Thanksgiving Menu (And Salmon Trial)

We gave Zac salmon for dinner last Wednesday.

He loved it! He actually licked his fingers and pressed them on the plate to get the tiny bits of salmon that were left after he scarfed down his serving.

By far, his favorite way to eat salmon is in patty form, but he will eat it any way it is served.

So far, so good. He’s had some strange sleep patterns this week, but it’s the OPPOSITE of sleep disturbances. He’s been falling asleep much earlier in the evening than his actual bedtime.

Finally it dawned on me: the salmon is so good for him, it’s given him so much extra energy that he’s playing HARD all day long. Harder playing than he ever has before.

He’s playing so hard that he is flat wearing himself out by 5:00 p.m. each day and wants to go to sleep!

Unfortunately, he wants to wake up at 4:00 a.m. when he falls asleep so early.

Not my idea of fun, y’all.

His sleep will level out as he adjusts to his new energy levels; in the meantime, it’s so good to watch him play like this! (Even if he does wear me out with his insistence on playing chase every day!)

I feel good about salmon; I’m almost positive it will be a safe food as we’ve had no concerning signs at all so far. However, we’ll still have a 3 day break and reintroduction before we proceed, just to be sure.

Still, it’s looking good!

Meanwhile, Jed has been doing great. He was so sweet this weekend I flat couldn’t believe it. When he is sals free, fructose free, and at baseline, he is absolutely the most marvelous little boy to be around!

After many attempts, I finally managed to teach him how to peel potatos on Friday. He loves doing it so much now, any time he’s hungry he starts to peel potatos and he gets upset if I start to peel potatos without calling for  my “special potato peeling helper”.

I LOVE having a kitchen helper who is so good and enthusiastic!

Plus, Saturday evening, I was privy to this little exchange:

Jed decided to peel potatos. He got himself a peeler and a potato, but before he really got started he suddenly said “Wait! Zac! Come here and I will teach you how to peel potatos!”

Zac dutifully grabbed a potato and came to Jed, who promptly ran over to the drawer, got the second potato peeler, and handed it to Zac.

Then he began to Teach Zac How To Peel Potatos. (It was all very imperative and instructive, so capitalizing seemed proper.)

Of course Zac doesn’t have the muscle strength or coordination to quite pull off peeling potatos yet, but he was certainly trying to do everything Jed said to do. After watching his brother struggle for a minute, Jed piped up with, “Don’t worry, Zachy. You can learn to do this. It just takes practice.”

Seriously…how DOES he manage to melt me so easily? I just love these kids!

I really don’t have much else to say about the kids this week. Things are going well.

Finally. 

So I thought I’d share our Thanksgiving Menu, in case anyone is struggling with how to pull off their own Thanksgiving feast.

I put it together in a nifty table to easily see if we had a complete meal for everyone, and while it does involve a lot of cooking, I think my Mom and I managed to pull it off:

Traditional Dishes	Safe for Jed	Safe for Zac	Safe for Me
Stuffing*	Turkey	Chicken	Mashed Potatos
Gravy	Green Beans	Roast Cauliflower	Everything Safe for Zac
Waldorf Salad	Sweet Potatos	Roast Sweet Potatos
Dinner Rolls	Asparagus**	Quinoa
Pumpkin Pie (standard)	Black Olives	Hard-boiled Eggs
Coconut Cream Pie	Celery Sticks w/Sunbutter	Salmon Pate w/ Quinoa Crackers
Everything Safe for Jed	Cranberry Sauce**	Sweet Potato/Banana Ice Cream
Theoretically, everything safe for Zac and me…but we aren’t sharing.	Wheat Free Dinner Rolls
	Pumpkin Pie (Allergy Free)

*The stuffing could be made safe for Jed if we remember to do so, but we probably will just make it for everyone else. 
**Asparagus and cranberry sauce are safe for Jed in limited quantities. His servings of those will be rationed.

This will be the most traditional-style Thanksgiving dinner I’ve had in two years! I’m very excited!

We divvied up the cooking as follows:

ME
Wednesday
Jed’s Pumpkin pie
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potato/Banana Ice Cream
Quinoa Crackers
Quinoa

Thursday Morning
Wheat-Free Dinner Rolls for Jed
Roasted Cauliflower and Sweet Potato
Salmon Pate
Mashed Potatos

MOM
Wednesday
Regular Pumpkin Pies
Coconut Cream Pies
Hard-Boiled Eggs

Thursday
Turkey
Chicken
Stuffing
Gravy
Green Beans
Sweet Potato
Asparagus
Waldorf Salad
Dinner Rolls
Black Olives
Celery Sticks

To be fair, I will do my Thursday cooking first thing in the morning and then we’ll head over to Mom and Dad’s for dinner, so I’ll be able to lend a hand with some of those side dishes. And my Aunt will be there to help, too, so it’s not quite so much for Mom to tackle single-handedly.

Using two kitchens and two days is the only reasonable way we could think of to accomplish all this cooking without being completely frazzled when we sit down to eat!

Check back tomorrow for my fun tutorial on how to make your own pumpkin puree for your Thanksgiving pies this year! There’s still plenty of time to do it.

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So I’m curious: what’s on your Thanksgiving menu? What traditional dish do you most miss now that you’ve gone allergy free in some way?