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.
Found this recipe on Pinterest (weird, huh?…recipes on Pinterest???) Anywho, I am definitely making this for my dear family on Thanksgiving. Thanks for the super original recipe that I can feel proud to share with the ones I love most!
that’s the only reason i have pinterest, to look at recipes and food porn haha.
This looks delicious! How many people does this recipe serve?
I just saw your other reply – 4-5 servings.
Also, I am thinking about baking the stuffing IN the cavity of halved squash. Thought? DO YOu think that will work? THANKS!!!
so chose this over someother recipes that seemed a little over the top on some other paleo sites and I am oh so happy i did! My dad and I are both allergic to so many things that Paleo seems to be the only way of cooking that works for us, we found your blog not to long ago and LOVE the recipes on here! tonight was a practice run for thanksgiving thursday and wow are we excited. we used walnuts instead of pecans since my dad can’t have them, but soooooooooo delicious
You’re probably not going to answer this today, which you shouldn’t. Because you should be doing something fun and family-ish instead of answering blog questions but I’m going to ask anyway. My pork is no good. Can I make this without or should I just give up?
Yum! Yum yum yum. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
I just Meade this for Thanksgiving, it replaced regular bread stuffing. I loved it! I can’ t have nuts so just left them out. It was still fantastic!
This stuffing came out tasting amazing! Not your typical sliceable dish in case that’s what you were looking for. More like “Thanksgiving Hash”. Its amazing the next morning with eggs. Just heat some of the stuffing in a skillet, make a well in the center and crack an egg into it. Cover it for a few minutes to let it cook. Its amazing!
I made this for thanksgiving and it was such a hit! I can’t stop eating it! I did add carrots and garlic to the recipe though just for the heck of it. And named it meat lovers stuffing for the benefit of my family, who think if it’s paleo I’m trying to put them on a diet. Thank you so much for your wonderful blog.
Oh phew! I’m so glad someone added some garlic and carrots… I was just getting all my veggies ready and I was thinking… Hmm…weird. NO GARLIC?!?!? and what about carrots? Not used to using celery but no carrots. Think I’ll follow in your footsteps 🙂
Made this for thanksgiving this year. I loved it! Thank you for helping to make my thanksgiving manageable as I had to take much of my own food, so I could eat something at this “traditional table.”
Epic win!!!! I ran the sweet potato through the food processor and sauteed it in bacon fat for a few minutes, rather than dicing and baking. Another fantastic recipe – thanks 🙂