Great tips to make your holiday entertaining be a huge success along with a complete Thanksgiving Menu and Game Plan!

Planning a Thanksgiving Menu can be a daunting task. Preparing appetizers, soups/salads, turkey and accompanying sides, and desserts, not to mention, setting a beautiful table can be a lot to handle even for the most experienced host. We at Glutenfreeda.com thought it would be helpful to walk you, step by step, through a delicious, gluten-free Thanksgiving feast. We hope we can alleviate some stress and actually make the preparations fun and hassle-free.

Attendance:

When planning an event such as Thanksgiving, make sure to get an accurate count of your expected guests. There is nothing worse than having not enough food to go around. You may even want to add an additional plate to your total count for added assurance. Once you have a final count you can begin planning your menu.

Menu Planning

Style:

To plan your menu, consider the style and feeling you want to create during your Holiday dinner. Do you want a traditional turkey dinner? Are there ethnic flavors or an ethnic theme you want to create or incorporate into your menu? How formal do you want your dinner party to be? If you have a very traditional thought in mind, consider appetizers for your guests to snack on before the main event. When your dinner starts, you will begin with a first course, usually a soup and/or salad, followed by the main course, and finally your meal will conclude with an offering of delicious desserts and coffee. If you choose to go the informal route, you may want to exclude the first course and limit the number of appetizers, desserts and main course sides. Once you have decided on a style for your meal, you can begin planning your menu. 

Complimenting Ingredients:

It is also helpful to think about foods that compliment each other or that use similar ingredients. For example, if you are planning on having poultry for your main course, fresh and dried fruits are a wonderful compliment to turkey or other foul. Likewise, your soup may contain Gruyère cheese — you may want to think about adding Gruyère to your vegetable. It’s also important to visualize the plates. A great meal involves more than just taste — sight and texture are just as important. Try to avoid foods that are all one color. Cauliflower and Mashed potatoes are the same color — spice things up by making pumpkin mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes for added visual appeal. 

Planning Portions:

Planning the right amount of food can be somewhat difficult. Here are some helpful tips on how much to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner. 

Parties of 6 or more:

• 2 different types of appetizers — Serving size: 2 per person 
• 1 starter (such as a soup) 
• 1 type of vegetable 
• 1-2 starchy foods (such as potatoes & stuffing) 
• 6 ounces of meat, fish or poultry per person 
• 2 dessert choices 

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Parties of 12 or more:

• 3-4 different types of appetizers — Serving size: 2 per person 
• 1 starter (such as a soup) 
• Salad 
• 1-2 different vegetable choices 
• 2 starchy foods (such as potatoes & stuffing) 
• 6 ounces of meat, fish or poultry per person 
• 2 dessert choices 

Of course, if you are looking for simplicity, but still planning on having a large attendance at your dinner party — minimize the number of appetizers and sides, but increase the total servings.

Understanding your Limitations:

If preparing the Thanksgiving meal seems too big a task, don’t hesitate to ask family members or friends to bring a dish. Often people like to be involved and will enjoy bringing something. If you make a few of the items on the menu, you will still be assured that you will get to enjoy a gluten-free meal. Alternately, invite people to help you in the kitchen. It is a great place to talk and catch up on their lives while you prepare dinner together. A word of caution: If you are having your guests bring food items to the dinner party, make sure that you designate serving dishes and spoons to each dish to avoid any possible cross-contamination. 

Another thing to consider is the equipment you will be working with during your meal preparation. Do you have multiple things that will require the oven? Do you only have one oven? If one oven is all you have to work with, you may want to choose different vegetables or sides that can be prepared on the stove top or prepared in advance and finished in the oven as the turkey or main dish is resting or being carved. 

Prepare a Game Plan:

Warm Goat Cheese Crostini with Honey, Rosemary & Walnuts

After you have decided on your menu, write out a game plan. The goal is to do as much in advance as possible. This will alleviate a lot of stress on the day of the dinner. We find the easiest way to prepare a game plan is to start with the menu and consolidate your recipes. Read through each recipe in its entirety. Write down elements of each recipe that can be made or at least prepped 1 or 2 days in advance. The next step is to create a time line. It may be easier to start at the time of service and work your way backwards. Once you have your game plan in place, much of your stress will be eliminated.

Glutenfreeda’s Menu

We’ve created a delicious holiday menu for this Thanksgiving holiday to be used in its entirety or as a basic guideline for your own holiday dinner. All of our recipes can be retrieved in our Recipe File in the Members Only section of Glutenfreeda.com.

• Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
• Warm Goat Cheese Crostini with Honey, Rosemary & Walnuts
• Cauliflower Soup with Scallops & Caviar
• Roast Turkey with Herbed Butter
• Italian Sausage Stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Carrots with Sauteed Mushrooms and Pancetta
• Cranberry Sauce
• Rich Turkey Gravy
• Macadamia Nut Tart
• Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie with Ginger Snap Crust

Glutenfreeda’s Game Plan

3 Days Before:

• Prepare grocery list
• Grocery shop
• Thaw turkey in the refrigerator if frozen 
• 2 Days Before:
• Make Cranberry Sauce

Cauliflower Soup with Scallops & Caviar

1 Day Before:

• Make Macadamia Nut Tart
• Make Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake
• Make gf baguettes for appetizers 
• Toast walnuts for appetizer
• Prepare stuffed mushrooms
• Make cauliflower soup puree
• Toast waffles for stuffing and let sit out overnight

Thanksgiving Day

Morning of:

• Set and decorate the table 

4 Hours Before:

• Take turkey out of refrigerator and let come to room temperature (about 1 hour).

3 Hours Before:  

• Put turkey in the oven (check the weight on the turkey and calculate appropriate roasting time) 

2 Hours Before:

• Assemble stuffing
• Prep vegetable side dish
• Peel potatoes, soak in water to prevent browning
• Take cranberry sauce out of refrigerator and let come to room temperature

Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Carrots with Sauteed Mushrooms and Pancetta

1 Hour Before:

• Toast crostini for appetizers, finish dish
• Bake stuffed mushrooms (appetizers)
• Make mashed potatoes
• Cook vegetable side dish
• Remove turkey from the oven and let rest 
• Make Gravy

30 Minutes Before:

• Serve appetizers
• Re-warm the soup 
• Finish preparing soup
• Serve First Course - Soup
• While guests are enjoying their first course, place vegetables, mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberry-blueberry sauce and gravy in appropriate serving dishes. 
• Take Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie out of refrigerator — keep in a cool place 
• Serve Main Course

Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie with Gingersnap Crust

After Main Course:

• Make coffee 
• Whip whipping cream
• Serve dessert 

As long as you plan and prepare in advance, you should be able to have fun and enjoy the delicious fruits of your labor during this Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Jessica Hale
Glutenfreeda Foods, Inc.