Fuel : Dinner Guests

So, apart from working out and nursing my baby and homeschool planning, i also am geared up for  hospitality.

I know it's not a strength for me, but i think i have found a game plan that might work :)

 (Why is this important to me?  Mostly bcz the Bible says it's a big deal.  And i believe the Bible)

So - my first step is inviting over "easy" people.  I will eventually get around to lepers and orphans (i hope!)  but for right now, i need a lot of practice with people who won't judge - and luckily my life is full of just that sort :)

Secondly, i asked for help.  My friend Amanda has cooked for huge crowds and was able to give me some really practical pointers about choosing food/selection/drinks and ways to make that end of things smooth.  (Check out my other blog for deets!)

But in this blog, on this post, i thought i'd share what is working for me, paleo wise, in having guests over.  Because it just seemed like one more insurmountable  hurdle - to have people over, but serve "plain" paleo food.  No matter how good it makes me *feel* to be in ketosis, i do not feel like a paleo chef yet!  My object is to get 'er done, and make it pretty later...

So, today, we invited over a fun family after church and here is what we served (sorry, no pictures!)

Cold roast beef with a horseradish mayo and a chili aioli (and butter)

buns

bagels

greek feta and apple salad

grapes

deli meat

cheese, sliced

chips

mixed salted nuts

pink grapefruit pop

diet coke

milk

and for dessert -  two kinds of pound cake, tuxedo cake, and our guests brought a pie and black forest cake as well.

This is very doable!  Instead of a bun or bagel, i used a knife and fork with my meat, and dipped it into the dips.

Salad, fruit, cheese, and nuts rounded out my plate, but there were carbs for regular folk :) and chips for the children.

Coffee and dessert for all who wanted it (but I'd rather stay paleo!)

It wasn't the fanciest ever table, but there was plenty to eat, plenty of variety, and best of all, no stress on my part about food, or what to eat, or feeling deprived *or* like a bad hostess...

I'd love to hear how other paleo mamas handle hospitality!

Paleo cookies!

I am seriously feeling way too deprived. And grumpy. The grumpy i think comes from ketosis, since it is abated if i eat a lot of fruit/veggies - but it seems like i'm always on the verge - but the deprivation... not much i can do about that. On the paleo way of eating, my "treats" have been fruits (which i am allowed to eat as much as i want now, as opposed to the Zone's miserly doling out) - and nuts (which i don't eat too many of since they are expensive :)...)

But today after running some errands, i had a brain wave. I had been oh so deeply desiring a coffee crisp chocolate bar with 70% cocoa chocolate - and been a good girl and even said no to my uxorious husband's offer of lunch at McDonald's...

I went to my recipe book cupboard and pulled out Serene Allison's cookbook, Rejuvenate Your Life, and double checked the ingredients for her "chocolate". It's a raw foods cookbook, and for awhile i was making a lot of things out of it - super healthy, really yummy - but a little time consuming, especially before we moved here where there is pretty much no moisture in the air and the dehydrator works like a dream (as opposed to several days to dry out flatbread in our last place)...

Anyway, not only was that recipe pretty kosher, but i decided to make halvah balls. Now i have, in the freezer of my fridge, delectable little balls of deliciousness that don't break the rules and that will give a little variety.

Here are the recipes i used:

Serene Allison's Chocolate

2 cups raw almonds, ground into almond butter in my vitamix
1/2 c. tahini
1/3 c. cocoa (i put a little less than she originally called for, which was 1/2 c.)
pinch sea salt
1/2 c. raw honey (again, i put a little less as i didn't have much and wanted some for halvah, too)

I mixed it all by hand in a bowl with a silicon spatula, oiled my hands with a little olive oil, and rolled them into balls, and put the plate into the freezer for an hour or so. Then i picked them off the plate and put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer, ready to eat...

Serene Allison's Heavenly Halvah

I ground 4 c. raw hulled sesame seeds (i bought a big bag of these through our natural foods coop and this is mostly what i use it for!) - i really made homemade tahini, since i ground them up into a paste
added in a little olive oil
a little raw honey

Mixed well together in a plastic bowl with a silicon spatula. Then, as it was really too soft, i chilled it in the fridge for awhile before i oiled my hands and rolled them into balls, put them on a plate in the freezer, till i can put them in their own ziplock bag. These are delicious little nougat-y balls, full of energy, and not too sweet (i didn't have a LOT of honey, and i prefer a little less over a little too much)

I asked T about the paleo acceptance of cocoa, since it is a bean, but he assured me that a lot of paleo people use cocoa, for whatever reason - if i knew why it's excepted from the beans restriction, i'd feel a little less like a cheater, but for now, these are a nice paleo alternative to the things i'd rather be eating (like fried cheese with mayonnaise and a side of fries... LOL!)