Thanksgiving to Go

This time of year blogs are giving their tips and advice for Thanksgiving.  There are many great posts on a gluten free holiday like Celiac-Disease pumpkin tartlets, A year of Crockpotting,  Karina’s Kitchen tips for those who are cooking for gluten and casein free guests and how to serve it up a little more “green” from the Green Parent. These are all great tips and very helpful for those hosting.  Some of us however are headed out of our safe homes.  We’re one of those families so I’m making our Thanksgiving meal to go.  We’re headed to spend a few days with relatives.  They don’t have any food intolerances so they have no understanding on how to cook for someone who does.  Let’s face it, neither did we until we had to.  There is no way someone who does not have to deal with the measures that are necessary to have safe meals would ever go through it all if they didn’t have to.  Of course, if you live this way I’m sure you have changed your house and kitchen to meet your particular needs.  If you have not made the conversion, well we need to talk.  Life is so much easier when you’re not bringing any of the items your intolerant or allergic to into your home.

thanksgiving-bird-and-bus

But, I digress.  The point of the holiday is to spend time together and not to have someone turn their kitchen upside down, jump through a bunch of hoops and worry the whole night if they made you sick or not.  And it’s also not worth you getting sick just to be “nice” and eat what they cook.  You are really being nice when you are upfront and honest.  Let them know you will be bringing your own food and you look forward to spending time with them.   Hopefully your relatives are understanding like mine and let you bring food.  If not just visit and eat at home.

Now I would not dare go into someone’s kitchen on Thanksgiving and start cooking my own food.  You know how crazy it can get in there and how every burner, oven, and countertop is already over stuffed.  So I suggest you take your meal to go and make it either cold food, easily microwaveable or in a crock pot that can be plugged in off to the side.  So what to take?

That’s up to you and what foods work for your family.  Out of the 4 of us in my house I’m the only one who eats turkey but can’t eat rice and my oldest is a vegetarian who can’t eat soy, gluten or dairy.  Actually no one eats gluten.  Making one meal for everyone is always a challenge at home but on the road I need to get very creative.   So here is our Thanksgiving meal to go for 4 people with different food needs.

Filet Minion- whole cooked and sliced.  Will be served cold
Vinaigrette Potato Salad
Quinoa High Protein Salad
Lasagna
Hummus with red pepper and Fritos for dipping
Amazing Toasted Nut Mix
Pumpkin Pie-from Karina’s Kitchen
Blackberry & Blueberry Crumble Pie
Bread From Anna mix made at home

Of course it takes a day to travel there and a day to travel back and we also need to eat more than just that one Thanksgiving meal.  So I’ll pack food for 3 days with extra cold packs:

Sliced Chicken, Turkey and Ham from Applegate
Lettuce to make roll-ups
Peanut butter and Almond butter and Jelly made with fruit juice
Glutino Corn Bread with the NoStik Toasti it reusable toaster bags
Celery, carrots, clementines, apples
Falafel with tahini sauce
Crunchy Chicken nuggets
Lara Bars
Hard boiled eggs
Potato Chips
Popcorn mix

I wish you a safe and peaceful Thanksgiving day.  Feel free to leave your tips for making this holiday work for you.