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.
Juli,
Back to pick up this recipe again. We had it for Thanksgiving and it was so wonderful we ALL loved it. My granddaughter is alergic to pork and eggs so we made it with turkey saugage and bacon and without the eggs and it was SPECTACULAR!
Today, I’m going to bake it in acorn squash halves. But I’m going for the pork since it’s just my husband and me.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I’m new to Paleo and have been craving stuffing since Nov. 1st.
This was amazing. I will not be missing bread stuffing at all.
….Can you add all your recipes to MyFitnessPal? Pretty please.
sure!! could you just reference my blog? Thanks for the support!
Can u use something instead of eggs?
Susan, I’m allergic to eggs, so I’m going to make it without. I don’t think it will need them. When baking, I use applesauce to substitute.
What would be an acceptable substitution for the sweet potatoes? Acorn squash? Or, carrots?? Using sweet potatoe in another recipe for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks!
Either one! Butternut squash would work great and be very similar
Can I stuff a turkey with this and if so, would you suggest preparing it any differently since it will be slow cooked inside the turkey? Thanks!
i think making it on it’s own is smart, i’ve just never made it inside a turkey
OK, couple of things:
I find it very hard to believe that you are a bad dancer.
Also, this recipe wins because bacon.
Also also wik, do you think that this recipe will hold up well with another meat choice instead of sausage? Say Salmon, fer instance?
oh gosh, i don’t know about the whole salmon thing, but other meat would probably work
Julie, Thank you so much for this blog and all your great recipes. I, in a moment of total last minute Turkey Day anxiety, was looking for a gluten free alternative to Stuffing. Of course I am doing this at work. WELL, I found your wonderful blog and laughed so hard the guy in the office next to me came to see what was so funny. Thanks for the giggles. I can’t wait to try this stuffing recipe!!
xo,
Robin
First off, let me say that I discovered this last Thanksgiving and have made it about 5 times since. It is just delightful and goes great with turkey! Also is a great main course. I did double the sweet potatoe, but other than that, kept it the same. This has become part of my family’s Thanksgiving traditions! Enjoy!
This was SO delicious. Made it today for Thanksgiving and even my bread-loving relatives loved it. I didn’t have pork sausage, so I used chopped Aidell’s chicken sausage instead. Thanks, Juli! Your recipes are always great.