My First Paleo Thanksgiving

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition last year, this was my first gluten/dairy/soy/corn/peanut free Thanksgiving!  What that means? No boxed stuffing, canned cranberry, etc.  Everything will be made from scratch, and I think it will be even better tasting!

I got the smallest organic turkey I could find and planned ahead and found recipes beforehand.  My biggest fear was all of the extra time it would take to prepare freshly made fixings, but isn't that what the holidays are about? Taking the extra time to make a good tasting, healthy meal?  Things made from scratch always taste better, don't they? And they didn't take that long to prepare either!

The biggest changes were dairy free green bean casserole with freshly fried onions, homemade stuffing with gluten free bread, dairy/gluten/soy free pumpkin and apple pies, yams/mashed potatoes with ghee and coconut milk.  We'll see if my guests can taste the difference! 

Here's what I made! (Everything was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture of the fresh green bean casserole!).  Making the fresh mushroom soup with coconut milk was actually super quick and easy!

Freshly fried onions in coconut oil, homemade mushroom soup, gluten free homemade stuffing, organic turkey!

This is the one item that I purchased! A vegan apple pie from New Cascadia gluten free bakery in Portland!

*Main image source: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2303832/images/o-PALEO-THANKSGIVING-facebook.jpg

Fresh onions fried in coconut oil!

Crispy and delicious!

Big Box Vitamins

Do you buy your vitamins in bulk to try to save money?  Bulk grocery stores like Costco and Sam's Club offer you huge bottles of vitamins at a great price, right!? Take a better look at the ingredients and you'll see why you could be wasting your hard earned cash!

If your goal of taking a daily vitamin is for improved health, choosing a pharmaceutical grade supplement is necessary.  If you're unknowingly ingesting food dyes, modified food starch, soy and more on a daily basis to improve your health, you must research the products that you are purchasing. Is it really worth the savings? You get what you pay for!  Maybe you're continuing to have gastrointestinal issues, breakouts, headaches, etc., and they may be from your vitamins ingredients.  If you check the labels on your food, also check the ones on your vitamins.

I'll compare popular vitamins I found at Costco this past weekend, show you the harmful ingredients, and a superior alternative that your body can actually use!  Synthetic vitamins often contain harmful chemicals and essential nutrients in inabsorbable forms.

While you can essentially get more "vitamins" for your dollar with the big box brands, that is because they are of lower quality, and use cheap preservatives, chemicals, dyes, etc., to bring the cost down.  For example, this is the same reason why real peanut/almond butters cost more than their cheaper alternatives, that have added sugars and hydrogenated oils.  Corn syrup is cheap, genetically modified, and easily added to foods, beverages and vitamins as a filler!

Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Fish Oil:

• ~$.10 cents per capsule
• Contains SOY (GMO)

• Better option is Integrative Therapeutics Pure Omega HP; ~$.37 per capsule

• Does not contain any of the following!

  • artificial coloring

  • artificial flavoring

  • corn

  • dairy products

  • gluten

  • preservatives

  • salt

  • soy

  • sugar

  • wheat

  • yeast

Nature Made Coenyzme Q 10:

• ~$.25 cents per capsule
• Contains artificial coloring, soy
• Synthetic, chemically made.  Contains a different chemical other than the natural form

• Better option is Integrative Therapeutics Vitaline CoQ10; ~$2.00 per capsule

• Contains only the NATURAL form of CoEnzyme Q10 and is identical to the form produced by the human body

• The natural form can cross the cell membrane and does increase serum CoQ10 levels

• Does not contain any of the following!

  • artificial coloring

  • artificial flavoring

  • corn

  • dairy products

  • gluten

  • ingredients of animal origin

  • preservatives

  • salt

  • soy

  • wheat

  • yeast

Centrum Silver Women's 50+

• ~$.08 cents per capsule
• Contains modified corn starch, Red 40 Lake, hydrogenated palm oil, maltodextrin

• Better option is Integrative Therapeutics Clinical Nutrients 45 Plus Women; ~$.19 per capsule

• Does not contain any of the following!

  • artificial coloring

  • artificial flavoring

  • dairy products

  • gluten

  • preservatives

  • soy

  • sugar

  • wheat

  • yeast

*Main image source: http://sincitycrossfitsouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Health-Benefits-of-Fish-Oil-For-Kids.jpg