If everything had gone according to my plan, this would have been finished up on Tuesday or Wednesday. Life. It gets in the way sometimes. So what am I cooking this year?

For the past several years, we have been celebrating Thanksgiving with Sugar Bee’s Godparents and their boys. They are an extension of our family and we love them very much. What’s even better is that we all eat in a similar way. There’s not a lot of questions about what we can make or what the other family can eat, so it becomes pretty easy to celebrate with them. No awkwardness about our diets, as in the way we nourish our bodies, not a “diet” as most people think. It’s the way we live.

So every year we split up the responsibilities so that neither family is responsible for the entire meal. This year, I am in charge of two desserts, three sides, and biscuits that we can all eat without getting all sorts of digestive issues. I’m throwing this quick post together of what I’m making (some I have already made ahead yesterday…WIN!), so you can pin them for next year. Actually, some of these will get made again for the Christmas season, too 🙂 You can find them all on my Pinterest Holiday board.

Tuesday night, I made the cranberry sauce. It was done in the slow cooker and is Paleo-friendly. YUM! With fresh cranberries, pears, ginger, and orange with honey and coconut sugar to sweeten, this recipe was so easy and is the perfect one for me to bring to dinner. 

The next thing I made is my usual for both Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve dinner, Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole. I LOVE this recipe, not only because it’s super easy and only requires me to dirty my KitchenAid stand mixer (fast cleanup!), but you can assemble this the night before and just finish it off in the oven the next day before dinner. The next thing that I was able to cross off the list was a request. I made these for the first time last year. They are Pecan Pie Bars from Paleomg and they are amazing! I think that they are going to be even better this year because I made them yesterday, so they have had lots of time to firm up.

They spent several hours in the freezer yesterday afternoon and they have been in the fridge since last night. Can’t. Wait.

After getting home from Thanksgiving Eve beverages last night with my friend, I assembled my first ever breakfast casserole. Why in the world have I never made one of these things before?!?! Of course, it’s a gluten-free recipe so Sugar Bee can eat it, and let me tell you…with all the cheesy, bacony goodness, you would never know OR care! Oh my LORD it was good!

I assembled it, covered it, and put it in my garage fridge overnight. When I got up this morning, all I had to do was take it out and leave it on the counter while I preheated the oven. Once the oven reached 325 degrees, this amazing mess was ready for us to eat in less than an hour. Make this. I used the light GF white bread from Whole Foods because I figured that the consistency of their gluten-free bread would be perfect and I was 100% right. This one is a keeper!

Now for the things that I have left to make. (I will try and remember to update this post tonight or tomorrow with pictures of my finished products.)

This will be my second dessert, Crustless Pumpkin Pie by Gluten Free Easily. I’m really looking forward to this one!

My other side is going to be Honey-Roasted Root Vegetables. I’ve been making this other dish for holiday dinners for the past several years, Roasted Root Vegetables with Maple Glaze. I decided to try one of the others that I saved and have never tried. Here’s the recipe for the honeyed version.

The last thing that I will be making are GF biscuits. I have made these before with a great mix that I buy at Aldi. It calls for shortening (yuck), so I will be swapping that out with some expeller-pressed coconut oil. Expeller-pressed doesn’t have the coconut flavor that could ruin the biscuit taste. This is the one that I use.Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I will be getting back to more regular posts now that life and travel have both calmed down. Whew! October and November kept me BUSY!! Have a blessed day!!

***UPDATED***December 2, 2014

A few more pictures….

The Honey Root Veggies were so good that my husband only got leftovers the first night. I ate all the rest.

This is the crustless pumpkin pie. Oh. My. God. As my friend said, it was so good that you really don’t even miss the crust. It was just incredible. And easy! Mine looks much darker than in the photo from the posted recipe, but I think this is because I didn’t use fresh pumpkin and I don’t really measure spices.

No picture of the biscuits (although they looked the same as when I made them a few months ago and posted on Instagram), but I advise to either add flavor to them if using the expeller-pressed coconut oil over the shortening, or use Kerrygold butter in place of the shortening like I did the first time. They still had a great texture, but no flavor. At all. We have been putting Nutella on all the leftover ones, so they are still getting eaten.

Hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine!