I know I’ve been talking about my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah a lot recently. First there was my pre-event desire to lose weight! Then I shared what I said to Ruby during the ceremony. I promise – this will be the last Bat Mitzvah post…I think 😉
This week I want to share with you how I managed to feed 100 people healthy food they loved over the course of 3 days – without cooking!
Nope, I hardly cooked. There was too much going on! We had 18 people staying under our roof and I wanted to really be present for the love and the ceremony, so I had other wonderful folks making healthy food to feed my crowd.
Well… I almost didn’t cook. There were a few quick things I whipped up, because they were so delicious and easy. I have those recipes below.
So let’s start at the beginning of the weekend.
Friday night we hosted about 30 friends and family for a Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner. Now one thing you have to understand is that my family is THE family of special dietary restrictions. What we CAN’T eat in our family is a loooong list. Some of us are gluten intolerant, some dairy intolerant, some don’t eat garlic, some don’t eat meat, some don’t eat sugar, we have a nut allergy and a variety of other random special needs.
I come from a family of folks with sensitive bodies and we all do our best to try to support our bodies by eating what makes us feel best.
So, for Friday night, I decided on ordering in SUSHI from a great restaurant. I was really ultra clear with the restaurant that all the sushi needed to be gluten-free and dairy-free. I also made a special request for all the sushi to be made with freshly made brown rice. We had a combination of vegan and fish based sushi and some sashimi for those that don’t eat any grains. Everyone was thrilled.
Then we headed to Friday night services at our synagogue where afterwards we have a little schmoozing . I had volunteered to host this event. Usually these post-service schmoozing events are sugar and pastry laden. That’s clearly not my style. So I served Healthy Raw Truffles, mini servings of my favorite Chia Seed Pudding and some easy healthy macaroons!
I made all of these myself because they are so easy and fast:
I wasn’t sure how the Chia Seed Pudding would go over, but that was the first thing to disappear!
Then Saturday was the main event! The Bat Mitzvah itself. We had about 100 guests.
After the ceremony itself we passed appetizers. Ruby and I decided on food-on-a-stick to make it easy to eat standing up. We had fruit kebabs, grilled veggie kebabs, greek-salad kebabs, tofu-pineapple kebabs. Those got devoured! I didn’t even get one! They were all fresh, healthy and vegan.
Then for dinner we asked our local Falafel joint – Amsterdam Falafel – to cater for us. They put out an amazing gluten-free (except for the pita pockets for those who wanted bread) spread with over 10 amazing healthy salad toppings to put on top of the falafel balls! Everyone could customize their meal to be exactly what they liked!
Desert was chocolate dipped strawberries and baklava! My dear friends helped me dip over 250 strawberries in stevia sweetened chocolate (just melt 1/2 cup of Lily’s stevia sweetened chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and dip the strawberries).
For the baklavah we asked Amir – an amazing local middle eastern chef – to make baklava without sugar or corn syrup. We procured 5 lbs of raw honey (packed with nutrients) from our wonderful bee-guy Mike Graney and Amir made an incredibly healthy (yes, there was for sure gluten in the phyllo dough) walnut, real-honey baklava treat!
Phew…if that wasn’t enough. Sunday morning we had another 40 family and friends and served brunch. I had met the wonderful Amanda from Tex Mex Eats at my local Somerville Winter Farmer’s Market. After sampling her incredible vegan and gluten-free tamales wrapped in corn husks and original and fresh salsa’s I asked her to cater Sunday morning. My gang loved unwrapping this HOT TAMALES (now that was a really fun thing to say “Who want’s HOT TAMALES!”) and topping them with salsa verde, mango salsa, beet and apple salsa and pico de gallo. Everyone adored this meal!
OK, so basically we ate our way through the weekend, but I felt great because it was all healthy, fresh, vibrant food that helped my guests feel the way I want all people to feel – energized and deeply nourished!
I hope this epically long post has inspired you to make your family events one where everyone feels deeply nourished and healthy!
Love & health!
Nina
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Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, certified Health Coach and Psychology of Eating Coach believes that every women deserves to feel good in their own body. She helps women create a healthy and positive relationship with their food and body so they can love their body and life! She’s the founder of NinaManolson.com and NourishedWomanNation.com
She helps busy women look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t.
She’s the author of “Feed Your Kids Well In A World That Doesn’t: an everyday guide to make healthy food happen in your home and beyond”. She’s also the recipient of the prestigious Health Leadership Award from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
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Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.
She is known for her deeply feminist, anti-diet, body-peace® approach. She brings her 30 years of experience as a therapist, Body-Trust® Guide and Psychology of Eating Teacher to helping women create a respectful and trusting relationship with their food and body.
Nina’s Body-Peace® work is all in service of helping people get off the diet roller-coaster, and into a compassionate and powerful way of eating & living which creates a positive long-lasting change in and with their bodies. Her courses, coaching, poems and Body-Peace APP positively change the conversation that women are having with their body.
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Perfect timing for me! Our son’s first communion is coming up in two weeks and I was just putting together the meal plans for the weekend as various guests arrive at different time. I was wondering how I was going to shop and cook AND visit and adhere to my principles of healthy eating for all. Thank you!!