Paleo Dinner Party for Vegetarians - and how to geek out your menu

Hosting a Paleo Dinner party for Vegetarians

You know that there is nothing more fun than dinner party with friends, but it can be complicated if you are following a Paleo diet. My friend, Lauren, over at Uplifting Accountability, hosted Christmas dinner at her house all Paleo based. But, when you are Paleo Vegetarian, it gets even harder, and so I wanted to share some of my favorite recipes with you to accomplish this.

First you want appetizers. I love Jalapeno Poppers!! LOVE! Peppers are a fave of mine. In fact we stuff and roast anaheim peppers in the summer on the grill and they are to die for. So this is my Jalapeno Popper recipes:

Ingredients: 
15 large or 20 medium Jalapeno peppers, cut in half lengthwise, cored and seeded
3 medium shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
2 tsp. dairy-free soy-free butter
1 cup of Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds
6 sprigs of fresh Italian (flat) parsley, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
Black pepper to taste

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees or heat grill on high.
2. Finely chop shallots and garlic. Melt butter in small pan and sauté shallots and garlic until soft and slightly browned. Cut lemon in two and squeeze the juice into the pan, and cook a little longer.
3. Remove pan from stove and put shallot mixture in a small mixing bowl, using some of the liquid but not too much. Let that cool and then add the Daiya Shreds, chopped parsley and some pepper to taste. Mix together.
4. Arrange the prepared jalapeno boats on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and fill each boat with the mixture, pressing into pepper and mounding to create a rounded popper, mounding them slightly.
5. Bake for 10 - 18 minutes, depending on the size of peppers, and they'll get more browned if you leave them for the full 18 minutes. You can grill them on a grilling pan, but be careful with the fillings oozing all over.

Serve this with a nice alcohol-free sangria: (if you want an alcoholic sangria head over to Collage Candy for a yummy version your friends will enjoy but use some agave or stevia instead of the sugar)

Ingredients: 

3 cups 100% Whole Fruit Organic Concord grape juice
2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 orange, ends trimmed, sliced into half rounds
1 apple, cored and cut into thin wedges

Directions:
In a 2-quart pitcher, stir together the grape, orange, lemon, and lime juices. Stir in the orange and apple wedges and refrigerate, covered, for 4 to 48 hours. Serve the sangria in tall glasses and spoon in some of the fruit.

You could also prepare some gluten-free flax chips, and some cut veggies with some white bean dip or a roasted red pepper hummus. Oh yum! Another favorite of mine is the Caprese Skewers and I highly recommend them.

Now what about dinner

Dinner is the best, but you need something to ground everyone out after that sangria. Right? So how's this for a menu:

Blackened Wild Caught Salmon or Portobello Mushrooms
Avocado Tomato Salad or Spanish Prawn Salad
Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

And for dessert... Spa Bettie's Saffron Doughnuts with Rosewater Dressing... but I would use coconut oil (get a 14 oz jar) instead of the canola oil. Coconut oil should be on medium high heat, and the hot oil should be 1/2" - 3/4" deep. Test a the temp by tossing in a doughnut hole, it should bubble rapidly if it's ready.