Gluten Free By The Sea

This will be my second gluten free Christmas, and it can be a difficult time for us coeliacs.  There seem to be mince pies and Christmas Cake everywhere you look, and you’re constantly having to say no to treats that are on offer.  In addition to this there are those awkward Christmas meals, with very few (if any) gluten free options to try and navigate.  I’ve looked on in horror over the past few weeks at some of the poor Christmas meal offerings that have been tweeted about.  Carly Talbot’s #FruitIsNotAPudding hash tag has been particularly prevalent!

But Christmas doesn’t have to be a bad time, and there are plenty of options out there for us gluten free folk.  Last year for my first gluten free Christmas Marks & Spencer turned out to be the big hero for me.  For Christmas dinner the turkey was stuffed with gluten free sausage meat, there were stuffing balls, pigs in blankets and a pot of delicious pre-made gravy.  All gluten free and all from M&S.

This year I’ve managed to find a local gluten free sausage meat at Plymouth Greengrocer, and they are also stocking a range of Christmas Cake and mince pies.  If you are Plymouth based, it’s well worth a trip out to stock up for Christmas.  You can of course grab all your Christmas fruit and veg while you are there too.  Annoyingly for me I don’t like mince pies or fruit cake, but I have ordered a Chocolate Yule Log from Annie’s Larder, and I’m really looking forward to tucking in to this one!

I am also a big fan of the Mrs Crimble’s Stuffing Mix if you want an alternative to the M&S version.  For an alternative gravy I usually use the Antony Worrall Thompson gravy, though I’ve heard a few people say they find this too salty.  Personally I like it.  Cadbury’s have been my advent calendar and tree chocolate of choice this year and last, though shock horror I’ve got no advent calendar this year.  That’s the first time ever, I must be getting old!  There’s also a great list of suitable Christmas products from Coeliac UK which will give you some further tips.

Good news is that Quality Street and Cadbury’s Roses are both gluten free.  I am not a fan of giving Christmas cards to work colleagues, and for the last few years I’ve taken in a tin of Quality Street instead.  My colleagues seem to enjoy this more than a card, I help save some trees and there are always some gluten free treats on hand.  Everyone is a winner!  Lucky for me I’ve managed to convince my work colleagues that a curry is a good choice for a Christmas meal this year, so hopefully no awkward choices for me.  My pudding may well be a fruit, well cider is made from apples anyway.  On the subject of cider I’m trying to track down some Rekorderlig winter cider, I managed to try some in London and it’s lovely.

Some of my blogging friends have been busy at work providing their gluten free tips, so I will leave you with some pointers to  more great info from them.  If you have tips of your own please leave a comment!

Tags: chocolate, christmas, christmas cake, coeliac, food, gluten free, gluten free diet, gluten free food, gravy, mince pies, stuffing, turkey, winter cider