Celebrating the Holidays With Food Allergies

I don’t know about you, but I am very excited for what the holiday’s will bring. The holiday’s are about spending time with family and friends that you typically do not get, celebrating whatever traditions you and your family have, and sharing gifts and wisdom with one another.

The holiday meal is one of the things I most look forward to (Eating it, not cooking it of course!) However when you are a family that has diabetes and multiple food allergies in the mix it can be an interesting time to say the least. I’ve learned a few tips and tricks on cooking gluten free/ dairy free so that we all can enjoy the holiday’s without added issues or discomfort. So in the spirit of sharing I’d love to share with others what we do so that it may help you and your family should you be looking at your first holiday Gluten Free.

The Meal

It took a bit of learning and research on my part to figure out how to cook gluten free for the turkey and main staples for our meal. What I‘ve learned in cooking the turkey is you want to use chicken stock instead of the traditional chicken broth if you use this to cook your turkey in. Since we are dairy free as well, we have to watch out for the butter used in cooking the turkey. I use olive oil butter in replace of the traditional butters.

Potatoes are naturally gluten free, which being Irish myself, we LOVE potatoes so that was a blessing. However if you are making homemade mashed potatoes and needing to be dairy/ lactose free there are a few changes you may wish to make. This includes the milk used in the process of making your potatoes. I opt to use Almond milk, and olive oil butter. And honestly the potatoes taste all around much better than they would with regular milk, you will be surprised.

Now gravy can be tricky but it can be made gluten free and still oh so yummy. Instead of your regular wheat based flours, you can use either cornstarch (which is GF), White Rice Flour, or even All Purpose Gluten Free flour. I usually use white rice flour and the gravy still comes out delicious.

As for sides, don’t forget your veggies, they are gluten free and good for you. In addition I love to make a corn casserole that is Gluten Free as well. The ingredients include, corn muffin mix, corn (both kernel and creamed), eggs (which if you need to substitute for eggs, let me know, I can help you with that as well), butter (again olive oil here), cheddar cheese (Shredded) Again for Dairy or lactose free Vegetable cheese tastes just as delicious. In the one recipe sour cream is included but I omit this for dairy purposes and it comes out just as good. Here is a link to the recipe I use and just tweak it to become Dairy free.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/corn-casserole-recipe/index.html

Biscuits! Everyone loves biscuits, but being gluten free it can be tricky. However by following the recipe on the box of GLUTEN FREE Bisquick, you can have some delicious gluten free biscuits in no time at all. I like to include garlic and flax seeds into ours for added flavor.

I haven’t really gotten too much in the line of yummy gluten free treats as this will be our first Christmas gluten free and I haven’t made up much in the line of treats other than our Gluten Free Brownies. I am going to try my hand at Gluten Free sugar cookies this week using almond flour and I will let you all know how those turned out!