Last night I had a group of my nearest and dearest over for a little pre-Thanksgiving celebrating!
(Isn’t that table cloth the cutest! It was an instant hit, and we had no kids at this party! LOL. Get your own here before they sell out!)
The goal of this early Friendsgiving-style pot luck gathering was to taste, swap, and share some healthy appetizer, side dish, and dessert recipes to bring to our holiday tables this year! We all know the holidays revolve around FOOD. And in just a few weeks, we’re going to be surrounded by Candy, Stuffing, and Holiday Cookies. So because I’ve been on this low-carb, healthy fat, no sugar (keto) adventure for the past 10 weeks, I thought it would be a great idea to get together to share some delicious and healthy options for this holiday season!
And boy did my friends and family come through! We had SO many amazing concoctions to sample and I want to share each and every recipe with you! Look for a post in the near future with recipes for the dishes pictured below. 
So while you must wait a little bit longer for the recipes to all of the delicious goodies you see above, I will give you a sneak peek at something that I just HAD to make again today!
My friend Kristen (who’s been keto for 2 years and has had AMAZING results- check out her progress pic below!), brought a tray of low-carb, keto friendly sausage balls to the potluck last night. They were SUCH a hit, and were pretty much all gone within 30 minutes. 
I was bummed that there weren’t any leftovers because I just HAD to have them again today. So, of course, I whipped up a few! I was missing one of the ingredients the original recipe called for, so I improvised, and ended up making a few small batches, trying out a little of this and that (including a little spice to kick things up) and eventually landed on the version in the recipe below as my favorite! 
These sausage balls will NOT have you craving the real thing because they are SO deliciously moist, flavorful, and chewy- soft on the inside, crisp on the outside, and oh-so-cheesy! They’re perfect to take to a work potluck because they’re just as yummy at room temperature as they are fresh and hot out of the oven. They would also make a great appetizer to take to a party, or to serve at Christmas eve!
Here is the recipe:
- 1.5 lbs of ground pork sausage (make sure the carb and sugar counts are 1g or less)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup finely ground plain pork rinds (use rolling pin, mallet, or food processor to grind into a fine dust)
- 1 cup of freshly grated mild cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesean cheese
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground mustard
- 1 tsp. dried parsley
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Add all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir to combine (I have found that a mixer with a paddle attachment works best). Mix until just combined (over mixing=gummy and tough sausage balls!)
- Roll into walnut-sized balls and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. Let cool a bit and then enjoy!
