Thanksgiving

It was hard for me to do Thanksgiving without creating more for all of you. And so the camera came out….

For the first time ever, it was just Ryan and I (and our dog-babies) for Thanksgiving. We decided to do our meal in “courses.”

Soup and Salad

Salad: Red Quinoa & Butternut Squash Salad with Homemade Sweet Sage Dressing

Soup: Butternut Squash-Apple in Butternut Squash Bowls

Recipe: Same as the Pumpkin-Apple Soup, with few substitutions; butternut squash vs. pumpkin and instead of the 3 cups homemade vegetable broth, I used 3 cups Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. Finally, instead of placing the soup in bowls, I got creative and made Butternut Squash Bowls. The bowls are simply the ends of a butternut squash. I took out all the seeds and pulp, filled with them with a little olive oil and coconut sugar and baked on 425 degrees for about 25 minutes. {Download the Pumpkin-Apple Soup recipe!}

Main

Main: Turkey

Recipe: Remember, I did a Slow-Cooked Turkey Thyme instead of the traditional. Ryan did many traditional things.

This was the entire meal. A few dishes were only Ryan’s, since they were not gluten free.

Bonus: Sausage and Kale Stuffing

Recipe: I started with the Sausage and Kale Stuffing recipe from Whole Foods. That recipe is not gluten free. I made just a few substitutions: I used 5 pieces of Udi’s Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread, instead of unsalted butter I used Ghee butter, instead of breakfast sausage I used 5 links of Aidell’s Artichoke and Garlic Sausage (still removed casein) and finally, instead of the low-sodium, packaged chicken broth, I used my homemade chicken broth.

This was one of my favorite dishes!

Dessert

Dessert: Pumpkin Pie

Recipe: I kept this “traditional.” I chose not to do many funky things with dessert, so I simply used the Traditional Pumpkin Pie recipe from Whole Foods. The only difference was that I did not use the pie crust recommended (it’s not gluten free). I used the crust recipe from the Mini Chocolate, Cheesecake & Pomegranate Bites. I placed my pies in a mini pie tin (so that we could have personal Pumpkin Pies). In order to do that, I just tripled the recipe from the e-book. Also in the e-book is the recipe for the “whip cream” used; Non-Dairy, Vanilla Whip Cream. Of course we still topped our pies with full-fat Vanilla Bean ice cream. It was very important.