I have said it before and I will say it again: I think it is important to accommodate the dietary needs of my dinner guests. Within reason. Since I am on some version of the Paleo diet and not eating any grains, beans, nightshade vegetables and am limiting my dairy, we are already pretty limited. Add to that the dairy-allergic and the vegetarian, and we have the makings for fun menu planning. We had other guests coming, too, but I somehow forgot to ask if they had any food issues and just hoped for the best.
As it turns out, it really wasn’t all that difficult to achieve.
We started with cucumber topped with guacamole and seared tuna, and mushrooms stuffed with sauteed mushrooms, sun
dried tomatoes, parsley and pine nuts. Despite the lack of cheese, I think they may have been the best stuffed mushrooms I have made to date. (No recipe, sorry, I just remove mushroom stems, pre-bake the ‘shrooms for about 10 minutes, then combine the stuffing ingredients in a food processor, chop and saute. Then stuff and bake for another 20 minutes. Delish.)
We enjoyed a green salad with hard boiled eggs and mustard vinaigrette (also no recipe: whisk mustard, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper together. Add oil and keep whisking to emulsify.)
Dinner was roasted golden tile fish topped with sauteed mushrooms, roast sweet potato “oven fries” and roasted asparagus.
But what about dessert? I tossed strawberries and blueberries with a bit of Grand Marnier and a dash of powdered sugar (the tiny bit of sugar was the only cheat in the whole meal), and Paleo brownie bites. I admit I was apprehensive about passing off dates as brownies for dessert, but they turned out to be really good. No, they
don’t taste like brownies, but they do taste delicious.
All in all, it is generally pretty easy to accommodate the needs of guests, it just requires a little planning and forethought.
