Surviving Thanksgiving Gluten-Free - Without the Stress

Thanksgiving can be one of the hardest holidays when you’re gluten-free. 

There’s food everywhere, family traditions, and sometimes… not much you can safely eat. It can feel stressful, awkward, or even isolating. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

In this episode, I’m sharing how to survive Thanksgiving gluten-free — without the stress — so you can actually enjoy the day, feel confident, and stay healthy. Stick around until the end, because I’ll share my personal trick for navigating family gatherings without feeling left out.

Come join us in our free Facebook Community, The Gluten Free Engineer. 

It’s a space where you can connect with others living gluten-free, ask questions, swap tips and recipes, and get support from people who truly get it. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or a seasoned gluten-free pro, you’ll feel right at home.

Chapters

• 0:26 Setting The Stage And Disclaimer
• 1:02 Host Story And Mission
• 1:42 The Emotional Side Of Holidays
• 3:34 Plan Ahead And Communicate Early
• 4:49 Bring Your Own Safe Meal
• 6:33 Travel And Temperature Tips
• 6:33 Hidden Gluten Traps To Avoid
• 9:56 Prioritize Gratitude And New Traditions
• 10:38 Signature Dish Strategy And Recipe
• 12:09 Newsletter Invite And Closing Notes

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:00

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode. This podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. Thanksgiving can be one of the hardest holidays when you're gluten-free. There's food everywhere, family traditions, and sometimes not much you can safely eat. It can feel stressful, awkward, or even isolating, but it doesn't need to be that way. And then this episode I'm sharing how to survive Thanksgiving gluten-free without the stress so you can actually enjoy the day, feel confident, and stay healthy. Stick around at the end because I'll share my personal trick for navigating family gatherings without feeling left out. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Gluten Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything. But I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks, and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun, and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about surviving big holidays such as Thanksgiving while you're living gluten-free. Because many of these holidays, at least in America, are very much surrounded by lots of food, especially Thanksgiving. You might be the only gluten-free person at the table, and that can feel intimidating. I know when I was first diagnosed with celiac and first gluten-free, I was the only one at the table, and it was really weird and really awkward. And it wasn't until a few years later that we figure out that my children had celiac too. And interesting thing is, is you know, this is uh as of this recording, 2025, and I was diagnosed in 2011. Now one side of my family is starting to approach about half of the people who have celiac over there. So it's getting to be a little bit of an interesting um transition here as more and more people in my family are finding out they have celiac. But let's go back to whether, you know, let's say you are the one or the one of the few that have celiac or need to be gluten-free for other reasons at Thanksgiving. And the hardest part sometimes is not just the food, it's also the emotions tied to tradition and belonging. And I find that that is really what can make emotions pretty hard when we're at a th Thanksgiving or family gathering or anything similar, is it's just those emotions tied to that tradition and feeling left out. And you feel like sometimes you don't have anything to eat or you risk getting sick if you do try to eat something. But we want to find that middle ground. That's something that I worked to do pretty quickly because I didn't want to be miserable anymore. And something I want to help you guys be able to do is find that middle ground. How do we have a good, fun, and safe holiday such as Thanksgiving? So, one thing we talk about a lot on the podcast is planning ahead and communicating early when needed. So if somebody else is hosting the food, talk to them early. Talk to them privately if that makes you feel better and is a little bit easier. Ask what's being served and offer to bring a few safe dishes for you or for you and your family. Politely explain cross-contact if you need to, and that even a little bit of gluten can make you sick, just like a little bit of peanuts is really devastating to anybody with a peanut allergy. With celiac, we can get a little bit of gluten pretty easily as well, and it can make us pretty sick, and depending upon your severity, it can be pretty devastating. So we want to be proactive and not apologetic. And we need to remember, I've said this multiple times on our podcast, is you're not being difficult. You're being safe, you're taking care of you, you're taking care of your body. So one thing you can say to the host if you'd like is you know, I like to bring a few gluten-free sides, so I know there's something I can enjoy, and I think everyone will love them too. Or what I like to do is bring a complete meal, and we'll talk about that a little bit later on the podcast episode. So I don't have to worry about eating anything else. I can just eat what I brought, and it's a complete meal for me. So that kind of transitions us into our next section is bringing your own safety foods. And I always bring this one particular food, it's my children's favorite, it's my chicken curry casserole. Um, and I'll tell you where you can find that recipe here soon. And I always bring that to a family gathering, especially if I'm not the one hosting it, and I need to make sure I have a complete meal that I can eat and that my family can eat. And since we're celiac, I insist that we in a nice way. How about I say that? Um, or at least I try to do it a nice way, insist that we eat, you know, get our food from the dish first, and then, you know, everybody else is welcome to get it. That way I don't have to worry about cross contact for us if we are getting our food from our dish first. You can also, if you don't want to bring a whole complete meal, you can consider packing a small plate of say food from home just in case you don't feel comfortable eating there. You can also use like disposable divided containers or small insulated bags if you're traveling uh pretty far. That can be a really great uh tip. And one thing you might not have thought about with coolers is that if you aren't traveling too far and you put a hot dish in there, you know, obviously make sure it's safely put in there, wrap it around with towels and stuff like that if you need to, it will stay really piping hot for that travel if you're only going a few hours. So if you want to bring something hot instead of something cold, put it in a cooler. And that that cooler will help, you know, keep that item at the temperature it was when you put it in there. Um, so don't think of that you have to bring yourself some cold food. Bring something you can enjoy, even if you're traveling a few hours. And then I will talk about some hidden gluten traps at Thanksgiving. And some of these have gotten us, and I didn't expect it. And some of them, obviously, I do expect. Um, gravy. Obviously, gravy can definitely be a no-no if especially if it's thickened with flour. Um, last year, one time my family actually started uh thickening their gravy with cornstarch because uh yet another person discovered they had celiac disease, so it was wonderful to help have that bonding experience and help them make ham gravy with uh cornstarch and help them taste test it and things like that. Now, another thing that they can really get you that you may not think about is stuffing inside the turkey. So if you're celiac and the person has cooked the turkey with stuffing in it, there is likely gluten who knows where on that turkey. So it's just really not worth it, especially once they start dissecting it and cutting it up. That, you know, stuffing gluten is going to get probably everywhere. It's not something I recommend anyway. We really shouldn't be cooking our turkeys with stuffing anymore. There's much more flavorful ways to flavor a turkey as well as stuffing than that, but that's another story for the podcast. Now, one thing that was a little bit surprising to me was one year one of my friends gave me a turkey that her mom had given her. She didn't need it, it was extra, and she gave it to me. Well, the turkey was a store brand turkey, and it had a gravy packet inside, you know, wrapped in plastic. And we thought, oh, it'll be fine. It's sealed in plastic. My husband carefully took it out, really rinsed the turkey and all the things, and we cooked it, and all of us got sick, like gluten sick, not like turkey sick. We got gluten sick from it. So that's very possible that that turkey had maybe some broth injected in it that had gluten in it, or who knows how the gravy packets were handled in the packaging facility. Somehow we all got gluten from that turkey. So make sure you get, if you're celiac, turkeys that do not have uh gravy packets already inside them. It's just really not worth it. And then also brust or seasoning with wheat. Obviously, that's one you want to be careful of, but sometimes you don't realize that bross or seasoning might have wheat in it. So make sure you're double checking. Uh pie fillings or pie made pre-made crust. Um, many times pie fillings, unless you have made lots of pies from scratch, you may not realize that the pie filling might have some flour in it. So even if maybe it's a crustless pie, it might still have some thickener of flour inside. So make sure you're asking about that. And then if you're celiac, we need to be extra careful of serving you tensils crossing from dish to dish or touching a gluten on the plate when it's like a gluten-free dish. So just be really extra careful if you're celiac. Uh, if you know that the host has created some gluten safe foods for you, just kindly ask if you can go through the line first to get the safe foods first before things could get potentially mixed together and cross contact. And I encourage you to double check ingredients and lists and really keep an eye out for that cross contact. It's it's bitten us a few too many times over the years, and we've, you know, tried to do our best to learn from that. So then I want us to next think about what the day really is about. What is that day really about? It's about gratitude, family, and rest, not just the food. Sure, food is an important part of it, but if we shift our focus to the other parts that are really important on what the day's truly about, because it's really truly not about that food, even though we really love many times the Thanksgiving foods. Um, shift your focus so that you feel you're not, you know, don't feel like you're missing out anymore. You're just taking care of yourself. And I encourage you to build some new traditions that center on connection, not gluten or the avoidance of gluten. So if you want even more help navigating the holidays gluten-free or other situations gluten-free, I share practical tips, recipes, and encouragement in my newsletter. Sign up at theglutenfreeengineer.com so you stay safe, confident, and stress-free all season long. And then I want to finally talk to you about that trick that's helped me the most when having holidays and Thanksgiving traditions. I always bring that one dish, that chicken curry casserole, that I just can't wait to eat. My children cannot wait to eat. They look forward to it every single holiday, especially at Thanksgiving. It's something that feels festive and it's delicious. It's a complete meal because it has protein, carbs, and veggies in it. The only thing it's missing is fruit. Um, they absolutely love it when I cook that. And I we focus on enjoying that. It's not, we don't focus on what we're missing. We don't focus on the other dishes that are sitting there. We could really kind of care less anymore. We just focus on eating our food that nourishes us and that is safe for us, and then enjoying the other people's company. And if you want that recipe, it is on my website, theglutenfreeengineer.com. Just search for chicken casserole to make it easier to find. And I hope your Thanksgiving turns from stressful into satisfying with the tips in this episode. And we will see you next week. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources, and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineer.com. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun, and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode. And we will see you next week. The Gluten Free Engineer Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns, or advice specific to your health.