Mechatanim are gluten free and sugar free

amother

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 9:28 pm

I'm wracking my brain to make our Friday night sheva brochos menu with these restrictions. The entire mechatanim family is gluten free and all sugar/sweetener free, some will eat potatoes, some will eat oats. I've made Sheva Brochos before but all my fancy foods and ideas have sugar and/or gluten.
I'm also realizing that most of the foods I can make and freeze also don't fall under the categories they eat.
Please help me make a classy, special Friday night sheva brochos meal with these restrictions. Maybe some special way to plate things?
How do I cook for a crowd, heated up in a blech, preferably some of it in advance without using any of my hacks (sauces, mini kugels, mini pie shells, puff pastry etc).
And what can I serve for dessert????

effess

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 9:54 pm

Salmon with lemon fresh garlic and salt
Garden fresh salad
Chumus and matbucha

Creamy Chicken soup

Beef or chicken in wine and mushroom sauce
Rice or quinoa with sautéed colorful vegetables
Colored roasted vegetables
Or sesame roasted broccoli

Cooked pears or fruit platter with mixed nuts on the side
Dried fruit platter is also elegant

amother

Midnight

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 9:54 pm

Parsley garlic salmon
Tomato dip, tehina, humus, spinach dip
Veggie sticks for the dips
Chicken soup with zoodles and chicken kneidlach
Vegetable stuffed capons (colorful matchsticks of veggies inside)
Mushroom rice
Baby roasted potatoes
Garlic green beans
Pink poached pears
Baked apple
You can wrap some baked fruit in pastry for those that want the gluten and sugar

amother

Apricot

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 10:00 pm

You can ask her what she would make, if you feel comfortable.
Stick to proteins, fruits, and vegitables. Think really fancy barbeque - nothing at a barbeque has gluten or sugar but everyone is very happy.
Focus on yummy food that is plated nicely vs. fancy, complicated recipes. You can't really do "fancy" gluten free.
But you can do fancy salads, fruit platters, meat boards etc.
I think buffet style may work better - and keep the gluten/sugar items on one side of table and/or label clearly.

Night Meal:

1st course:
Challah/gf challah
dips/salads: eggplant, mushroom salad, tomato dip, noodles (for non gf people), garlic
fish: gefilte fish (gluten free), salmon (gf & sugar free), you can serve sauce on the side if it has sugar or just use teriyaki/honey type sauce or spices if honey is not ok.

2nd course:
soup - chicken/butternut squash
offer croutons/noodles for your family
salad - you can do a fancy salad with meat

3rd course:
main - meat/chicken
potatoes for those that eat/french fries/sweet potato fries
grilled vegi kabobs
broccoli
cauliflower
apple crisp cupcakes - apples with cinnamon and sugar/with oats on top/you can make some without sugar/some without oats etc.

Dessert:
Parve Ice cream
Fruit platter
candy platter
cake
buy/make gluten free cakes (maybe talk to sprinkled pink she sells gluten free sugar free simcha style cookies/cakes)

I hope this helps!
-Someone related to many people with food sensitivities and allergies

amother

Coffee

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 10:26 pm

Use your Pesach menu. If you don’t eat gebrochtz your recipes are gluten free. A lot of our chicken, meat and even some kugel recipes are full of sugar and honey but you don’t need that. You can prepare your fish, chicken and meat without all the sugary sauces, ketchup and apricot jam. They’ll taste even better. Make savory kugels not sweet ones. You can make a kugel out of butternut squash and sweet potatoes without sugar if you feel you need something sweet on the plate. Offer fresh cut fruit for dessert and have a cookie platter in a corner somewhere in case someone wants gluten and sugar to round out their meal.

amother

Lightgreen

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 10:29 pm

If it's just mishegas & not allergy or health condition, I'd tell them to do the cooking & bring their food, or pay for you to get catered food.
It's not easy to make a simcha gluten & sugar free, & I don't think it's a reasonable expectation of someone making a simcha.

amother

Orange

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 10:39 pm

Personally, I would think simple. The people I know who are serious about healthy eating are not looking for ungepatchket recipes. They want lots of vegetables, with a simple oil/vinegar dressing. Plain fruit for dessert, arranged as nicely as you like on as nice a platter as you like. A chicken or meat, again made simply with spices and perhaps some wine. Vegetable or vegetable chicken soup.

Aside from figuring out bread, it's actually easier to cook this way.

amother

Orange

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 10:41 pm

amother Lightgreen wrote:

I don't think starting a relationship by indirectly telling your child's new family that a major part of their lifestyle is a "mishegas" is very wise. For sure. You can be honest about what you can and cannot do. See what they're expecting. You can work from there.

amother

Hawthorn

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 10:45 pm

Other than challa, why would real food have gluten or sugar??? Chicken/meat, fish, salads? Where does sugar or gluten come in here? I don't get it and we're not davka gf or sf. We just like to eat real food with fresh ingredients. No prepared sauces or ready made doughs.

Only dessert is problematic, hence fruit. Baked apple, compote, fresh fruit salad, etc.

amother

Salmon

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 11:04 pm

We eat gf and don't use sugar in food. We host, it passes all our guests metrics for a good meal. But it is foreign to those who don't and makes your "go to" fancy nice stuff useless.

Lots of great ideas above. I agree that the main thing is to have enough of the food be simple ingredients (like pesach) so they aren't hungry.

Dessert is the simplest solution because you can do your regular dessert and put out fruit too.

If you have a specific thing that you want to make for sure that usually has gluten or sugar, just ask here, might get some good ideas how to make it work with substitutions or spin off of it from people.

amother

Apricot

Tue, Jan 30 2024, 11:38 pm

"If it's just mishegas & not allergy or health condition, I'd tell them to do the cooking & bring their food, or pay for you to get catered food.
It's not easy to make a simcha gluten & sugar free, & I don't think it's a reasonable expectation of someone making a simcha."

-respect people and thier choices and they will respect yours
-it's not about reasonable expectation, it's about wanting to share in the simcha in the way that they are comfortable. who cares why they eat that way? they do. end of story.
-anyone else think this is an extremely selfish attitude?????

amother

Seablue

Wed, Jan 31 2024, 12:01 am

amother Hawthorn wrote:

This, this, and this!!!
Really not a big deal.
Beside for challa, all our foods are gluten free and sugar free on a regular Friday night!

Salmon and dips/salads
Chicken soup
Chicken/green beans/basmati rice or potato kugel
Dessert: fruits and cookies (for ppl not on a diet!)

For chulent, use brown rice instead of barley.
You can do egg/liver as first course or salmon and gefilte fish(for ppl not on diet) and lots of salads.

And definitely try to accommodate the Mechutanim! Wink

Eta: this is a simple menu but you can make a roast (lots os spices, onions, garlic
and red wine) to make it more fancy.
Swap roasted veggies for green beans. Or add almonds or sesame to green beans.
Lots of ways to upgrade the menu!!

effess

Wed, Jan 31 2024, 12:30 am

To anyone suggesting to tell machutanim to bring food, I’d like to suggest an alternative way of dealing with discomfort.
Say something to yourself like: hmm I’d love to try cooking a gf, sf meal but never did it, I’m willing g to try it to be gracious and accommodating.
It’s so easy to say no, but it’s a much more pleasant life if you can figure out how to say yes.
Try it, you might be surprised

amother

Blushpink

Wed, Jan 31 2024, 2:25 am

Success10 wrote:

Is it ok to make some options for those who do it gluten and sugar, or is it wrong to have those items on the table when there are people who can't eat it?

I would say that most of the food can be made both sugar and gluten free-fish, soup (you can have lokshen or kneidels in a separate dish for those that want), meat, chicken, potatoes, rice. I don't think it's such a big deal. Challah I would assume would be normal, with just special challah for the gluten free people.
And dessert can have different options like buffet style, with some gf and sugar free, and some not.
I'm an easygoing person and I would hate to think my allergies or intolerances mean that other people can't enjoy all food.