Merry Christmas, to all of my blog followers, and everyone who is struggling like I am to maintain some kind of food impulse control amid the avalanche of decadent foods that are readily available this time of year.

I apologize for the long delays between posts.  During the holidays, E.J. and I have so many events and activities planned every weekend, so prep cooking is a quick and easy affair, full of easy go-to favorites from my Favorite Recipes page, and smoked & grilled meats.

For the big holiday weekend, I actually put together 2 big meals and mixed in some new winners I’m happy to share.

For Christmas Eve, my brother came into town, and we feasted on a couple of stuffed chickens from Hebert’s specialty meats along with baked sweet potatoes and balsamic glazed Brussels sprouts.  But before that, I wanted to give E.J. a sweet breakfast indulgence he hasn’t enjoyed since we started with Paleo in 2015: cinnamon rolls.  I found 2 different approaches to the dish – one from A Girl Worth Saving that uses mostly tapioca flour and a dough similar to our favorite pizza crust, and one from Paleo Grubs that uses a more standard almond flour dough.   Rather than choose, I decided to try both and take a queue from my mom’s old Czech cinnamon roll recipe for the filling: a combo of shredded granny smith apples, pecans and honey.  For the icing, I actually used the one from this Instructables recipe that uses maple sugar – one of my new favorite baking ingredients.  The resulting rolls were both good in their own ways – the tapioca one stayed together better and could be eaten without a plate, though the dough was a bit chewy.  The one with almond flour had a lovely light flavor but crumbled too much to eat without a fork.  I’d recommend either of them.

Then on Christmas Day, our friends Kenny and Elaine joined us for the big meal, and we had plenty of tasty Paleo options on the table for the diet conscious and everyone else.

• Nitrate-free, hormone-free honey ham from H-E-B – Not 100% compliant, but definitely the best option we could find
• Roast Duck – This method for roasting duck works fabulously – we ended up with a juicy, crispy duck with a lovely flavor.  For the glaze, I used the one in this recipe from Paleo Table. It was fantastic.
• Stuffed Mushrooms – This is the same one we did from Thanksgiving – they really are tasty
• Cinnamon Pecan Roasted Butternut Squash – This was ok, though not as sweet as I thought it would be.
• Mashed Sweet Potato
• Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus – super simple, but very fancy.  I used purple asparagus for an extra flare
• Sweet Potato Rolls – These dinner rolls from Paleo Cupboard use mashed sweet potato, which gives a pinkish hue to the roll, but makes it pretty tasty
• Cranberry Sauce – same one from Thanksgiving (it’s that good)
• Balsamic Glazed Beets – these are always a winner.
• Deviled Eggs

All in all, another successful holiday spread.  I hope you all enjoyed your holiday meals as much as I did.  We’re already enjoying the leftovers and likely will for the rest of the week.  E.J. and I have the week off, so we’re planning some adventures that I hope to share with you all later.

And just so we’re being honest, even with our paleo food choices this week, E.J. and I are still up a few pounds simply because of volume of food we’re consuming.  We know it’ll come off again when we get back to a normal routine in January, but in the meantime, we’re just going to keep trying to make the best choices and keep up our running routines every couple of days.

I am thankful for so many things in my life right now – I have a challenging job that I really enjoy, two sweet kids who are becoming wonderful young adults, and I am particularly thankful for my amazing husband and our friends who have been so supportive of our new healthier lifestyle.  This thanksgiving, we had a dinner for 14 and fortunately they were amenable to our adjusted dietary approach on Thanksgiving dinner which turned out absolutely fantastic, if I do say so myself.

We didn’t keep the table strictly Paleo, since we did have some traditional folks in the group, but I think we managed to blend the offerings very well, and even better, our guests brought a number of the dishes to share, so I didn’t have to do the experimenting all myself.

First the appetizers:

• Bacon-wrapped Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Glaze – I just followed this basic recipe, and then drizzled the finish product with a balsamic glaze I have from Trader Joe’s
• Primal Bacon Chicken Liver Pate – Holy crap, this stuff is crack.  Traditionally we in the Hunyadi house have had a cream cheese based mushroom crostini thing for Thanksgiving, so I was looking for a paleo alternative.  No more looking – this is perhaps the best pate I’ve ever tasted, and everyone raved about it.  I served it with Paleo crackers.

Then the main event:

• Smoked Turkey – our friends Steve and Anita provided the turkey, smoked to juicy and flavorful perfection, sugar free.
• Paleo Cranberry Sauce – the aficionados of the cranberries at the table declared this to be one of the best versions of the dish they ever had.  I think this is the new official recipe for Thanksgivings to come
•  Green Bean Casserole – friends Kenny and Elaine provided this dish and indicated that the mushroom soup that is made first to use for the casserole is divine all by itself.  In the casserole with the nuttiness from the hazelnuts, I found heaven.  I normally can take or leave green bean casserole, but this dish was scrumptious.  I’m thoroughly enjoying the leftovers this weekend
• Sweet Potato Casserole – Kenny also made this one, and while I was originally a bit wary about the coconut shreds in the topping, I really like this version.  Marshmallows don’t even seem appetizing anymore, so this was a welcome switch.  Highly recommended.
• Sausage Stuffing – OK, I honestly didn’t know what to expect when it came to Paleo stuffing, but this one from A Girl Worth Saving was a great base for it.  I modified the recipe slightly by starting with ground sausage, onions, and celery in the pan, then adding the apple, and then crumbling in the “cornbread” and the liquid.  This was a great sausage stuffing, if I do say so myself.  Definitely a keeper.
• Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms – I’m a sucker for just about any stuffed mushroom.  I miss the traditional creamy center (i.e. cream cheese) but not the stomach ache.
• Paleo Dinner Rolls – I thought about just giving up and going with the old Pilsbury crescent rolls and letting the primal peeps just abstain, but because my guests were doing so much of the work, I just couldn’t justify it.  These dinner rolls aren’t the buttery awesome of the old standby, but they are still rather good, and received plenty of compliments.

And for dessert:

• Paleo Pumpkin Pie – Elena’s Pantry to the rescue!  I think this is my new favorite Paleo crust.  I might experiment with getting a more buttery flavor into it somehow, but the texture is spot on.  The pumpkin pie was really good too.
• Paleo Pecan Pie – Ok, this one gets mixed reviews.  Honestly, I think it’s a pretty good substitute for the real thing, even though it’s not as syrupy or sickly sweet as the original.  I think that’s actually why I liked it, though some of my guests were missing the karo.   I used the same crust as the pumpkin pie, and it worked great.

All of the holiday goodness, and no digestive issues.  I’ll call that a win!

Hello Paleo Peeps!  It’s the first day of fall, and it’s still 90 degrees outside… what gives?  We’ve got football, pumpkin spice, apples, and Christmas stuff hitting the stores already…and the weather is just not cooperating.  Hopefully all that rain their forecasting for this weekend will finally bring that first cool front through, because I’ve got some cute new boots that I’m dying to wear.

Anywho, this past weekend, I decided to make yet another try at Paleo tortillas to go with some marinated skirt steak and nopales (cactus) that E.J. was jonesing for.  Every prior attempt at tortillas has been highly disappointing – too crumbly, messy, or pancaky – and I just need a go-to option here.  Finally, I think I have it, and it’s simpler than I thought.  Enter Paleo Tortilla recipe from Paleo Porn.  Ok, first, is that not the greatest website name, or what?  Second, these tortillas were the bomb.  They were chewy and bendy, yet strong enough to wrap around a hunk of meat, veggies and sauce, and still hold for a burrito-like bite.   Obviously with the copious amounts of tapioca flour, they can’t be a regular thing, but for the occasional Mexican food fix, they’re perfect.  I used the cast iron skillet as recommended and was rewarded with perfectly sized and flippable portions.

Some other successes for the week included Salisbury Steak and this amazing Cinnamon Butternut Squash and Plantain with Apples.  My grocery store didn’t have green plantains, so I left them out, but there’s something about cinnamon apples & anything that just gives me the warm-fuzzies of fall… even when someone forgot to tell mother nature what season it is.