So How Was Thanksgiving?

[sandsurfgirl]

Mine was great! My parents made a gluten free turkey, got Honeybaked ham, sweet potatoes, salad, cranberry ambrosia and mashed potatoes (both gluten free). I brought my own gravy, green beans and pumpkin pie. I also brought dips and chips and put my son and mine in separate containers so they couldn't get CC'd.

I make the Libby's recipe and just don't put crust. I spray oil the pie pan and pour the filling right in. It comes out great, holds together well and I think it tastes better because you get the full pumpkin pie taste. And it's WAY less calories than one with crust.

I was careful for my son and myself. Kept our food in a cooler until it was time to eat and then guarded it carefully so nobody touched it or CC'd it.

I didn't get glutened and we had a nice time. I didn't have time to make stuffing so I will make it this week with pork chops or something becuase I do love it and missed it today.

[BabsV]

Sounds like a great time!

I'm only 3 months into the gluten-free diet and living in Poland where I've had some issues with meat (glutened from both chicken & turkey...food labeling is hit or miss as I have found out!) so I was leery of eating at another person's house, especially with all the flour that was going to be around (for the gravy, the pies, etc.)

We went to enjoy the day with friends -- I ate before we left but still had a good time visiting with everyone. Honestly, it was more about being with friends and my family than the food for me this year.

Next year we'll be back in the United States and I'll go all out for my first real gluten-free Thanksgiving!

[sahm-i-am]

I am so glad you had a great Thanksgiving! We did, too. We went to lunch at cousin's house (mom's side) and dinner at aunt's house (dad's side) and my daughter and I did not get sick! Hooray!! AND the best part - we could eat good food WE prepared and brought and weren't forced to eat the dry tasteless turkey that my aunt always makes. I actually think my husband and other daughter were jealous of OUR food! HA!

[pondy]

What surprised me is how easy it was

In the morning I cooked a plate of all my favorites, took it along & popped it in the microwave while the family was dishing up. We all ate together it was wonderful! I felt NO worries - just 'a part of'

Half the people there didn't even notice that I was eating my own food. For the first time in a long time, food was a non-issue.

[luvs2eat]

I cooked so it was easy to have everything gluten-free... from the crackers w/ the cheese to the pies to the stuffing. That said... I made the 10th new stuffing/dressing recipe in my 10-year celiac journey and it was ... okay.

I made a loaf of Pamela's bread, cubed it, dried the cubes, and followed a slow cooker recipe that every reviewer RAVED about. No stuffing/dressing recipe has ever come remotely close to the Pepperidge Farm stuffing I grew up on and miss terribly.

I know it's not a huge deal in the life scheme of things, but Thanksgiving used to be one of my fave holidays and it's just not anymore because I can't get that stuffing recipe close... and I never will because it's the danged gluten that made it what it was.

Ugh... sorry for my whine. I have much to be thankful for and have to get that stupid stuffing/dressing out of my brain.

[alex11602]

I'm glad that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was really nice also, we went to my mom's house and I made a chicken and rice dish with sausage for our dinner plus carrot fries to share, but when I got there my mom had turkey, broccoli and raw mushrooms that we could have too plus she made one batch of cranberry sauce with stevia since I can't really have sugar and made shredded potatoes along with the mashed since my girls and I can't do milk and she even made the gravy with cornstarch plus she also made an apple, cranberry, blueberry and black raspberry crumble made with almond flour.

It was a really nice day and it was very clear what we could eat and what we couldn't and then she sent leftovers home with us. I missed the regular stuffing but I'm more happy with feeling good so it wasn't that big of a deal and my husband missed eating the sweet potato stuffing and the green bean casserole, but he was pretty much ok with it and my girls didn't really know the difference thankfully.

[GlutenDude]

Tried a new stuffing recipe. The flavor was great. The consistency was a whole different story. Used Udi's bread and it just didn't hold together. Felt like I was eating a rice stuffing. But all in all...a great day.

[Roda]

I had a good day at home. It was just my husband and my two boys. Hubby smoked a turkey on Wednesday and I roasted half of it yesterday. Made mash potatoes with gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, brazillian cheese bread, green beans and a cherry yum yum for desert. The other half of the turkey went in the freezer and we will be taking it to the inlaws the weekend before Christmas. The only bloat I got yesterday was from eating to much! I called to talk to the rest of my family and they wanted to know what we were having. My nephew asked about stuffing. He couldn't fathom not having stuffing at Thanksgiving. I've never liked it and neither do my boys. Hubby says he can take it or leave it.

[Chad Sines]

Mine was great. No gluten unless CC. did eat milk because of the potatos. Lots of carbs. Did really well, ate too much.

[Rebecca92]

I made some gluten free mac and cheese and a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie cheese cake to bring and my family loved it. They couldn't even tell it was gluten free.

[Macbre]

Mine was great! My parents made a gluten free turkey, got Honeybaked ham, sweet potatoes, salad, cranberry ambrosia and mashed potatoes (both gluten free). I brought my own gravy, green beans and pumpkin pie. I also brought dips and chips and put my son and mine in separate containers so they couldn't get CC'd.

I make the Libby's recipe and just don't put crust. I spray oil the pie pan and pour the filling right in. It comes out great, holds together well and I think it tastes better because you get the full pumpkin pie taste. And it's WAY less calories than one with crust.

I was careful for my son and myself. Kept our food in a cooler until it was time to eat and then guarded it carefully so nobody touched it or CC'd it.

I didn't get glutened and we had a nice time. I didn't have time to make stuffing so I will make it this week with pork chops or something becuase I do love it and missed it today.

I thought I was doing everything right by making my own food to take to my Mother-in-laws, but I ended up sick anyway. I'm thinking now maybe it was the sweetpotatoes or the carrot cake that I made. I'm not sure what would have had gluten in it, but my best guess would be the sweet potatoes. Does anyone know if Bruce's brand sweet potatoes in syrup are gluten free? I couldn't find anything about it. I assumed they were, but that's the only thing I can figure that made me sick because I have made the carrot cake in the past. It was horrible....headache started soon after dinner then the rest came at 1am. I'm so frustrated!

[domesticactivist]

It was great! We made a "parallel" meal and brought everything (turkey, chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, salad, fermented veggies, squash pie with almond crust & homemade vanilla ice cream) for us to eat along side theirs. We did bring a salad and pickled veggie tray to share as well. I even invented my own new grain-free stuffing recipe. It is based on chestnuts and has pork, celery, and apple as well. I'm going to get my act together to blog the recipe. The test batch turned out better than the batch I brought unfortunately, but it was still good. Traveling with food is hard to get right.

The kids ate an insane amount. My super picky former vegetarian daughter ate a huge plate full plus a salad plate and then had seconds on turkey, pie, and ice cream as well. No one got sick and everyone was happy

[ciamarie]

I'm so glad you asked. I'm pretty new here (this will be my 3rd reply I think...), but I discovered I had a problem with wheat over 10 years ago. It was only about a month ago that I read the book 'Healthier Without Wheat' and read the description of DH that I realized I've had outbreaks of that a few times over the last, I don't know, 30 years or so... and a lot of the rest of it matched too. I won't go into all of that history right now.

But after I realized I had an issue with wheat, back in the late 1990's, someone told me about the 'blood type diet' (I'm O+). After about 4 days of being wheat-free, I realized I was waking up without 'brain-fog'. However I did start eating and baking with spelt flour, and even occasionally ate some wheat, until about a month ago when I read in the book above that having DH was essentially the same as having celiac disease. All of that is the preface to my reply about Thanksgiving. For the last few years I have been the one who makes the stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner at my twin brother's house with his wife and kids, and in years past it was made with home-made spelt bread. This year it was made with gluten-free bread (combo of Ener-G light brown rice and white rice loaf, cubed and toasted), along with the usual onion, celery and Bell's seasoning. (You can't make authentic, New England stuffing without using Bell's seasoning! And yes, it's an herb-only mixture, no gluten!). My brother even liked it.

I had tried a couple of times to make my own gluten-free combo. rice flour loaf in the last month, but they weren't quite right for stuffing, or any public consumption. And I offered to supply potato starch for the gravy, but my sister-in-law already had some, yay. Overall it went well. My niece and her husband brought some yummy mashed potatoes (and a green-bean casserole I avoided), and I also had some yams with butter only, as well as turkey, which was a Foster Farms from costco (no additives). In years past I used to eat some of the dessert goodies, so my sister-in-law did ask at dessert time whether I wanted to have pumpkin cheesecake or apple pie. (Normally I might have had a small portion of both!) But I said no thanks to both, and instead ate the gluten-free pumpkin muffin I had brought with me, to make it easier to avoid temptation. The pumpkin muffin was one I had made a couple of weeks previous, and put in the freezer.

So overall, it was pretty good. And as a bonus of sorts, I got to take home the carcass of the turkey, and it's now burbling on my stove with some filtered water, to make a nice turkey stock.

[AVR1962]

I thought I was doing everything right by making my own food to take to my Mother-in-laws, but I ended up sick anyway. I'm thinking now maybe it was the sweetpotatoes or the carrot cake that I made. I'm not sure what would have had gluten in it, but my best guess would be the sweet potatoes. Does anyone know if Bruce's brand sweet potatoes in syrup are gluten free? I couldn't find anything about it. I assumed they were, but that's the only thing I can figure that made me sick because I have made the carrot cake in the past. It was horrible....headache started soon after dinner then the rest came at 1am. I'm so frustrated!

It might not be gluten. The gluten-free cake more than likely had xanthan gum and it is very possible the sweet potatoes had high fructose....I can't have either. Good thing, is while the symptoms may not feel good at the time I have found these will not last as long as the reaction to gluten.

[Monklady123]

Mine was great, because I'm the cook! lol... It's just the four of us usually, plus sometimes some extra "stranded" people -- like this year we had a friend of ds's from college who didn't have anywhere to go this year. But that type of guest never brings anything prepared so it's not a problem. (this kid brought me a bottle of wine because he *just* turned 21 eight days ago and he said he couldn't wait to bring wine to some occasion, rofl!)

Anyway, I made the turkey unstuffed as always. I made gluteny stuffing for the rest of them, and didn't bother with any for myself. I made mashed sweet potatoes for myself (no one else likes them), mashed regular potatoes, peas, a corn pudding/casserole (gluten free), and a relish tray (olives, cranberry, etc.) All gluten free.

For dessert I just bought a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie from the grocery store bakery. I was going to bake a crustless pumpkin "pie" for myself but then I was in Trader Joe's and found this WONDERFUL chocolate pie thing that's gluten free! woot! Love Trader Joe's!

Lots of leftovers. I'll make a shepherd's pie with the mashed potatoes because that's dh's favorite. We'll eat turkey this weekend, then I'll freeze the rest of it for soup, or turkey tetrazini, etc. And I'll boil the carcass for some yummy broth.

[sa1937]

Thanksgiving was wonderful! It was at my son's in-laws and while they made a gluteny stuffed turkey, my DIL also fixed a turkey breast for me. I couldn't eat stuffing (too lazy to make some just for me) or green bean casserole so brought a serving of green beans for myself. We also had sweet potatoes, cranberry relish (yum!) and coleslaw. I made mashed potatoes and gravy from homemade turkey broth and a pecan pie. Surprisingly the crust turned out pretty well even though I did a *lot* of patching. Need to work more on that.

All in all, I was comfortably full and probably had the healthiest dinner of all of them. And now I'm still enjoying the leftovers.

[bigbird16]

Mine was great. It was quiet and restful. I made a bird, squash, and a sweet potato. Had cranberry sauce with big ol' cranberries in it. I shared the sweet potato with the dogs, and they were quite happy. They got to play and cuddle with me all day. I put up the tree and fell asleep near it (lights off) with the TV on. When the timer shut the TV off, my new pup (got him in April) started growling. He wouldn't stop. He was facing in the same direction, moving from floor to sofa to floor to sofa. He thought the tree was a menace! I pulled him into my arms, and he stopped and quickly fell asleep, sawing logs like a champ, his brother sighing softly behind my knees.

Black Friday was kinda funny. I spent the day with a friend and her parents. Friend's mom (FM) is a pediatrician. There's a Celiac in her family, so she "knows everything" about Celiac and food allergies, etc. (Mmmhmm.) Friend passes everything I say/do on to her mom, and we've had meals together before; so FM is at least semi-aware. So yesterday at brunch (I ate before meeting up), FM asks if I'm still on my special diet. I said yes, forever. Forever? Forever. But you can eat turkey? Yes. She raised an eyebrow. Alrighty then. A bowl of fruit gets passed around, everyone sticking their pancake encrusted forks into the dish. Please have some fruit. No thank you; I'm not hungry. But you can have fruit? Yes, but I'm not hungry. (Especially with you digging your fork around in there.) Shopping ensues. Dinner rolls around. I honestly was not hungry and wasn't going to order something just to poke it around on a plate. I was just happy hanging out. Like a good mom, FM kept suggesting things for me to eat. But you can eat a salad or a potato. What about some broccoli? You need to eat something. Then she picked up the basket of rolls, and said, "Have bread. It's good and will fill you up." I about lost it, wanting to fall on the floor laughing. I smiled graciously at her, "No thank you. I'm really not hungry."