Better Late than Never?

So as you may know, it's nearly Christmas (yay!) and yet I am just now getting around to my Thanksgiving post!  Completely unacceptable, I know.  To say the holidays have carried me away is an understatement.  I though I was completely prepared for the holiday season yet I've been swept up in all it's activities!  Oh well, at least I'm enjoying every minute of it.  A while back I wrote a post about a pre-Thanksgiving meal trial run and how it turned out.  My family eats gluten-free & mostly grain-free so sometimes the holidays can be challenging.  I wanted to "de-stress" our Thanksgiving by trying out a couple new recipes before hand.  One thing I didn't account for was the wonderful selection of holiday food items I would find at Whole Foods.  I've been making meals from scratch for so long that I forget that some stores might have some shortcuts available for me!  Because I bring most of the food & desserts for Thanksgiving, I wanted to infuse some semi-homemade dishes into my menu.  So off to Whole Foods Market I went!  Let me tell you that I want to live in that store!  The moment I walk in I am mesmerized…so many gluten-free food items to choose from!  All the produce & foods items look delectable…simply irresistible!  Anyways…my most important goal was finding a gluten-free stuffing mix that looked yummy & was easy to add my touch to without having to do all the work.

This is what I'm talking about!  Here is a shot of the box with a picture of the finished product.  It was incredible!  I loved every bite and so did everyone else.  The texture was right on and the flavor was delicious.  I cannot wait to make this again for Christmas.  The rest of the main meal consisted of roast turkey (prepared by my dad) and paleo mashed potatoes (you can find the info on those here).  Here is how everything turned out…

Now, doesn't this look yummy!  The best part…you won't feel like you need to be rolled away from the table and put to bed.  There wasn't an inch of gluten anywhere to be seen!  That makes for happy tummies!

 I hope all your Thanksgivings were filled with lots of delicious dishes and wonderful family & friends to share it with.

~Trisha

Christmas on my Mind

Hometown Invasion

Hello and happy holiday season!  I'm so ready for the holidays it's ridiculous.  I've already taken down most of the pumpkins and leaves and have replaced them with pine cones and Christmas trees!  We haven't gone all the way by setting up our tree only because we get a real one.  My oldest son is trying to convince me that we should do a fake tree this year so we can set it up now…a boy after my own heart!  Even though I am in full Christmas swing, I'm still focused on gathering Thanksgiving recipes and deciding what my menu will be.  Every year we take all the food to my parents where we cook it since they no longer enjoy driving the hour and a half to my house.  It's always interesting preparing food in someone else's kitchen (where's that one spice I need!), even when it's your family.  I decided to buy pre-made gluten-free pie crust and dinner rolls this year since I'll be making all the grain-free dishes (including appetizers & desserts) from scratch.  Last year I made absolutely every single dish from scratch and I was completely exhausted.  I can't wait to take advantage of the amazing pre-made products I've been checking out!  Do you make everything from scratch, buy everything pre-made or do a combo of the two?  I'd love to hear your tips and tricks to keep Thanksgiving a stress free day.

Trisha