Sunday Italian Dinner

Today we had a family over for lunch/dinner. Its been a long time since we've hosted a family. It really was nice to have the chance to do so again.

One thing that made me nervous was the dietary needs of everyone. Seth and I are gluten free, I'm also dairy/lactose free and one of our guests is a vegetarian. 

I really didn't want a rice dish, but I couldn't think of anything else. Then while I was reading, "Back to School with Healthy Food", the author spoke about all the courses in an Italian meal. I started researching and picking recipes. Here's what I served...

Antipasto Platter

We started off with lots of choices for everyone.

• Olives
• Pickled peppers - so yummy (those are the orange/red cherry tomato looking things to the right of the cheese)
• 2 salami tube thingies
• provolone and mozzarella chunks
• mini bella mushrooms
• black grapes
• pickles
• artichoke hearts
• avocado slices topped with red wine vinegar, salt and pepper

First Course (Primo)

Next up was an Escarole and Bean soup.

I couldn't find escarole, so I used collard greens. Also instead of the bullion cubes I used vegetable broth.

This is the one thing that everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy.


Second Course (Secondo)

For the main dish I went with a pasta primavera and a caesar salad.

By now the kids were all getting full, so they had a hard time getting this down the chute. I'm pretty sure they don't like squash or zucchini, so that didn't help either.

I loved the taste of the roasted veggies in this dish.


Dessert Round (Dolce)

Is there any choice when doing an Italian dessert? My kids love Tiramisu, so tiramisu it was.

I used gluten free lady fingers. As a liquid I used coffee only (no rum).

I really wish I could've had some, but I can't imagine this tasting good if it was dairy free. 

Thankfully, I was still able to eat....

the football strawberries! I am NOT good at food presentation, but I did want to have something there to represent the Superbowl.

I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips, just so that I could enjoy life. :)