Are you worried gluten might ruin the warmth and camaraderie of the holiday season? If so, I’ve got some Gluten-Free Thanksgiving recipe lists and a few handy resources to help you through the holiday season.
We’ll be having an entirely gluten-free Thanksgiving meal at my house. But with my passionate adult children sitting on different nutrition teams, I have an additional challenge to contend with this year: My daughter represents Team Vegan and my son represents Team Paleo. I hope we can concoct a meal plan that pleases all and helps unite us against gluten. In this post you’ll find some of the same resources I’ll use to help me navigate this contentious path.
I appreciate many of you won’t have a friendly environment for gluten-free eating in the coming days. So hopefully in this post you’ll find a few useful tips for surviving this holiday with as little distraction and discomfort as possible.
The Gluten-Free Goddess
Karina the “Gluten-Free Goddess” has a pretty extensive list of Thanksgiving Gluten-Free recipes and tips. This is a running list she updates and improves every year:
The Gluten-Free Goddess: Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes and Tips
She also provides a separate guide outlining her gluten-free vegetarian Thanksgiving:
Gluten-Free Vegetarian Thanksgiving
Gluten-Free Vegan Menu
Note: When it’s gluten-free and vegan, it’s also GFCF-friendly (Gluten-Free, Casein-Free).
One last one for Team Vegan, this site coming recommended by my daughter:
Gluten-Free Vegan Thanksgiving Menu
Gluten-Free, Grain-Free Thanksgiving Menu
The Gluten-Free Girl presents a wide range of resources (videos, iPad apps, etc.) to help you navigate a gluten-free, grain-free Thanksgiving menu:
(Link Deleted: Looks like the Gluten-Free Girl retired and the page is no longer available. Sorry!)
Gluten-Free Paleo Menus
And from Team Paleo, we have a couple of entries. First we have Elana’s Pantry, featuring some creative twists on traditional offerings:
Next we have Sarah Fragoso’s Everyday Paleo with an updated menu for 2013:
Everyday Paleo’s Thanksgiving 2013
Traditional Thanksgiving, Gluten-Free
Mary Frances of the Gluten Free Cooking School recently published this $2.99 Kindle book showing you how to make a traditional Thanksgiving gluten-free:
This little book includes all the recipes Mary makes and serves for her well-loved Thanksgiving feast every year. It features a subtly southern take on a traditional Thanksgiving, with all of it made accessibly gluten-free.
Please note: You do not need to own a kindle to buy and read kindle books. You can read them on any computer or any modern mobile device. Just download Amazon’s free Kindle app and you’re good to go. Find the Kindle app for your Mac, PC or mobile device here:
Mary Frances also wrote a fun and useful post to help you avoid our least favorite toxic protein composite:
10 Ways to Accidentally Gluten Yourself at Thanksgiving
Want another perspective on a traditional gluten-free thanksgiving? Try About’s comprehensive new page:
Traditional Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Menu
Gluten-Free Beers
I receive quite a few inquiries about gluten-free beer. Honestly, I’m not really much of a beer drinker, so I can’t provide personal recommendations.
But Jeff Adams over at Celiac.com published a nice collection of festive gluten-free beers and ciders:
Gluten-Free Beers and Ciders For the Holiday Season
Gluten-Free Enzyme Supplement
It isn’t unlikely for us to find ourselves in situations where we may not be 100 percent sure. While I recommend abstinence in those cases, I know we all struggle now and then to be perfectly disciplined. So just in case, you might bring this Garden of Life enzyme supplement along.
This does NOT make it possible for you to eat gluten: however, it is a last resort measure to minimize symptoms triggered by any gluten accidentally slipping past your defenses.
Patience, Tolerance and Humility
Sometimes we approach the holidays with an idealistic hope for how they’ll turn out. And often personal conflicts bring us back to reality.
This year, when someone pushes the wrong button or elicits any kind of anxiety in you, try to take a deep breath and be thankful for all you have in your life. And remember this humbling reality:
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
– Carl Gustav Jung
Proactively bring love, patience, tolerance and humility to your festivities this year: it will make you feel better.
Remember to take care of yourself… then turn around and take care of someone else. It will help you heal.
Warmly in 2013,
Sarah Patrick