Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are the most food-centric holidays on our calendar, and they all happen within about a two month time frame. If you have food allergies or any food digestive issues like me, that means adding food stress to your already full holiday plate (or maybe it's empty like mine above).
To avoid my favorite conversation, where someone looks directly at me and yacks away for about 15 minutes about how "this [insert cheesy wheat filled food] is so tasty. Yum! I love this food. I'd give my life for this food," I've thought about all the food strategies and coping mechanisms that I've used or heard of in the past and evaluated them for their effectiveness. This is my personal opinion of course. Maybe with a little self reflection and a little humor we can get rid of some stress together.
Strategy 1: Leave it All to Chance
Don't make and bring anything that you know is safe to eat to the holiday meal. Don't help the cook prepare food for the meal so that you know all about each ingredient. Don't bring any allergy medicine, pain relievers, tums, pepto-bismol, or a last ditch laxative. Don't even forewarn people about your food issues. Just show up, eat what "you think" is safe, or what other people think is safe, and live with the consequences. Fun!
Grade: F (is there a grade Z?). Yes, maybe you're in a hurry and don't have time to communicate or participate in any of the cooking or maybe you're shy. Oh my goodness! Make time! Join a Toastmasters Club! It's not worth getting sick over. In fact, if I were to try out this strategy, which I thankfully never have, I know I'll end up not only un-happy, but also with a 90% chance of a three-day headache and "potty-trots." If this is my strategy, I personally believe it's my own fault for not having anything to eat and I deserve to watch other people eat cheese and bread while I eat my lonely, no-butter squash (or at least I think it has no butter since I never saw the ingredients with my own eyes). This strategy is also great for making cooks feel bad. No one wants to poison their guests!
Strategy 2: Medicate
Bring the medications with you so that if your run into trouble or you choose to run into trouble, you can maybe salvage part of the holiday.
Grade: D. I used to practice this strategy while pretending that I didn't have any food allergies. Yeah, that worked out swell. So, maybe the headache or digestive issues get smaller with medication, but I'm not myself. I'm either wired from the caffeinated Excedrin Migraine or I have digestive issues that are still pretty bad, but just preferable over those when I'm not medicated. With this strategy, I know I'll probably end up with less food on my plate, some kind of body pain, and, again, an unhappy host/cook.
Strategy 3: Tell People about Your Food Sensitivities
Give your host a list of your food issues and hopefully they'll come up with some alternatives. Send your holiday host a list by email. Personally hand them a paper with the items you can't have! Give them the general picture and some specifics. I personally like to write things like:
Katherine's Food Allergies:
- cow milk: often an ingredient in cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sausage, salad dressing, canned soup, bread, TV dinners, sandwich meat, and hotdogs. Milk is often identified on labels as whey, lactic acid, and other 'lactic' terms." Substitute with goat milk, soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, and coconut milk. If it's creamy or says cream, use your brain; it probably has milk. [...maybe leave out the last sentence...]
"I just cooked you a plain chicken. Nothing on it. I just put a little bit of [insert allergen food here] on the pan so it wouldn't stick."
Lovely! I'll just have a little bit of headache later! However a cook's good intentions, if they're not familiar with cooking for alternative diets, then they might need a little more help then just a list of no-nos. But then again, the main cook for your holiday meal could be a pro (I'm thankful to have many in my family) and you'll have no problems whatsoever. Also, don't write them a novel! If it's over a page of information (which I've seen before) it's too much information. Give them the highlights and show them your bullet-point skills.
Strategy 4: Bring Food
Hit the main food groups that you know will keep you happy and your gut satisfied. Maybe bring a dish with some protein, then a carb, and maybe a desert. Most cooks tend to make a variety of veggies for Thanksgiving, and more than likely one of them will be safe to eat, even if it's just the salad.
Grade: C. You know you'll be able to eat the items you cook. Whahoo! But that means a lot of cooking for you, limiting the foods you can eat, potentially alienating the family cook because you've brought redundant dishes, and, again, making the cook feel bad because you didn't tell them about your problem before hand. But hey! You're not going to end up sick.Yea. . . .
Strategy 5: Help the Cook
Watch them like a hawk and ask if they could use different ingredients real time.
Grade: C. You're cook will probably not be prepared with alternative ingredients if you just show up and start making suggestions. Plus, they'll be that awkward conversation about your diet the day of a family get-together. I'm not a huge fan of making my diet the sole topic of conversation (I don't mind talking about it, but I don't want to wine or focus too much on what I can't have). I just want to eat and talk similar to most normals.
Strategy 6: Combo Pack of Strategies 2-5
Tell your family cook about your food issues, help your cook fix the meal, and bring food. Also, if your reactions are bad, you might still want to bring some medication as backup.
Grade: A. Yes! Yes! Yes! This is my strategy of choice. It's better to be over prepared for family get-togethers in my opinion. However, I have to keep in mind that every food situation will not require all of the best strategies and sometimes they will. Strategy 6 is a balancing act based on time, place, and the people involved. I must say, it's always nice when I don't have to bring anything to a meal because I know the cook is really informed. Not required or necessary, but nice. That's my favorite type of "eating out." :) This is also a good strategy even if you don't have any food problems, but are on a diet to lose weight. The less things you leave to chance, the smaller your chances of eating something you shouldn't.
Cranberry Relish
If you're thinking about bringing something to your family Thanksgiving meal next week, you might try something like the recipe below. It's a traditional side dish, but it can also operate as a desert if the need arises. For the next blog posting, I'll probably be sharing versatile and simple holiday recipes just like this one.
Ingredients
2-3 oranges, peeled and separated
1/2 cup sugar
1 bag of rinsed cranberries
Directions
Rinse your cranberries in a colander and throw away any squishy berries. Blend up of the ingredients in a food processor. Try processing the oranges first then adding the other ingredients so as to avoid hang-ups in your mixer. To make the recipe a little healthier, try adding more oranges and less sugar.
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