The Christmas that was...recipe bonaza!

I am not sure about anyone elses family but when it comes to Christmas my family act like we are about to enter a ‘favourite foods’ famine and everyone just wants to eat anything and everything that they love eating. Forget just having 1 or 2 desserts or a main dish with some salads and sides…..if someone wants something then its there, on top of everything else that we have every year.  And these things are add ons, not substitutes. Its a mess.
And as if Christmas isn’t hard enough to deal with in regards to indulgent food overload, for me and a lot of others out there it is so hard when you are living in a world where you are healthy, you know what foods make you feel like ass and you have eliminated almost anything from your diet that has a number in the ingredients list. So the population of family members living in this kind of world? 1. Just me.  But c'mon,  I have had 32 Chritsmas' before exactly the same so it's not like I have missed out on any of the foods that some might say to me (or I might even say to me)  'but it's Christmas, eat whatever you want!'

It can be crazy stressful still wanting to indulge with foods keep the connection with the things that I have grown up with. But I don't want to be eating a plate of food that is foreign compared to the rest of the 8 adults at the table. It is still Christmas and I still want my food to resemble the foods that we would all eat at Christmas. This means that I have to make aaaaaaaall my own food on top of help with all the usual suspect dishes (god forbid we didn’t have the store bought processed turkey rolls that you find in the freezer section at the supermarket, that are probably more bread and chemicals that it is a bird!). But I just gotta deal with the fact that care so much about foods that contain sulphates and f**king hydrogenated vegetable oils. Gross.

So this post I am sharing the whirlwind of food I made for Christmas festivities that helped me minimise the annihilation of ingredients that are toxic to my body (even though I was a man down in the trenches after consuming some things that I shouldn’t have)

Here we go. It started with.....

Gingerbread Men

.....for those times where it’s Christmas and you just want to bake gingerbread…..And eat them all…but leave 5 for visitors when they come over.

This recipe was the best that I found for ease, limited time and simple ingredients. Gluten free, dairy free and free of any refined sugars.


https://www.thehealthychef.com/2012/11/gluten-free-gingerbread-men/















Next up......

Gluten free tahini crackers

There is always lots of snacks, chips and dips around at Christmas and even though you can buy gluten free, most packet crackers have some other sinister ingredient piece in their puzzle. Or they cost $10 a box. WTF? I like these even better than the regular ones I make and it makes LOTS!



Gluten free Paleo friendly dinner rolls

I love bread. I just do. But I don't like wheat or gluten. And the 'Paleo' part is really just another word for whole body friendly food. There was no way I was going to give into having a bleached white flour dinner roll but I still wanted one with my meal that was slathered in organic grass fed butter! This lady is a superstar and I said that out aloud to myself when I tried these for the first time. Oh maaaaa gaaaaaawd!


Greens with almonds oregano and lemon


Ah Donna Hay….your Christmas edition magazines are fab and I continually steal your recipes and substitute them to make them gluten, mostly dairy free and sugar free. But with this simple dish there is was no need. Actually I lie. I made this using broccolini, snow peas and tossed in some spinach and rocket right at the end instead!












Blood orange maple cinnamon glazed ham with macadamias

The past two years I have made a lime and ginger glazed with the macadamia nuts which has been a hit, but this year I wanted to change it up.

This was the original


So I changed the marmalade to a healthier natural blood orange one I found, got rid of the brown sugar and used maple syrup instead added a couple of cinnamon quills and BOOM!



Now the last and most special edition. My first homemade traditional Christmas pudding!!  And it was suuuuuuuch a fav with everyone!! I love it when my family are totally impressed and can't get enough of something that doesn’t have to contain things that are essentially breaking down their bodies for the sake of convenience.

*the Mace in the recipe I substituted for nutmeg and allspice.
*the vegetable suet can be substituted for butter or coconut oil.
*Use whatever dried fruit you like to make up the entire quantity. Just make sure you still have a ton of sultanas, raisins or currants.



Can you imagine if the rest of the world started getting back to making wholesome food?? Then suckers like us would have a muuuuuch easier time sharing the load at Christmas time. Merry belated Christmas little poppets!! xxx


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