Paleo Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas

When I was a child, Thanksgiving was a lovely holiday that meant lots of delicious, comforting food. My father, who was born and raised in the Northeastern US made his homemade turkey stuffing and my mother, who was born in raised in the Southeastern US, made her homemade chicken and cornbread dressing.

Do you have any idea how much bread it takes to make stuffing and dressing? The answer is lots. Lots and lots of bread.

Combined with the lovely dinner rolls and pies, we were carbin’ it up at Thanksgiving. Oh, there was turkey and plenty of veggies, but I preferred to fill my plate with the starchy stuff!

Fast forward to several years ago when my family began following a real food diet with a preference for paleo and primal eating. Suddenly Thanksgiving seemed impossible. If we couldn’t eat our traditional family favorites anymore because they were all grain and sugar filled, what on earth would we eat?

Each year since we’ve either gone strictly paleo for Thanksgiving, put the real food lifestyle to the side for the day so that we could enjoy Thanksgiving with family, or done some wonderful combination of real food Thanksgiving dishes and our old carb-heavy favorites. The last choice has turned out to the be the healthiest for us since the other two options come with some degree of stress over what we’re eating.

Still, if you prefer to have a strictly Paleo Thanksgiving it’s entirely possible and absolutely delicious. It does not have to be a lackluster affair of meat with a side of meat, as some might assume. There are plenty of Paleo options available to replace your favorite high-carb, processed favorites. There is also lots of room for trying to new Paleo dishes and serving new recipes that will eventually become your family’s traditional Thanksgiving dishes.

Read on for some of my favorite Paleo Thanksgiving recipes!

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Thanksgiving is a holiday filled with grain-laden, dairy-heavy comfort food dishes. It can be tough for someone living the Paleo lifestyle to find typical holiday recipes that are grain-free, dairy-free and wholesome. It’s not impossible, however, to have a wonderful paleo Thanksgiving dinner with everything from turkey to pie.

I got with several of my favorite real food paleo bloggers for an awesome list of Paleo Thanksgiving dishes that are sure to your make your Thanksgiving both healthy and delicious!