Thanksgiving Stuffing from Scratch

Thanksgiving Stuffing from Scratch
Serves: 10-12+


Ingredients:


2 round sourdough loaves (source from a quality baker), at least 2 days old
1 lb ground sage or (hot italian) sausage
3-4 leaves of kale, stems removed and finely chopped
1/2 package of sliced mushrooms
1 small onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 stalks of celery
2 cans of sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 egg
2 quarts (approx.) of homemade chicken or turkey broth (RECIPE) warmed
1/4 cup of dried cranberries, rehydrated in broth before adding in
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper
fresh parsley, sage, thyme, tarragon chopped

Instructions:

Take your sourdough bread and chop into bite-sized pieces. Place in a 200 degree oven and dry out for 10 minutes. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and add in chopped fresh parsley, sage, thyme and tarragon to the butter and then gently saute the croutons in the butter until golden brown and crispy. 

In the meantime, in a large skillet, add in the ground sausage and brown. Bread sausage into small pieces. Remove from pan. 

Add in the onion, garlic, mushrooms, kale, and celery to the skillet and saute with 2 additional tablespoons butter. 

Once everything has softened, add the sausage back in. Adjust seasonings.

Add bread and sausage mixture into a large crock-pot and add in your softened dried cranberries and water chestnuts.

Whisk your egg and add it into the 2 quarts (approximately) of warm chicken stock, slowly pour into crock-pot while stirring ingredients. Once all liquid has been added, make sure that your stuffing is moist throughout. Cook on low for 4 hours, removing the lid the final hour to crisp up the top. 

Bacon and Jalapeño Popper Dip

Bacon and Jalapeño Popper Dip
Serves: 18



My jalapeno poppers are kind of legendary, I've made them for years now, not just for parties, but sometimes for dinner, they are that good! This year for thanksgiving I was looking to recreate some of my old recipes, and I've seen a few of these floating around with the onset of football season, so I decided to give a jalapeno popper dip a try.

First things first, my dip varies from others out there, because it absolutely had to contain bacon, that is the best part of my jalapeno poppers. Next, all the recipes that I saw out there used a very small amount of fresh raw jalapenos for the dip, YUCK! Everyone knows that the sweet and smoky deliciousness of a jalapeno comes from roasting it, like in my jalapeno popper recipe, so I knew I had to keep that element.

If you were looking to make this grain-free or primal, you could omit the cracker topping or use a gluten free cracker substitute, but being that it is thanksgiving, I've decided to omit grains where it made sense for the recipe, and that way the recipes that use grains are a special treat for Thanksgiving that doesn't sacrifice flavor and texture. 

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (8 oz.)  Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup  Mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
8-10 jalapeño peppers, roasted whole in oven until soft, then chopped
6 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp and chopped
12 Ritz Crackers, crushed (about 1/2 cup)

Instructions:

Roast your jalapeno peppers ahead of time over an open flame, or in the oven until the skins have blistered and softened. Remove skins and chop jalapenos. If you want to tame the heat, remove the seeds inside. 

Beat cream cheese and mayo in medium bowl until well blended. Stir in cheese and peppers.

 

Once cooked and well combined stir in the bacon bits.

You can either place into a small crock pot to warm through and serve out of, or place into a small casserole dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.


Makes 18 Servings (2 Tbls Per Serving)

Nutritional Info: Calories 180; Carbs 13g; Protein 3g; Fat 13g; Fiber 0g

Authentic Lower-Carb Pork Tamales

Authentic Low-Carb Pork Tamales with Red Sauce

Makes 12 tamales


What makes this recipe lower carb is the fact that I will be using baby corn instead of hominy to make the dough. Hominy has long been used as the agent to ensure the dough stays moist, but baby corn is much lower in carbohydrates so I can make a dough with lower net carbs and still moist and tender while using whole natural foods. I still use the traditional masa harina flour, as for 12 tamales it doesn't require more than half a cup, if you wanted even lower carbs you could substitute the masa for coconut flour but the flavor and texture would be slightly different. The final nutritional count for each tamale is located below, but at just around 67 total calories and 6 carbs a piece I think everyone can feel good about eating a few of these.

Lower-Carb Masa Dough:

Ingredients
(2) 14 oz. Cans Organic Baby Corn
1/2 c. Masa Harina or "Maseca"
2 Tbl. Organic Non-Hydrogentated Leaf Lard, Melted (or saved bacon grease)
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Ancho Chile Powder
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

Directions:

Drain corn. This round I left them whole, next time I think I'll rough chop them to create more volume in the mixer, it was a little difficult to get it all pureed in my processor.



In food processor, process corn until smooth. Add melted lard and buzz again.


Then scrape corn into a mixing bowl, with a spoon, mix in flour as well as spices. Don't overwork the dough.

Refrigerate masa until ready for use, wrapped in plastic wrap.


Meat Filling:

Directions:

Please see my Pork Green Chile recipe for delicious shredded pork.
Once the meat is finished it will easily pull apart with a fork.


Soften Corn Husks:

Corn husks are easy to find in the Mexican section of your grocery store, I got mine at Walmart.


The corn husks are softened in hot water, give them about 30 minutes submerged in hot water to fully soften.


I placed mine in a large stock pot over medium heat and then put my steamer basket over them to weight them down, it worked perfectly.


Ancho Chile Sauce:

You can make tamales with either Green or Red sauce, I enjoy both immensely, but not having any roasted hatch chilies on hand I decided to go with the ancho chile sauce.

Ingredients:

3-4 Dried Ancho Chile Peppers
Water
1 Garlic Clove
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/8 tsp. Ground Allspice
1 tsp. Sea Salt

1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Achiote paste (found in the hispanic aisle of grocery stores)
1 tsp. Black Pepper
2 Tbsp. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp. Ancho Chile powder

1 tablespoon honey

Directions:

Remove stem and seeds from peppers. You'll want to reserve some of the seeds to add back in for more heat if its not spicy enough. Mine had a nice heat level so I didn't end up using any additional seeds, but I also did completely clean out every seed from the peppers.



Place peppers in small saucepan and cover with water.
Bring to boil and then remove from heat. Let sit 15 minutes. Do not boil for more than a minute or so, it will create a bitter sauce, just barely bring to a boil and then shut off the heat.


Add softened peppers, spices and 1 to 2 cups of soaking water to blender and process until smooth.


Pour sauce back into saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes. The sauce should be thick but not gloopy, your looking for the consistency of BBQ sauce, if too thick add more of the chile water.

Remove from heat and whisk in olive oil. You'll likely have extra sauce, I did, so I placed it in a mason jar for use with other recipes. Just keep it in the fridge and it will stay for weeks.

Pour sauce over cooked and shredded pork. Mix thoroughly.


Assembly & Steaming:

Remove corn husks from water, I placed them in the empty steamer basket with a paper towel on the bottom to collect the water.

Spread the masa in the bottom right hand corner of the husk about 2/3 from the edge on the left hand side, and about 2/3 up the length of the husk.


 Fill with meat, using about a tablespoon or two in the center of the masa dough.


Roll the tamale up on one side and then the other to close the tamale and then wrap the empty end of the husk up under it.

Place in steamer basket end on end packed tightly.


 Steam for 45 minutes or pressure cooker for 15 minutes.


Take out of the steamer and allow them to cool before eating, as the masa dough will set completely as it cools.


The ancho chile sauce has a sweet, smoky heat to it, the kind of heat the builds in the back of the throat but never reaches the tip of the tongue so its perfect for both heat lovers and those who hate spicy foods.


Nutritional data based on all ingredients:

This recipe was adapted from

Beef with Broccoli

Beef with Broccoli

Serves: 4





Marinate for the meat: 

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 lbs flank steak, sliced into thin strips 

Instructions:

Whisk together the baking soda, sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce, water, and vegetable oil in a large bowl. Toss the steak with the marinade to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Sauce:

1/2 c low-sodium soy sauce or 1/4 cup regular soy sauce and 1/4 cup water (otherwise it will be too salty)
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced 
1 teaspoon minced ginger
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp rice vinegar 

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 teaspoon chili garlic paste

1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 heads broccoli, crowns only

1 can of bamboo shoots, drained

Instructions:

In a small bowl, stir together the ingredients for the sauce.

Add marinated meat and sauce into the crockpot, cook on high for 4-6 hours. 

Then add broccoli and bamboo shoots and cook for an additional 30 minutes, stirring often.

Serve with rice.

Crock Pot Homemade Chicken Broth

Crock Pot Homemade Chicken Broth

Chicken broth, especially the organic variety, can be quite expensive at anywhere between $2.00 to $4.00 a quart. I find this kind of amazing considering how watered down and weak the store bought varieties are, and how unbelievably easy it is to make. I usually put an entire raw chicken in a stockpot and cook on low with veggies for several hours, but recently found a crockpot version that uses bones and scraps instead, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Now, don't think I'm a freak or anything but I am a saver. When I make wings at home, I've always cut the tips off and kept them in a freezer bag in the freezer. 

I'm not crazy, I'm smart, and I don't think that wasting chicken bones is a smart thing to do. 

This recipe goes a step further, using the bones and carcass of a rotisserie chicken you get from the super market. This idea is fabulous because the chicken is already well seasoned and will add a lot of flavor and depth to your broth! You could even go a step further and keep all your chicken bones from your home cooking in the freezer until your ready to make broth.

Ingredients:

• a mixing bowl of chicken bones and cartilage (preferably from a pastured chicken)
• coarsely chopped carrots, celery and onion
• 3-4 whole garlic cloves
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
• 2 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
• Filtered Water
• handful of whole peppercorns

Method:

• Add vegetables and bones to crockpot
• Add bay leaves if using
• Fill with filtered water
• Add 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• Cook on low for at least 24 hours
• Add salt to taste
• Strain and store

Put the vegetables and bones in a crockpot.  Fill with filtered water.   I add a bay leaf or two and a handful of whole peppercorns.

Add a couple tablespoons of an acidic liquid (I use raw apple cider vinegar).  This helps draw the minerals out of the bones. 

Cover and cook on low for 24 hours.  Strain and you have delicious, nourishing chicken bone broth! You can store this broth in bags or jars in the freezer, or it will keep in the fridge for a few weeks.

1 whole chicken carcass with a few wing tips made over 4 quarts of broth, which would normally cost between $15 and $20, but I would estimate I spent about $7!

BBQ Meatballs

BBQ Meatballs

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients:

Your favorite sweet and spicy BBQ sauce, or use recipe below

1 large bag of frozen pre-cooked meatballs

BBQ Sauce:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water - or more depending on consistency.

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 cup Ketchup

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons liquid smoke

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon smoked paprika 

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon ground dry mustard

1 pinch salt



Instructions:

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat mix butter, brown sugar and water. Bring to a boil stirring frequently. Reduce heat to a simmer and add tomato paste and ketchup. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer 10-20min stirring occasionally. Flavors will develop as it sits.

Let cool completely and add to the crockpot of frozen meatballs.

Cook on warm for 8 hours or low for 4 hours, stiring occasionally.

Serve with cute toothpicks