280- Paleo Turkey Day

Oh, Thanksgiving.  How I loved you so.  Historically you were always my favorite holiday, because it was ok to eat ridiculous amounts of food.  You were the one holiday where I didn't feel like a total fatass for stuffing my face with mashed potatoes, peas, stuffing, yams, rolls, pie and the like.  It was expected that everyone would go back for seconds.  It was expected that everyone would try each kind of the 3 pies.  It was expected that everyone would stuff themselves beyond belief.  It was expected that the next morning I would wake up and eat pie for breakfast.  It was my kind of holiday!  I would trade all the gift giving and receiving of Christmas for a holiday of gluttony anyday. 

Thanksgivings will never be like that for me again.  I don't say that to feel sorry for myself, or so that you will feel sorry for me either, I say that in all honesty.  The way I used to go about Thanksgiving was horrible for my body, and downright disgusting.  I mean, think about it.  A day in which all the foods traditionally made are things I can not just stop at one bite of?  Whoever had just one bite of homemade mashed potatoes?  Or pie?  Or...?  Its a set up for failure.  This year it was completely the bf deluxe's idea to do a Paleo Turkey Day.  Afterall, its really not that hard to modify the dinner and make it full of vegetables and turkey.  I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be dying to grab a second helping of brussel sprouts and arguing within my head about how much room I should save in my stomach for paleo pumpkin pie.  Will there be some "paleo" treats?  Yes, it is still a holiday!

Here is our menu plan for the day.  The bf deluxe absolutely hates the idea of "paleotizing" things.  For him, its black and white.  Either it is paleo or it isn't.  So, he is not, and is not, allowing me to make things like cauliflower mashed potatoes, or "stuffing," or anything that is traditionally made of non-paleo ingredients yet attempted to be re-created with paleo ingredients.  I understand where he is coming from.  I still resist on a few occasions.

Before dinner (the in-laws like to show up early and spend the WHOLE day with us):

Paleo pumpkin cake with maple cream cheese frosting- (recipe for cake HERE with 1/2 the amount of honey) I will be making up my own frosting recipe.  This is something that has been paleotized.  However, I made it, and the bf deluxe LOVED it, so it gets the OK.

Natural, uncured bacon

Scrambled fresh eggs (from the ladies in the back yard)

Coffee

Ongoing:

Assorted cheese/meat/olive/pickled things tray

Dinner:

Roasted Turkey

Roasted vegetable medley- cauliflower, butternut squash, onions, carrots

Smashed yams

Brussel sprouts w/ pancetta

Raw cranberry relish (Elenas' Pantry)

Spinach salad with hard-boiled fresh eggs (again, thanks ladies), toasted hazelnuts, pancetta crumbles, dried cherries, and chef's special vinaigrette dressing

Dessert:

Pecan Pie (brought by the in-laws for the non-paleo folks)

Paleo friendly pumpkin pie (with almond flour crust)- again, this is something that needs minimal modifying to make paleo, and I'm probably going to be the only one eating this.

In case its not obvious, prior Thanksgivings= foods that I love and cannot get enough of (stuffing, apple pie, candied yams, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls).  New Thanksgivings= foods that make me say "meh."  There will not be any need/longing/craving to eat more.

A few months ago, a bunch of people at the gym were raving about this new frozen yogurt place that lets you pick all these cool toppings, and its so good, and fat free blah blahbitty blah blah...I had just begun my 1 year challenge, and was so close to being on the brink of just saying "fuck it" and going.  Then, I read nearly the exact story on one of the Facebook Fan pages I follow.  His thoughts on the new fancy frozen yogurt place would change the way I think:

Why would I purposely try something new that I could possibly crave often?  It would be better to just avoid it altogether so I never know what I'm missing.  There are enough things that I do know about that I'm missing out on, and I don't need to create any new ones.

And this relates to Thanksgiving (and the rest of my life) how?  Why would I purposely put myself in a position of having to resist foods that I can not control myself around?  That's so stupid, I'm not even going to try.  Guess its time to find a new favorite holiday!