Thanksgiving Dinner Success @Maggiano's

First off, bravo Maggiano's for not only making so many of your dishes naturally gluten-free but for making my family Thanksgiving fantastic and full of options. I cannot tell you how impressed I was with their staff cooperation and my meal.

The Thanksgiving menu was family style and I could eat multiple things from almost every course (minus dessert and bruschetta). Here's a quick snapshot of the menu:

I made a reservation through Open Table and put in the notes that we had a gluten-free diner. After that I proceeded to call them and talk to a sous chef who walked me through the Thanksgiving menu and made sure that I felt comfortable with their knowledge of gluten-free dining, I was surprised to find out that I had options beyond just the gluten-free pasta, whoo!

First course was salad and I could have both the Caesar and Italian salads with just the croutons removed. Since the family style allows you to choose two from each portion of the menu we got the Caesar with croutons on the side for me and the glutenous eaters got the Chopped salad.

Next course was the full-on Thanksgiving style meal, yes even Italian restaurants do it traditionally! The options for meats were turkey with gravy and stuffing, ham with mashed potatoes and tilapia. When the sous chef came out to talk me through it (awesome!!) he said that I could have both the ham and turkey meats and that they would simply make me a small plate of plain without the stuffing and gravy so there wouldn't be any cross-contamination. It came out on a HUGE plate and I even have some turkey leftovers. The family also got the tilapia which was breaded so that was out, but I was happy. In addition we got to choose two sides and two pastas. I could have the following: creamed corn, creamed spinach, mashed sweet potatoes and garlic mashed potatoes - we chose the creamed spinach and garlic mashed potatoes, yum! For the pastas they allowed my family to choose two and made me my own side of the gluten-free spaghetti and meat sauce. I could've also gotten gluten-free versions of the rigatoni, ziti or gnocchi.

I was so full by this point I wasn't even disappointed that I couldn't have the huge piece of chocolate cake or pumpkin cheesecake. My whole family was impressed with the food and it worked out so well that I could have a full meal and they could have their traditional Turkey Day food. So, bravo Maggiano's you did great!! I would definitely come back for Thanksgiving in the future and suggest it to all of my blog readers :)

Gluten-Free Family Visit to Austin

Although my family has been to visit me multiple times, it hasn't been much since I was diagnosed and definitely not all at the same time. However, tomorrow my brother, mom, dad and grandma will all be here for the Thanksgiving holidays, which means I'm playing hostess. While they are used to tradition, as you may know, I don't necessarily live life that way so we're doing things my way :) Gluten-free all the way! Here's the food agenda:

Wednesday - late lunch/dinner at original Salt Lick

Thursday (Thanksgiving!) - we have a reservation at Maggiano's Little Italy who is having a specific turkey meal, which allows me to have their gluten-free pasta and salads and my family to have turkey, stuffing, etc. which couldn't have happened in my small kitchen due to cross-contamination. So...even though it isn't a home-cooked meal my family can eat a "normal" meal while I feel safe with my Turkey Day feast too :)

Of course, I also had to get some snacks for all of the hanging out and family time we'll be enjoying, so I stopped by Natural Grocers and got some gluten-free Nut Thins, cheese cubes, hummus and carrots - healthier than most holidays but it'll work.

Friday - lunch in Fredericksburg (will have to do some research on that one, but there is always cheese...and a LOT of wine!) and then dinner at Trudy's for Tex-Mex

They are heading out Saturday but we might squeeze a quick lunch in at Abel's on the Lake for a great view.

I cannot WAIT for them to get here!!