A Gaylord Thanksgiving - Part One

Happy Thanksgiving!

Historically on my family's side Thanksgiving is time for a sedate meal and the inevitable PBS specials on the Grandparent's TV. Then I married my husband. His family is crazy (in a good way I assure you) and suddenly I found myself looking forward to Thanksgiving. This meant a HUGE party, lots of food, and Aggie vs Longhorn heckling. 

About two months ago I had a revelation. I'm gluten free now... WHAT WAS I GOING TO EAT?!?! Now I love his family but they simply don't understand the whole you can't touch bread then touch my food thing. It's a lot to take in when trying to cook for a lot of people. I get it. That's why all my parties are completely gluten free and if no one catches on that's perfectly fine.

I swear 2 hours after I made this revelation and already started planning my mini meal I received an email from my mother in law asking if we wanted to go to Nashville for Thanksgiving. I was ecstatic! My in law's are spectacular in general and are amazing with gluten free-ness. So they worked everything out, made all the reservations and we got to have an amazing holiday.

I'm not going to lie, I super over packed... I didn't ever use the GF bread I packed. I somehow miscounted the days and ended up with way too many clothes. I don't even think some of the stuff I packed saw the light of day. New mom, newly gluten free, slightly OCD... lesson learned.

There are a few things I packed that were definitely needed

Gluten Free Mini Pancakes (made with GF Bisquick)- The baby loved these, we gave them to her both warmed and frozen. She liked them both ways. I made hers dairy free as well then put them all in a gallon size freezer bag. We were able to use hotel mini fridges or put new ice in the cooler every day so they did actually stay frozen the whole time. These were great during the character breakfast.

Happy Baby Organic Puffs Sweet Potato - Happy baby makes 2 flavors of little cereal puffs that are gluten free. Sweet potato and strawberry. We have a history of strawberry allergies in my family so sweet potato was the obvious choice. These were great for the car seat, or in a pack n play in the hotel. They are perfect for grabbing with little fingers, they melt, and they don't make a huge mess.

Happy Baby Organics Simple Combos and Meals - I  usually make my own baby food but for this trip I wanted commercial food that could be kept in a suitcase. Happy Baby simple combos come in those fun little squeezey pouches. Boon makes spoons you can attach to the valve on these and then spoon feed the baby. We didn't use these at all. My daughter loved slurping the food out of the pouch directly. It was also far less messy that way (except the one time she decided to experiment with squeezing the pouch from the bottom). The Happy Baby meals also have a lot of gluten free options that still contain starches and grains such as millet, and brown rice. Not to mention the baby was the only one to have turkey on this trip ha ha.

Gluten Free Snacks for Grown ups - Pepperoni, string cheese, crackers, fruit snacks... Not only were these great in the car, they were great for those times we couldn't find a gluten free place to stop for food.

Once we got to the hotel everything became easier, they have a great gluten free environment. Reviews coming soon!

Happy eating!
Tori