Today is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My meals since that day of feasting have consisted almost entirely of tasty tasty leftovers, per American tradition. I spent my holiday overseas, so I had a “Friendsgiving” day with other local Americans. To be honest, it felt closer to that original pilgrim day than any Thanksgiving in memory. Here I was in a foreign land, away from family and everything I knew, feasting with friends and strangers (friends of friends) and counting our blessings over shared food.
Everyone brought a few dishes, and I was careful to screen for gluten-containing items to the best of my ability. I chose to make my favorite dishes (that normally have gluten) so I would be sure to have some ‘safe’ dishes. I made
Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole
I’ve been making this since I was a little girl, so I didn’t use a recipe. I did make some changes to my tried-and-true method though.
- I didn’t use FRENCH’S Fried Onions. That red box was always a sure sign that Thanksgiving was here, but, alas, it has gluten in it. So I made my fried onions from scratch using this recipe from Food.com.
- I used fresh green beans instead of canned ones. I washed a cut them to about the same size as the canned ones and, actually, I liked the fresh ones much better!
- Traditional cream of mushroom soup has wheat products so I used AMY’S KITCHEN Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup, which is gluten free.
Green bean casserole is super easy to make (combine the green beans with the soup and 2/3 of the fried onions; cook at about 350* for ~25 minutes; top with the remaining 1/3 of fried onions and cook for another 5 minutes or so to crispy up the top) and I loved that this recipe tasted SO GOOD without having all of the bad stuff.
Gluten Free Apple Crisp (AKA Apple Cobbler)
I found this great blog of this girl who calls herself the Minimalist Baker. All her recipes require 10 ingredients or less, one bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare. It’s my dream come true. This was the first recipe of hers that I’ve tried but it was a huge success so I will definitely be using her site more often!
This recipe was just about perfect. It says it is vegan, but I used regular dairy butter instead so mine was just gluten free. I also didn’t have almond meal so I substituted almond flour, which worked out alright.
Anyway, try The Minimalist Baker’s Gluten Free Vegan Apple Crisp. You won’t regret it.
All in all, a successful and happy Thanksgiving. And guess what friends, I even worked out. ;)
My Achilles Heel 