Thanksgiving Dinner...EASY...Just like you remember it!

Before you know it, Thanksgiving will be here. Are you ready? Is this a stressful time or an exciting one? Do you feel overwhelmed just thinking about all that goes into a traditional Thanksgiving meal with your family? Do you think it is all beyond possible to make a gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free, nut-free meal even close to what your family remembers enjoying before their diet changed?

To start with, this is a season of being thankful, not stressing! Right? I know, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all that needs to be done to be able to enjoy a day with family and friends. There is a house to clean, a menu to plan and groceries to shop for. I can't help you with the house, but I can help you with your menu planning!

We all face challenges when planning a menu for a gathering like Thanksgiving. There are so many factors to consider, so many food challenges to overcome! Planning your Thanksgiving menu for a group of people with no food restrictions is hard enough, throw in a couple of people that can't have dairy or gluten and a whole new set of challenges arise.

I remember the first Thanksgiving I had to think about food restrictions, it was beyond stressful! We were avoiding dairy and my kids love pumpkin pie. How in the world would I make a pumpkin pie without dairy? I'll admit that I went about it the "hard" way.

After much looking, I found a recipe for homemade sweetened condensed soy milk and set to work to make it! Oh my, was that an undertaking. It turned out great though and no one knew there was no milk in that pie. My sister's boyfriend never guessed it was different from any other pie. I was thrilled. Months later, I discovered a way to make pumpkin pie with just rice or soy milk. What a time saver that was!

The pie was the least of my concern, when I started really thinking about all that went in to my families traditional holiday dinner, I was overwhelmed. So many hidden places for dairy and my knowledge was so limited on how to play with recipes to cut out the dairy. In time, I did learn, but that first year was hard and my family just had to do without many things.

Avoiding gluten brings new and different challenges, in the years we've been doing this I've learned a few tricks. Over the next few weeks, with the help of the "Gling Chef" TanyaG and many of her wonderful recipes, I'll be posting a blog series to help you get ready for your Thanksgiving meal. My goal is to help you find solutions to your trials, give you more options for you and your family.

We will help you make this the most success full Thanksgiving meal you have done, or at least give you some options to help you prepare some of your family's favorite Thanksgiving dishes. The ones that they have missed. Plus, even your guests that don't have food restrictions will love the food too!

Feeding your family good food does not have to be impossible or overwhelming. The holidays bring enough stress without adding food issues into the mix to compound your stress. Hopefully, you'll find enough wonderful options here that it will take some of the stress off of you and allow you to enjoy an EASY Thanksgiving dinner!