Thanksgiving Plate & A Call for Hanukkah Recipes!

Look at that plate of food. 

All gluten free. 

All vegetarian. 

All insanely yummy. 

Were smack in the middle of the Holiday season, with Thanksgiving just a few weeks back and Hanukkah and Christmas on our heels. It's times like these I'm pretty darn thankful that my particular holiday has symbolic food that converts easily to gluten free (you can make a good latke with out matzo meal, I promise, but more on that later), but as for the rest of the days, well rarely is there a time when we're more noticeable for our gluten free fare. 

But that plate, it doesn't look gluten free, it just looks delicious. 

And I'm bound and determined to recreate gluten free holiday goodness for my boyfriend's family's Christmas Eve dinner. I'm not sure what my main dish is going to be (and I'm open for suggestions!) but I have a feeling a pecan pie is in everyones' future...

So I offer up this, my thanksgiving plate full of food, as inspiration for holiday meal menus, yours and mine. 

On the plate: 

Apples and Acorn Squash

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Bangin' Cranberry Cornbread

Apple -Raisin Stuffing (with Whole Food GF breadcrumbs, adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe) 

Whole Foods GF canned cranberry sauce

Twice Baked Potatoes (My dad's holiday staple. He claims the secret is to bake/microwave the potatoes, scoop out the inside and then throw those away. Then you boil the insides of a separate set of potatoes for the mashed filling.) 

Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole (Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe. However, I used Imagines GF cream of mushroom soup and didn't make my own fried onions for the top, using crumbled potato chips instead. Honestly, it was SO good...the next day. This is a dish that needs a few hours to marinate.) 

Garlic Sweet Potatoes 

4 large sweet potatoes

3 -4 cloves of garlic minced / crushed

3 tablespoons Smart Balance vegetable oil butter (or butter)

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons garlic powder

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and boil until soft (about 10 minutes). In a large bowl, mash the sweet potatoes and add the butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Add more garlic if needed. It really is that easy. 

Oooh, was that a Thanksgiving meal to remember! In fact, I've been so full since then, only recently have I been able to button my pants and sit down to write about it. Well, that's an exaggeration, mostly. 

A final note, as I prep for my Christmas Eve dinner, I can't help but think about Hanukkah. Something tells me I'm not the only one; I've been fielding some emails about gluten free latke goodness and I couldn't be happier for it. 

Since Hanukkah is so close to Christmas, I'll be celebrating it at my boyfriend's too. Since it's his first Hanukkah, I've got to make a meal to remember so I'm pooling my knowledge and asking all of you. So gluten free bloggers and readers, have you got any great Hanukkah recipes? Any favorite nontraditional latkes? Other Hanukkah treats you can't get enough of? A preferred applesauce? 

I'll be posting a Hanukkah recipe roundup come December 23rd (the second actual day of Hanukkah, giving you all enough time to cook and capture your treats). So get cracking, get experimenting, and get eating! :)