Real Food Thanksgiving - Side Dishes - Sweet Potatoes

My Mom's favorite side dish is my Boston Market Style Sweet Potatoes. These are a healthier version that are great for dessert as well as during the main meal. They are really yams but we still call them sweet potatoes(: If you make these they are sure to please and you'll never eat the ones from Boston Market again!

Healthier Boston Market Style Sweet Potatoes

6 cups mashed organic yams(about 6 potatoes)

3/4 cup rapadura or sucanat 

1/2 cup organic cream

1/2 cup melted, organic butter

2 pastured eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp organic cinnamon

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 cups natural marshmallows-completely optional-they taste awesome without them(can be homemade or from stores like Whole Foods)

-You could also use organic marshmallow fluff from Toonie Moonie.

Rub olive oil, butter, or coconut oil on the outside of the washed and dried yams. Bake them in a preheated 400 degree oven for 60-70 minutes until tender. Allow to cool enough to handle and peel the skins off. Place the insides into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

Add rapadura or sucanat, cream, butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt into the yams and mix well. Pour the mixture into a buttered 13"x9" baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Pour marshmallows into yams and swirl until melted. Sprinkle with a little rapadura or sucanat and serve. 

Yum! All this talking about food is making me want Thanksgiving dinner all over again!

Enjoy!

A Real Food Thanksgiving - Side Dishes - Green Beans with Mustard & Thyme

While the turkey is the staple at our table, the sides are what everyone piles onto their plates. It's important to me that I make all side dishes with organic, fresh ingredients. Nothing comes from a can and nothing is processed. My sister's favorite dish is the Green Beans with Mustard and Thyme. I cannot stand green bean casserole. It actually grosses me out so when I found this recipe 13 years ago, it became a tradition at every holiday meal. This is one that we make all year long and not just on holidays.

Green Beans with Mustard and Thyme

adapted from Bon Appetit's November 1999 issue

4 pounds fresh, organic green beans, trimmed

1/2 cup organic butter

3 tbs fresh organic thyme, chopped

2 tbs Dijon mustard

2 tsp garlic salt or 1 tsp garlic powder & 1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup slivered almonds, freshly toasted

Blanch trimmed green beans in salted, boiling water for 5 minutes. Strain and place into an ice bath and cool completely. This can be done the day prior to cooking. Wrap in cloths or paper towels and place into resealable bags into the refrigerator. 

Melt 1/4 cup butter into each of two heavy skillets or cook in two batches in the same skillet. Whisk 1 tbs thyme, 1 tbs mustard, and 1 tsp of garlic salt(or 1/2 tsp garlic powder & 1/2 tsp sea salt) into butter in each skillet. Add half the beans to each skillet and toss until heated through, about 4 minutes. Season to taste with pepper. Transfer to large bowl and sprinkle with slivered almonds and remaining thyme. 

You'll love this dish and so will your kids!

Enjoy

A Real Food Thanksgiving - The Turkey

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love cooking up a wonderful meal and spending three days doing it. I've had the privilege of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the past 13 years, first for my husband and some of the single soldiers from his unit when we were stationed in Germany and now for my family here in the States. Here is the main attraction, the turkey.

Mustard-Rubbed Roast Turkey With Mushroom Gravy

adapted from Bon Appetit's Nov. 1999 issue

With this recipe, start out with a pastured, organic turkey. We purchased ours from our farm co-op. 

For the turkey:

1 cup Dijon mustard

3/4 cup organic butter

2 tbs freshly grated lemon peel

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup fresh organic flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tbs fresh organic thyme, chopped

1 tbs fresh organic sage, chopped

1 15-16 pound organic, pastured turkey

2 cups chicken stock

One to two days prior to Thanksgiving, coarsely puree first 7 ingredients in a food processor or blender. I used my BlendTec. Reserve 1/2 cup mustard mixture in a bowl; cover and chill.

Remove giblets and reserve. Rinse turkey inside and out and pat dry. Slide hand under skin of turkey breast, legs, and thighs to loosen skin. You may need to cut small slits into the skin to do this. Using you hand, spread 1 cup of the mixture under the skin over the breast, legs, and thighs. Spread remaining mixture inside the main cavity. Place turkey into the roasting pan and slide pan into a plastic trash bag. Close the bag and place into the refrigerator for at least one day and up to two days.

On Thanksgiving, position rack in botton third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Remove the pan from the bag and spread remaining mustard mixture all over the turkey. Tuck the wing tips under and tie legs loosely together with kitchen twine. Roast for 2 hours. Baste with 1/2 cups chicken stock. Continue to roast (about 15 minutes per pound) until turkey is brown and thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 180 degrees, basting frequently with remaining 1 1/2 cups stock and pan juices.  Cover with roasting pan lid or loosely tent with foil if browning too quickly. Remove from oven and let sit, loosely covered for 30 minutes.

For Gravy:

1 pound white and baby portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 1/4 cups chicken or turkey stock

1/2 cup organic whipping cream

2 tbs organic cornstarch

Pour pan juices into large measuring cup. Spoon off fat, reserving 2 tbs. Heat 2 tbs turkey fat in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and saute until soft and tender, about 15 minutes. Add enough broth to pan juices to measure 3 1/2 cups. Add to mushrooms along with cream. Boil 8 minutes to blend flavors. Mix cornstarch with 1/4 chicken stock in a small bowl and mix into gravy. Continue to boil until gravy thickens, about 1 minute. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve over turkey.

Ratatouille

This is a seasonal recipe that I used to make with my elementary after-school program. This time of year I need a lot of recipes to use up my squash and eggplant. This one uses both! It's fantastic by itself or as a side dish. I left out the mushrooms this time because I did not have any. I have a ton of Tarragon in my herb garden which is wonderful to use in place of the Oregano in this recipe. I also substitute ghee for the olive oil because I prefer not to heat olive oil. You can purchase ghee from Pure Indian Foods. You can also add a hot pepper in with this recipe to give it some kick and extra flavor. I chop the peppers and onions rather than cut them into rings so my kids will eat them. They love this dish and cleaned their plates!

As always, use organic ingredients whenever possible.

RATATOUILLE

Courtesy of Jeanne Hammonds, A.S.E. Enrichment

1/3 C. Olive oil, butter or ghee

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, sliced into thick rings or roughly chopped

4 medium zucchini, sliced

¼ pound mushrooms, sliced

1 green or red pepper, seeds removed and cut into rings or roughly chopped

1 medium eggplant, peeled and diced

4 firm tomatoes, quartered

¼ C. fresh chopped parsley

½ tsp. oregano or tarragon

2 tsp. basil

1 tsp. sea salt

1/4 cup or more grated parmesan cheese

ground black pepper to taste

Method

Heat ghee in a large frying pan and sauté garlic and onion until onions are limp.  Add zucchini, mushrooms and pepper and sauté a few minutes longer.  Remove from heat and add the eggplant and tomatoes, parsley, oregano, basil and vegetable seasoning.  Mix well.  Pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Serve at once.  It can also be served cold along with dark bread and cheese.  Yield:  8 servings


You kitchen will smell amazing!

Enjoy!

Guest Blog for Lilith's Apothecary: Real Food

I had the privilege of contributing a Guest Blog for the Lilith's Apothecary Blog. It is all about Real Food. Check it out!

Real Food: Guest post from a Real Foodie

Enjoy!

Keep it Real!

~Sarah

How To Make Kefir

Kefir is a traditional probiotic drink made from milk (or other liquids like coconut water) that has been fermented using cultures. These cultures are good bacteria strains that aid in fermenting the milk without it going bad. The key to health, whether it be good or bad is in the gut and probiotics help to heal and restore gut health. Kefir delivers many strains of good bacteria to the intestines to keep harmful bacteria at bay and can be taken daily. It is a bit expensive to buy in stores already made but very easy and inexpensive to make at home.

How to make kefir:

You will need a kefir crock or wide-mouth ball jar, a spatula, strainer, cheesecloth, large bowl with spout, raw milk, starter cultures.

Starter cultures can be obtained from a friend who makes kefir or at a local farm like Your Family Cow. They can also be purchased online at Cultures for Health.

The cultures look a little like cottage cheese. Some of them are larger and look like large tapioca.

Begin by placing starter cultures into kefir crock. I use 1-2 tablespoons.You'll notice the ring of cream inside my crock. I had just strained the previous batch and rinsing between batches is not necessary.

Then add your raw milk. I have a 2 quart crock and I fill it about two-thirds or so.

Cover crock with a cheesecloth or a clean towel and place in a dim place for 24-48 hours. The longer it sits the more "fizzy" it will become.

When the kefir is ready, strain it through a strainer or cheesecloth into a clean, preferably glass container.

Rinse and save the cultures for your next batch. They will multiply with each batch. Give the extras away to friends or store them in a container in the refrigerator for a short amount of time. They tend to go dormant if they are not being fed by the milk so they may take some coaxing to be reconstituted.

The kefir is now ready to serve. It will have a slightly yeasty smell to it which is normal. Store in a glass container in the refrigerator. Drink daily for maximum benefits. It will keep for a long time in the fridge and you can keep adding new kefir to it.

That's it! You now have fresh, organic kefir for just the cost of milk once you get your starters going. It is a wonderful addition to your real food diet.

Enjoy!

Love,
Sarah - Your Real Food Organic Outlaw Mama

Kefir

What is Real Food?

There is so much talk about what real food is. I wanted to give an overview of some real food basics. Each topic can be an entire blog post in itself but some general descriptions are a great start. In my home, real food is food that is in its natural state and that has not been processed, altered in an artificial way, or packaged.

Vegetables are an example of real food. They are "nature's candy"! They are full of vitamins and antioxidants that help heal the body and keep it healthy. Vegetables can be fermented, juiced, and preserved to meet every need and last all-year-round. Organic vegetables are grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Organic farmers know how to properly rotate crops for pest control and maximum soil replenishment. The result is vegetables that are higher in vitamins and that are more nutritious than conventional vegetables. This is the same with fruit and how it is grown.

photo courtesy of humble seed

Some will stop there and say vegetables are the only true real food. I believe that there is more to it than that. Raw, organic milk from grass-fed cows or goats is an amazing enzyme and probiotic-rich food that nourishes and helps restore the body. All traditional people groups ate off the land and drank milk from their animals. It was how they survived and thrived. Pasteurized, homogenized milk is not really milk anymore without the enzymes and probiotics that are damaged or killed during processing and should not be consumed. Many people with "milk allergies" are not actually allergic to the milk. They are instead allergic to the denatured pasteurized milk. When the enzymes are destroyed it makes it very difficult to digest. 

photo courtesy of care2.com

Many environmentalists argue that the consumption of meat is a main contributor to climate change. In reality, while factory farming does increase green-house gas emissions, small family farms raising grass-fed, organic animals for meat do not. The difference between a factory farm and an organic family farm is night and day. Conventional farmers feed their animals grain (which is genetically modified) and keep them confined in large numbers together. They are often ill and require large amounts of antibiotics to keep them "healthy" and their milk and meat "safer" for consumption. In order to ensure maximum production, they are given hormones to make them grow faster and larger. Organic farmers provide large, open, areas for their animals to enjoy eating lush grass and breathe fresh air. They were not meant to eat grain so they do not. Grass-fed meat is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals.

photo courtesy of your family cow

Next time, we will talk about butter, eggs, lard and a few other real foods that are shunned in modern society but were valued and even considered sacred in traditional cultures.

 Stay tuned!

Love,

Sarah - The Real Food Organic Outlaw Mama

Real Food Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I call it the "no pressure" holiday because it has all the perks of the food without all the commercialism of the modern Christmas. I love planning the meal, shopping for ingredients, and best of all, the preparation of the food! It’s all about the food and being eternally grateful for all that has been given to me.

My cooking has evolved over the years. Twelve years ago when I was first married, I was living in Germany and used the single soldiers in my husband's platoon as my culinary guinea pigs. They didn't seem to mind since they were far away from home and longing for a home cooked meal. Back then, I wasn't "organic" and just bought my ingredients conventionally from a grocery store. I still bought fresh ingredients and made everything from scratch. Over the years I have adapted the very same recipes that I used back then to organic and whole food ingredients.

When I lived in California, everything was fresh from the Farmer’s Market in my town that ran year-round. I could get fresh, organic green beans through December! I purchased my free-range, organic turkey from Whole Foods and my organic canned pumpkin from Trader Joe’s. We enjoyed many healthy, home-cooked, real food Thanksgiving dinners that way.

Since moving to New Jersey last year I have discovered local food co-ops. I have come to rely on these so heavily that I rarely have to step foot in a grocery store. I am able to get my organic, raw, grass-fed milk, organic butter, truly pastured eggs, grass-fed beef, chicken, pastured pork, kefir starter grains, raw honey, and many other real foods right from a local farm that delivers to a drop point right over the bridge from me in Philadelphia. My vegetables come from a local North Jersey CSA and I pick them up a few miles from my house at a drop point. We have thoroughly enjoyed fresh, local, in-season foods this year. The sad thing is that CSA’s here in the North East are not all year round and I am going to miss my farm fresh vegetables immensely!

Back to Thanksgiving! I was able to get a free-range, pastured, organic turkey this year from my farm co-op and am looking forward to preparing it. I wanted to share the recipe since it is a family favorite. I prepare a “Mustard-Rubbed Roast Turkey with Mushroom Gravy” recipe that I found in the November 1999 issue of Bon Appétit. I changed the recipe to all organic ingredients.

Another favorite is “Green Beans with Mustard and Thyme” from that same Bon Appétit issue. I do not like “Green Bean Casserole” at all so this is a fantastic alternative.

4 pounds green beans, trimmed

½ cup butter

3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1/3 cup slivered almonds

Working in batches, cook green beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes per batch. Strain beans to a large bowl of ice water, cool completely. Drain well.

Melt ¼ cup butter in each of two heavy skillets(or just cook these in two batches in one skillet) over medium-high heat. Whisk one tablespoon thyme, 1 tablespoon mustard, and 1 tablespoon garlic salt into butter. Add half of the beans and toss until heated through, about four minutes. Season to taste with pepper. Transfer to a large bowl. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and remaining tablespoon of thyme.

For the past two years I have been making a mock Boston Market style sweet potato dish. All the ingredients in this dish are organic also. Toonie Moonie has a wonderful organic alternative to conventional marshmallow fluff that works splendidly in this recipe. You could always be adventurous and make you own. Real food is key! I really try not to compromise just because it’s a holiday. You can also replace the marshmallow completely with some pecans for a nice crunchy texture.

“Organic Boston Market-Style Sweet Potatoes”

6-8 Servings

6 cups mashed sweet potatoes (5 to 6 potatoes-see step #1)

3/4 cup dark brown sugar plus extra for sprinkling( I prefer to use organic evaporated cane sugar or Rapadura instead, for health reasons)

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups mini marshmallows (preferably organic) or approx 1 cup Toonie Moonie Marshmallow Fluff

1. Rub a little olive on the skin of each sweet potato and bake them in a preheated 400 degree oven for 60 to 70 minutes or until they are tender. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scrape out the insides and use an electric mixer on high speed to beat the potatoes until they are mashed and smooth.

2. Add 3/4 cup brown sugar, heavy cream, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt into the sweet potatoes and mix well with the beater until all the ingredients are incorporated. Pour this mixture into an 8x8 or 9x13-inch baking dish.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Bake for about 30 minutes

5. Pour Marshmallows into potatoes, let melt slightly and swirl.

6. Sprinkle with a little brown sugar (or evaporated cane/Rapadura) and serve.

These are just a few of our favorites. I could go on and on. Just remember that real cream, butter, and raw milk are not unhealthy and should not be replaced with skim, ultra-processed milk or margarine. We try to eat like they did in traditional diets, way back in the day.

My cooking is still evolving. It probably always will. All I know is that cooking is one of my favorite things to do and I love the way real food tastes. If you take the time to prepare a fresh, out-of-the-box thanksgiving dinner, you will taste such a tremendous difference. You will never go back!

Keep It Real!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sarah – The Real Food Outlaw Mama