Add salt and pepper, to taste.
- Once the sausage is all done, add mixture to a bowl to cool. Now beat your eggs, add to your sausage mixture, and add your chicken broth, along with your sweet potatoes, pecans, and dried cranberries. Mix well.
- You can now either use a 9×13 baking dish to place your stuffing in OR place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Either way will work.
- Bake at 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until everything is a bit browned.
- Eat it up!!!! OMG OMG, its so good. Laura gave it a 9.
Yay Aaron!! It totally is a meal in itself. I was so full after eating that haha!
Does this freeze well? Any idea of how many servings this would make?
Around 4-5 servings, not sure if it freezes well though!
This recipe freezes so well, I actually make extra so I can freeze it
Don’t you have any concerns about eating pork? I do….has so much junk in it. I like it, and this stuffing dish would BE my calorie allotment, unless I was able to contain it to a tablespoon! Anyway, we have up pork a few years ago, after reading The Maker’s Diet.
Thanks so much for this gorgeous recipe! It’s Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, and i texted the ingredients in to my husband, and we made it less than an hour later – delicious! AND it fed my whole family (i have eight children!) with leftovers – it’s all gone today, and we will be making it again for sure :)… Thanks for making a paleo Thanksgiving even more special 🙂
I totally made it this past weekend too! Yum!! I am supposedly not supposed to have eggs due to a slow reaction allergy I have to them. How might I be able to filter through some of these delicious recipes that don’t have eggs in them? I still ate this though and felt fine. Yipeee! And it was very tasty 🙂
I read that chia seeds could be used as an egg sub in foods in which eggs are used as a binder. Here is the recipe. http://www.ehow.com/how_8259718_use-chia-seeds-replace-eggs.html
wowoooowwww!!! best stuffing i ever had, hands down!!! just ate it again for breakfast!!! it was a hit at dinner!! i think ill be making this year round! thanks guys
So so yum! I made it with yam instead of yellow sweet potato. I may double the yam (or do 1 of each) next time. Also, I didn’t love the bacon, but I think it’s cuz I didn’t cook it long enough – it never got charred and crispy. I’m thinking of contributing this to my (non-paleo) family thanksgiving dinner! Thanks!!!
I absolutely agree with you about the 5 fingers. Can’t stand them. Want to stomp on peoples feet and ask them why? Why wear shoes that are so “close” to being barefoot when you could just, you know, go BAREFOOT!?
I sooo want to make this for our Paleo Thanksgiving this year, but I’m allergic to mushrooms (weird, I know). Is there a good sub for them, or should I just leave them out?
Just leave them out 🙂 you could add in a different veggie OR just add a bit more yams/sweet potatoes!
This all sounds amazing, but I hate mushrooms…my chef husband says to sub peeled, cubed eggplant. Thanks for the recipe!
Super excited about trying this for our Thanksgiving! Got some non-Paleo eaters we’re sure to impress. Any chance this can be pre made and then just heat through or just buck up and cook it the day of Thanksgiving?
I would cook it that day BUT if you need to reheat it, that will still be fine!