The first question I was usually asked when the subject of Thanksgiving came up - "What are you going to eat since you can't eat anything?" I actually had a delicious and very healthy Thanksgiving dinner - a picture of my plate of food will come in the next post. However, I did want to share the recipes for the two dishes I brought to share.
The first was an apple-butternut squash casserole, from
this website. For 4 servings, the ingredients are 1/2 of a large butternut squash, 2 apples (I use organic since they are on the
dirty dozen list), about 1/3 of a cup coconut oil, honey and cinnamon (I did not measure the honey or cinnamon). Cut the butternut squash into about 1/4 inch slices, and peel and core the apples. In a baking dish, put a layer of squash, a layer of apples, sprinkle a little cinnamon and drizzle a little honey. Continue repeating this process until the squash and apples are gone. The recipe said to use butter and put cubes of butter on the top layer, however, that is a lot of butter so I used coconut oil instead. I love the taste of coconut oil, and it contains numerous
health benefits.
The finished product - I have made this dish twice since Thanksgiving - it is that good!
The second dish I made was a
pumpkin pie. The recipe is as follows:
FILLING
1 15 oz can Pumpkin
1 tsp. coconut flour (I forgot to include this, but it turned out fine without it)
1/3 c. honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. mace (I could not find this anywhere so I did not use it)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. coconut milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of almond flour
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 egg
At our Thanksgiving dinner, there was "my" pumpkin pie, and a "regular" pumpkin pie. There were two of us who for sure were only having my pumpkin pie, and everyone else wanted the regular pumpkin pie, but wanted a small slice of my pumpkin pie just to taste it. Well, when people wanted seconds, guess which pie they went for - mine! They like the healthy sugar-free, dairy-free and wheat-free pie better than the one loaded with sugar. I was happy to know my pie was such a hit!
Also, I found out a week ago that all my efforts have been worthwhile. Before I started this diet back in September, I had some blood tests done. One that they did was called the CRP, which is a measure of inflammation in your body. Normal results are less than 5, and mine came back initially at 34.9 = not good. I have been fanatically adhering to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and taking loads of fish oils for the last two and a half months. There have also been numerous people praying for that number to get to less than 5. Well, I had my blood tested again a couple of weeks ago, and by the grace of God, my CRP is now less than 5. It is pretty much a miracle and gives me motivation to continue on this diet. 3 months down, 21 to go :)
