Discover tips and examples for enjoying a gluten-free Christmas with celiac disease, ensuring a festive and safe holiday experience.
Essential Tips and Delicious Recipe Ideas for a Safe and Joyful Holiday Celebration
During the festive season, many people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity need to be cautious about their food choices. Common Christmas food products can often contain hidden gluten, which makes it essential to be informed about what to watch for. Some surprising items that may have gluten include certain sauces, processed treats, and even some beverages. It’s vital to explore gluten-free alternatives to ensure a safe and enjoyable holiday experience.
Key ingredients to be aware of include malt flavoring, modified food starch, and certain thickeners that could be derived from gluten-containing grains. Additionally, preventing cross-contamination is crucial when preparing meals. Use separate utensils and cooking surfaces, and be mindful of shared spaces in the kitchen. By following these essential tips, individuals can navigate holiday meals confidently and safely enjoy the festivities without the worry of gluten exposure.
Festive Feasts: Crafting Joyful Celebrations Without the Gluten Guilt
It’s the rundown to Christmas we’re all getting very excited I know I am but T not the best season to be gluten-free the shops are now full of chocolates biscuits cakes Advent calendars all sorts of amazing treats for the festive season but for a Celiac we need to be a little bit more Vigilant a little bit more careful about what we’re putting in.
Our mouths foodwise let’s just say gluten can look in the weirdest places and trust me I have found gluten in some strange food products cheese was one of them food is not the only issue this time of year slip-ups and cross contamination can easily happen especially when you go into parties Gatherings you’re having a big family.
Christmas gathering on Christmas day and you’re not the one cooking Christmas dinner so in this video I’m going to go through some of the food products you need to look out for this year and at the end of the video I will also go through some cross-contamination tips for you as well so that you don’t end up spending the whole holiday on the toilet.
Or maybe you will but for different reasons I’m not here to judge okay so I thought the easiest way to break up this video is to do it like we’re going through the supermarket aisles so the first section we have is the chilled section Christmas party food so that’s things like mozzarella sticks chicken skewers spring rolls soses pies kishes.
You know all those little mini party food style things sadly most of these are not gluten-free they’re usually pastry based or breaded fried um but there are a few bits and pieces that you can find in this section that are gluten-free so just to give you some examples of this Tesco have gluten-free pigs and blankets Sati skewers these ham.
And cheese Croquettes are actually gluten-free little Hidden Gem there and I picked Tesco by the way cuz they seem to have the best free from section I think they’ve won an award for that recently so if you’re looking for a supermarket that has like the most gluten-free bits in one place Tesco is probably the best place to go their.
Onion bges are glutenfree as well so yeah Tesco have quite a few options for seax which is fantastic okay let’s move on to Meats so in particular these are Meats with um glazes or meats that are already prepared for you so you just shove it in the oven so for example a stuffed turkey or uh my parents like to have these three bird roasts so that’s.
Like three different birds with stuffing inside and and glazes and everything on the top just be careful of these because as you should know stuffing is not gluten-free it’s usually made with breadcrumbs and some glazes and sauces can have barley as a flavor enhancer what I would usually do is just make it from scratch at home buy a plain turkey.
Or a chicken or whatever meat you have stuff it yourself or glaze it yourself and that way you know it’s absolutely safe cheese yeah cheese but I only bring this one up because I once found barley and cheese this has never happened again and this was a cheese from the Christmas markets one year so I brought it up just because it can be there so you always.
Have to check the ingredients but it is very rare to have gluten in cheese my absolute favorite cheese is from the snow cheese company and they also have a vodka Chutney which is so delicious and I buy them every single year I can’t wait to get them again this year in particular the truffle cheese and the black bomber okay pigs and blankets.
Sausage meat usually has wheat in it I haven’t actually come across many pigs and blankets that do have wheat in them they do tend to be gluten-free all of the pigs and blankets on the Tesco website are gluten-free so they’re fine but of course this depends on where you shop again I’m using Tesco as an example so wherever you end up going shopping.
Just make sure to check that there’s no wheat in the pigs and blankets I think that pretty much covers the chill section if you can think of any other examples in the comments let us know but we’re going to move on to the cupboard section we’re going to start with Chutney and other condiments so that’s pickles brown sauce those sorts of.
Things now pickles actually caught me out on my first ever Christmas with ciac disease it just didn’t occur to me that the vinegar could have gluten in it so they was made with barley malt vinegar so yeah just be careful of pickles um The Barley malt vinegar is not gluten-free but some pickles are gluten-free so like silver skin so like.
SK so silver silver skin pickles that are made in the white vinegar they tend to be gluten-free they’re absolutely fine so you’re looking for barley in that some mustards have wheat in them not all mustards do some people think that all mustard is not gluten-free but that’s not correct some mustards are.
Gluten-free you just need to check the ingredients colan’s one is not gluten-free it has wheat in it in this case the Tesco English mustard also contains gluten but the Tesco dejon mustard doesn’t so that’s okay so yeah this goes for all condiments and just be extra careful for cross contamination here because this is one that people.
Really Overlook if you open a fresh jar of chutney for example someone puts a knife in that Chutney spreads it over over a piece of bread that has gluten in it and then puts that knife back in the Chutney that Chutney is now cross-contaminated with gluten and is no longer safe for celiacs and when you go into someone else’s home it’s not your.
Home and you’re eating sandwiches or crackers and cheeseboards and all sorts of things slip-ups can easily happen I would just take my own just to be safe or when you get a fresh open jar just take a serving out of it put it to one side so you don’t have to worry about that and the same goes for butter spreads Pate everything that you put a.
Knife in and you spread across like bread or something like that okay moving on to gravy most gravy especially the instant gravies will have gluten in them they’ll have barley and wheat in them I haven’t found many gluten-free gravies but I personally use the Mari gold one which is gluten-free and vegan or you can just make your own at home it’s.
Quite simple to make and it doesn’t take too long kind of touched on stuffing earlier uh stuffing is made with breadcrumbs so not gluten-free at all you can get gluten-free Alternatives my absolute favorite is the golden roads one it’s really nice Tesco have a free from one as well never tried it so I don’t know what it’s like or you can.
Just make your own at home and all you need to do is switch out the breadcrumbs for either gluten-free breadcrumbs or you can use Arts as an alternative happy holiday happy holiday Frozen not the film we’re in the frozen section rast potatoes ant bessies always have your back yes those are the ones I use every single year they’re glutenfree I haven’t.
Found many rast potatoes with gluten in them but some can have wheat in them because they use it for a crispier texture or something people people don’t know that other flowers exist or cornflour for example cornflour has exactly the same effect so companies if you’re listening why not change it wheat flour to corn flour yeah maybe but.
Mainly just be careful if someone is making homemade roast potatoes and you’re not the one cooking make sure they’re not using wheat flour on the rast potatoes um like I said just now cornflour works just as well snacky snack snacks okay we’re moving on to the snacks crisps a lot of crisps are May contains for gluten so you do you with.
The May contains um I personally don’t eat them just cuz I can’t be asked uh contacting all the manufacturers to find out how they were made um so whatever you do with M contains is up to you Walkers Doritos mcco they’re all made contains for gluten and then some flavored crisps like salt and vinegar will have barley in ingredients as well.
I love crisps this is my downfall not a sweet person but I love a crisp um so I’m going to just leave a list of all the different crisps that I really like you do with that what you want nuts oh nuts are an absolute nightmare because a lot of the time the nuts will be gluten-free in the ingredients unless they’re coated in some sort of flavoring.
And then sometimes they can have wheat in them but most nuts they will be gluten-free make contain for gluten though I have found some that are gluten-free and not make contains so the Tesco own brand ones seem to be fine I really like these honey roasted nuts as well I think I get mine from the co-op though I’m pretty sure they’re.
Gluten-free as well so yeah you can find some I do tend to find that the supermarket own brand ones are more Celiac friendly than the Branded ones last on the food is the selection boxes of chocolates and what I mean by that is the um the big boxes like the quality streets and the Hero boxes of chocolates quality Street Great glutenfree most of.
The heroes are gluten-free I think you’ve just got to be careful of one which is the dinky Decker celebrations I just wouldn’t go there not gluten-free roses gluten-free and lint it just depends on the chocolate you get some of lint chocolates are gluten-free some have barley in them then if you go on their website they say even the ones.
With barley in them are less than 20 pass per million so it’s up to you eat at your own risk do your own research alcohol so it’s not just food you need to be careful of it’s also drinks beer is not gluten-free my favorite Alternatives used to be the da Dam cider is also gluten-free so that’s also a really safe option as well just be.
Careful of premixed cocktails some of them will have barley in them as a flavor enhancer and the same thing goes for flavored Liquors as well so if you’re buying like plain vodka plain whiskey they will be gluten-free if they’ve got flavors added to them just make sure to check the ingredients W KD does anyone even drink W KD anymore one.
Of the drinks I used to have when I was like 16 God that takes me back as you can see it has barley in ingredients I’m just using it as an example so you can see that some alcoholic drinks have barley in them and then other multi flavor drinks that are non-alcoholic the first one that Springs to mind is vimto that has barley in it as well so that’s.
The food I said I’d also touch on cross contamination as well before we go into cross contamination though can I just show you this fun right yeah um it’s on my website I do have a website with gluten-free merch we have all sorts of designs on there it is Christmas after all so either you can treat someone else.
Or treat yourself why not so if you go and have a look on gluten hitmag guts.com we have loads of stuff on there for you it’s Christmas Day you’ve checked all the ingredients you’ve double checked triple checked if you’re anything like me Mom or Dad or whoever is cooking the Christmas dinner takes over and they might not understand cross.
Contamination all of that work is gone in and your food is no longer safe to eat they end up cooking your gluten-free roast potatoes in the same as they wheat filled potatoes they end up using the same spoon to stir your gluten-free gravy with their normal gravy they ended up stuffing the turkey that wasn’t meant to be stuffed cuz they didn’t know stuff.
And had wheat in it there are all sorts of different scenarios where cross-contamination can happen and slip-ups can happen and then you have to have that really awkward conversation about how you can’t eat the food that they spent hours making and how they up Christmas dinner I’m just kidding to avoid all of this happening.
And this awkwardness and you know avoid you getting sick most importantly um there are measures you can put in place to this fil foil is Celiac’s best friend ironically I don’t have any but parchment paper cling film you’re going to need these it’s not going to always be possible to cook gluten-free food and.
Regular food in separate ovens so if you have to share the oven make sure to wrap all of the food in the oven with foil and put the gluten-free food on the top shelf and the rest of the food underneath to avoid any sort of spillage down and cross-contaminating the food parchment paper on all the oven trays because oven trays don’t get cleaned.
That well and cing film will come in handy for wrapping up all of your leftovers and putting it in the fridge utensils make sure to have separate utensils the best way to remember this is either to get different materials or different colors so that you don’t end up mixing them up and remember what I said about the condiments earlier so.
Make sure everything’s clean clean knives clean chopping boards just wipe everything down even the surfaces in the kitchen make sure to wipe everything down wash your hands in between cooking different foods all of these things will help to avoid cross contamination now Christmas can be a very stressful time for a celiacs and I often get asked what.
Is the best way to navigate it when your family and friends don’t properly understand celiac disease so my absolute best tip for you is to teach them I would go shopping with them I would buy all the ingredients with them so that you know all the ingredients are gluten-free I would show them what cross-contamination is instead of just.
Telling them show them how things need to be prepared help them prepare the food so that you know your food is safe but I think just having that conversation with people and making them understand explain to them what would happen if you accidentally at gluten or if you food wasn’t prepared correctly and be as detailed as possible that will.
Get through to them but in case you didn’t want to talk about yourself at Christmas you could always make all of your food and take it with you and lastly which is probably my preferred option host Christmas yourself and make it a fully gluten-free Christmas but top tip don’t tell anyone all of the food is gluten-free until.
They say m what a delicious dinner ask for seconds and then you can break the news that it’s gluten-free because trust me if you tell them beforehand they will have something to complain about I hope this video was helpful I most definitely have missed stuff I couldn’t go through the the entire itinery of the Tesco website so if you do have any.
Gluten-free recommendations please put them in the comments for everyone to see enjoy your Christmas when it comes have fun stay safe and Merry Christmas I’ll see you in the new year holid happy Hol.
H shush holiday to you
