7 Tips for a Bountiful Harvest of Gluten Free Thankfulness

Alright all you gluten free and paleo peeps, here is a common sense list of tips to help you and your family enjoy Thanksgiving together! I have compiled a list of Thanksgiving tips to help us to have a truly fabulous Thanksgiving. These 7 tips for a bountiful harvest of gluten free thankfulness are from my heart to yours;

1. If the family is coming to you and most eat the Standard American Diet, make foods with ingredients they are familiar with. Happy thankful families celebrate the normal things they have in common. Save the high-end foodie dishes for your like-minded friends that will appreciate it and don’t think you are weird and that you eat weird foods.
2. Traditional Thanksgiving foods are easy to accommodate for a gluten free and/or paleo diet. Unless you are also a vegetarian, the meal is highlighted by the turkey or ham (or other family favorite protein). If you are a strict paleo, please consider having regular mashed potatoes with those sweets or yams. Folks just love their mashed potatoes with some hearty gravy. I do too!! Yummy! Cranberry sauce is important too, as well as some gluten free rolls for the grain loving folks.
3. Veggie dishes give your creative gluten free or paleo heart room for sharing. This is the one category of foods that you can sneak in those dishes that we love without much complaint! Do smaller sizes in case of picky relatives. Also, offer up some regulars…green beans, collard greens, or even broccoli.
4. Fabulous desserts are a must! Gluten free desserts are really, really good when you pick the right recipes. Consider making some Grain Free Mama’s dessert crepes. Go all out and then watch with satisfaction as you hear great feedback. Crepes, pies, cookies, brownies, and cakes….the list is long and filled with satisfied stomachs. Many a convert to gluten free started with dessert.
5. DO NOT MAKE POLITICS PART OF THE DINNER DISCUSSION. Depending on where you make your home, this could lead to looting and a short family get together. Instead, consider talking about what we are thankful for and even complimenting one person at a time in a kind of ‘spotlight’ to build one another up. Your food will be more easily digested.
6. Be timely in your preparations. Guests that arrive on time with an appetite will appreciate this a lot. Also, people tend to get more cranky when hungry. Not good for the thankfulness of the day. If you struggle to get the meal prepared in a timely manner, refer back up to tip #1 and have really good snacks on hand.
7. RELAX AND HAVE FUN! Be thankful for another year to get together. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy your relatives and friends. You and I didn’t necessarily get to choose our blood relatives, but we do have a choice in how we interact with them. Lighten up, if necessary, and make it a game with the difficult one’s to keep the tone civil. You can do it, and even have fun!

I challenge us to use these 7 tips for a bountiful harvest of gluten free thankfulness. This includes me as well. Create a thankful heart today, and take it with you into the day tomorrow. Cooking will be more enjoyable, eating will be more enjoyable, and at the end of the day you will be truly Thankful for your day.

In conclusion, be the change you want to see. Have a great family? Start the trend to be even more thankful for the blessing of a great family. Have a difficult family? Start the trend of appreciating good qualities in those difficult family members…this may help for the future. Have no family or no family at home? Start the trend to text, call and share smiles and thankfulness over the phone, on your walks, at work. Be a positive and thankful force for good. Capitalize on the fabulous gluten free options for eating and how great they make you and others feel. We can change our world…one meal at a time!

Check out our Grain Free Mama’s website for more great articles.