Gravy Recipe

My Mom’s homemade turkey gravy recipe is the best I have ever tasted.  She never wrote it down of course. She was always in charge of making the turkey gravy at her house and later, when I took over the cooking, at my house.  It was always perfect.  No lumps of flour, smooth, and always delicious.  She told me her father taught her how to make the gravy.  He said you could never have too much salt and pepper in the gravy.

The gravy is an important side for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  When I learned I could no longer eat my Mom’s signature gravy, I researched and tested gluten free gravy recipes.  After several tries, I settled on a coconut flour recipe.  The flavor was similar to Mom’s.  The consistency was a little grainy but I liked flavor.  

We didn’t keep the leftover gravy.  It would get really grainy the next day.  We would throw the rest away by the second day.

I made a chicken soup recipe from a whole 30 blog.  My family and I loved it.  It was so creamy and had a great flavor.  It was still creamy the next day.  The recipe called for coconut milk and arrowroot.  I decided I would tweak this recipe to make our turkey gravy.

It works with chicken, turkey, and beef broth.

My sister-in-law, Katie, told me after our Thanksgiving dinner that she couldn’t tell the difference between my gluten-free dinner and the dinners my Mom used to make.  I have been tweaking my Thanksgiving recipes for 6 years now. The new gravy recipe made the difference.

I hope you enjoy this Creamy Turkey Gravy recipe.

Creamy Turkey Gravy

2 Cups of Bone Broth (Turkey, Chicken or Beef)
1 T Nutritional Yeast
¼ t Onion Powder
⅛ Garlic Powder
¾ t Salt
½ t Pepper
1 t Italian Seasoning
1 t Dried Parsley
1 can 13.5 oz Full Fat Coconut Milk( I use Natural Value Organic Coconut Cream)
⅛ c Arrowroot Powder

Pour 2 cups of bone broth in a medium sauce pan.  Bring to a boil. Add the seasonings to the broth.  In a separate bowl mix the coconut milk and the arrowroot powder.  Mix until the coconut milk is smooth.  Pour the milk and arrowroot mixture into the boiling broth and mix until smooth.  The gravy is done when it thickens.  Season with the salt and pepper to taste.

Whole 30 Journey

My next goal on this journey was to increase my energy level.  My kids were driving themselves now and didn’t need me home as much. I decided it was time to increase my work hours to full time.  The problem with this was I didn’t know if I could sustain a 40 hour work week with my current energy level. In my research, the Whole 30 diet seemed to address energy.  The Whole 30 Diet was my next project.

For my first Whole 30, I followed the Whole 30 diet plan that Michelle Tam of Nomnom Paleo created on her website Nomnompaleo.com.  We enjoyed her recipes while we followed the Specific Carb Diet. It seemed a good transition for family. The recipes were very flavorful. My family never felt like they were deprived of good food during the 30 days.

Like all of the whole food diets I followed, the Whole 30 Diet would require a lot of work and planning.  Especially, since I love to snack. If I am tired, I can easily convince myself to go out or prepare an easy processed frozen or boxed dinner.  I had to take all of those options away from myself. This had to be so easy, I didn’t need to think about it, I just came home from work and did it.

At the begining of each week, I printed out the recipes.  I prepared a weekly calendar, a shopping/preparation list.  The calendar I created for the family was for dinners. I planned to eat leftovers for lunch.  For my breakfast each week, I cooked the breakfast recipes and froze them. Then I heated them up during the week.  

Sunday, was shopping day.  After shopping, my family chopped vegetables and stored them in containers for the refrigerator.  We prepared sauces, dressings, and seasonings for the week. We baked the week’s breakfasts and snacks. 

The calendar, shopping and preparation lists for the Nomnom Paleo Whole 30 I created are available if you email me.

Some Whole 30 tips and tricks I learned from the Paleo/Whole 30 bloggers I follow which helped me be successful during my Whole 30:

  1. Choffy brewed chocolate and a tablespoon of Nutpod to replace lattes,
  2. Tessamae salad dressings,
  3. Primal Kitchen Mayonaises, Ketchup,
  4. LaCroix sparkling waters,
  5. Hint waters,

During my Whole 30 the first and last weeks were the hardest, mentally.  In the middle of the 30 days I felt really good. My energy increased and continued to increase during the 30 days.  I was able to get out of bed with my alarm every morning. I hadn’t been able to do that in quite a while. It was amazing.  I have done 5 Whole 30s since my first one. Each Whole 30 I do, I find a new food I don’t tolerate exposing new layers in my journey to heal myself. 

Grain Free Summer Vacation Food Plan

Going on vacation for my family has always meant eating at restaurants.  Usually we made unhealthy food and drink choices. Camping for my family has meant “traditional family camping food” again usually unhealthy food and drink choices.  Both vacation and camping eating usually result in low energy, bad digestion, leading to more unhealthy food choices. Also eating fast food and at restaurants is expensive.

After a year of practicing Whole 30 and feeling great, I decided this vacation we would take our camper and stock it with healthy choices.  I would know that all of the food I ate would make me feel great. My family knew we had good tasting food in the camper, so they wouldn’t be tempted to eat fast food or other unhealthy choices.

The trip was for 6 days.  I selected 5 salads. Our vacation was planned for the end of June.  The weather was 80 to 90 degrees. I didn’t want to do much cooking inside the camper for our dinners due to the heat.  All 5 salads included meat protein. We were going on a physically demanding vacation with hiking and stand up paddle boarding adventures and needed to have lots of energy.

I selected these salads for their ease and their great taste.

BLT Salad. Meals Made Simple pg 104

Asian Sesame Chicken Salad  Whole 30 Cookbook https://www.whole-sisters.com/asian-sesame-chicken-salad/

Warm Taco Salad with Creamy Avocado-Cilantro Vinaigrette Meals Made Simple pg 102

Beef and Broccoli Slaw Lettuce Wraps Whole 30 Cookbook pg 48

Six Ingredient Chicken Salad Whole 30 Fast & Easy pg 22

I completed a shopping and preparation list for the trip which is available if you contact me by email.

I cooked the meat portion of the salads during the 2 weeks before we left.  I made double recipes of the meals we ate during those 2 weeks. I froze the meat in ziplock bags for our trip.  I purchased the vegetables for the first 2 dinners because the camping fridge isn’t very big. We shopped at the local grocery store to purchase ice, lunch meat, and the next 2 days vegetables for dinners.

For breakfast, lunch and snacks, I followed the Whole 30 travel guide, https://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-travel.pdf.  Our cooler included boiled eggs, canned tuna fish, cooked bacon, canned olives, whole 30 compliant condiments, dressings and fresh produce.   I kept a copy of the Whole 30 seasonal fresh produce guide https://whole30.com/downloads/seasonal-produce.pdf in my purse for my shopping trips to keep my costs down.

I felt great the entire trip.  My energy was great. I was up at sunrise every morning.  My family enjoyed the flavorful meals. They also enjoyed the stocked fridge whenever they were hungry.

My family’s favorite part of vacationing with the camper was lunch time.  We would stop to fill up with gas. Move to the side of the truck stop to make our lunches in the camper.  Everything they wanted or needed was right there. They had a great lunch and we all felt great after eating it.  Lunch time was fast, fun and cheap.

Camping Whole 30

The Italian Beef Soup recipe from Whole 30 Fast & Easy cookbook is a great recipe to make camping. 

I purchased a yellow zucchini and heirloom tomatoes at the farmers’ market.  I can’t tolerate the sweet peppers so I doubled the zucchini for the recipe.

For prep work, I browned the beef burger in my kitchen and froze it in a large baggy prior to leaving on the trip.  

The ingredients were easy to store in the camper.  I put the beef pouch in the freezer, chicken broth and herbs in the pantry, and I placed the whole fresh vegetables in the refrigerator.  

The soup is assembled pretty quickly.  Cut up the vegetables, thaw the burger, put in the soup pan with broth and cook.  Clean-up is quick because the beef was pre-cooked.

The soup is very flavorful and very satisfying.  Leftovers can be warmed up for lunch. A very easy recipe for camping.

Italian Beef Soup
Whole 30 Fast & Easy Cookbook

Whole Food Diet on a Budget

Eating a whole food diet can be expensive.  I learned some cost saving tricks. With my son in college, my daughter going to college in the fall, my family follows a food budget.  The tricks I learned allow us to eat healthy and stay within the budget.

These tricks can help you eat healthy without busting your budget.  I will post these tricks on this blog to share them with you. My money savings ideas are for Missoula, Montana grocery stores and a couple on-line stores. The concepts can be applied to your town grocery stores. Research your store’s sales and coupon systems and with planning these tools should work anywhere.

Free-range eggs are a big part of my family’s diet.  Our favorite brand cost $5.49 a dozen at most grocery stores in Missoula.  At the Missoula Natural Grocers I signed-up for {N}Power, the in store discounts program.  The free-range eggs through {N}Power pricing are $1.99 per dozen. We usually get 3 dozen a week. That would be $16.47 at most grocery stores.  At Natural Grocers in Missoula, the 3 dozen eggs with the {N}Power program are $5.97. That is a $10.50 savings every week or a $40 savings for our monthly budget.

Saving in areas like this where I can, allows my family to continue eating a whole food diet within our budget.