I sincerely hope you all had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving, full of delicious food and stress-free family time. As for my gang, we took off the day after T-day and headed for Florida. We were all ready for some rest and relaxation. Why did we think going to Disney World would provide those two things???

Before we embarked on the Most Magical Place on Earth, we spent a day at the Kennedy Space Center. What an awesome experience! If you have never been or if you have never taken your children to a NASA visitor’s center, I heartily encourage you to do so. I was never taught astronomy in school and we only briefly touched on the history of the space race, but I learned all about it alongside my children during our science studies these past couple of years. These studies ignited a fire (pardon the pun) in all of us for this fascinating piece of history. If you don’t know much about astronomy or our space program, check out a couple books from the library, study up and go visit. You will be blown away.

In the coming weeks, I’ll do a full recap of our trip and how we managed to eat mostly paleo and totally gluten free while we were away.

For now, I just wanted to pop in and say, “Hi.” I have lots of recipes in the pipeline and just recently published is one you will definitely want to try: Paleo Chicken Pot Pie.

This recipe makes a huge amount so it’s perfect for splitting into two pans and freezing one for a hectic day down the road. Or just enjoy lots and lots of leftovers. If you have turkey in your freezer from Thanksgiving, this would be a perfect use for it.

The crust in this recipe is to die for. I think most of the credit for that goes to the lard I used. If you haven’t tried US Wellness Meats, I heartily recommend them. Everything we’ve ordered has been amazing and their lard is simply the best. This is my honest, un-endorsed opinion.

As we transition from Thanksgiving festivities to full-blown Christmas celebrations, it’s time to start thinking about cookies. You probably thought I was going to say something about giving back to others. I absolutely endorse that as well. There are so many worthy causes to which we can donate our material resources and/or time and I encourage you to seek them out.

But here on the Our Paleo Family blog, my goal is to empower you with recipes that will get you through whatever life throws at you, be it a family dinner, a pot luck celebration, an office party, or just your average Wednesday night. It is holiday time and I know lots of people include special foods in their celebrations. In my house, we bake and eat and give away lots and lots of cookies. My first batch of the season was these amazing Paleo-ish Fudge Bars.

These cookies are super rich and stay delicious for a very long time, so they’re perfect for making early in the season.

If you need more treat ideas, have a look at these recipes:

New and Improved Paleo Sugar Cookies

Raspberry Almond Squares (gluten, dairy and egg free)

Paleo Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

I’m working on several new varieties for this season:

lemon squares

peppermint bark cookies

caramel, pecan clusters

press cookies

Right now, my oven is on strike, but keep an eye out on the blog as I get these recipes just right and publish them here. If you need more celebratory recipes to get you through the season, I encourage you to download my holiday recipe book, Your Paleo Holiday. It’s full of recipes for Christmas, New Year’s and beyond. All the recipes are gluten free and most are completely paleo.

And for those of you who need Christmas cookies in your life, but don’t have the time to make them, let me do that for you! You can order any of my cookies, see the list here, but the molasses gingerbread in cute little gingerbread man shapes or the shortbread in fun holiday shapes would be perfect for your next party or just munching on at home.

My oven’s decision to quit on me has greatly interfered with my plans, so I don’t have pictures of these gingerbread men and pretty shortbread snowflakes, but I’ll get them for you soon.

Don’t forget to squeeze in lots of veggies between all those cookies. That’s my public service announcement for today.

Check back soon for more fun recipes!