How to Keep All That Food From Touching on Your Thanksgiving Plate [Infographic]

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, for dodging political conversations, and for defending your obsessive compulsive food habits. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm one of those people who overreacts when different foods run together on my plate. Even when it's not Thanksgiving, I can easily use 3+ plates during dinner just to keep my different food groups safe from contamination.

There are varying degrees of food touching grossness. If a few kernels of corn get stuck in my mashed potatoes, we're A-OK, but if meat juices get all over my asparagus, we have a definite problem. Food mixing is especially difficult for me because-a warning that this is crossing over into being a little neurotic-I eat my foods in order. If I start with broccoli, I'm finishing that broccoli before moving on to the chicken. I'm not the kind of person who takes a bite of chicken and a nibble of garlic bread and washes it down with some wine. I don't like mixing foods on my plate; I don't like mixing foods in one chewing cycle, either (there is one small exception here: I do mix ice cream with pie, brownies, etc.)

Thanksgiving is one of the biggest meals of the year, and because you're going to (literally) have a lot on your plate, you need to come prepared. For all of you that don't like your food mixing, here's everything you need to know about the nothing can touch plate.