What does a Health Coach serve 100 people for dinner?

I haven’t been blogging recently because I’ve been so preoccupied with a big family event.

My son turned 13 and in the Jewish tradition, that’s a big deal! It’s Bar Mitzvah time! A Bar-Mitzvah (for a boy) or Bat-Mitzvah (for a girl) is a rite of passage which welcomes a young man or woman into adulthood.

We all know that 13 doesn’t really mean they are truly an adult, but it is certainly a turning point out of childhood.

We had family and friends come in for our “simcha” (that’s yiddish for happy occasion) from Canada, England and five US states. It was so special. By the end of the day, my cheeks ached from smiling so much (even though I shed a few tears of joy).

As I was planning the event, I got a specific theme of questions over and over.

What are you going to serve for dinner?
What about dessert?
Are you going to serve cake?
Will it be all raw?

My friends and family knew it wouldn’t be ordinary fare – no roast chicken or poached salmon – for sure. Everyone was so curious how I would feed my 100+ wonderful guests.

And frankly, so was I, until I figured it all out. So I thought today I would give you the inside scoop on what we ate – and why.

There are 3 parts to planning a Bar Mitzvah.

The ceremony
The party
All the events surrounding the ceremony and party. (The dinner for the out-of-towners and family the night before, the brunch the day after and so on…)

I was in charge of 2 & 3, the party and all the surrounding food events.

Now there are a couple of things you need to know before I get into the nitty-gritty of the food, and that’s the culture of food in my extended family.

We are a seriously foodie family. Everyone cooks, no let me be more specific. I cook, everyone else is a gourmet chef. We are an outrageously tasty family to hang out with.

But….and this is the big but….we have special needs.

Most of us don’t eat wheat, many of us don’t eat dairy, some don’t eat garlic, some need to go easy on the spice, easy on the onions, some no meat, a few no shellfish, there’s a peanut allergy in there too, and I don’t eat refined sugars. Oy, I know I’ve forgotten someone in there…

We are not the easiest clan to feed.

Ever the food optimist, I was not deterred.

My son, who is a vegetarian, was clear from the get-go that we were hosting a vegetarian Bar-Mitzvah. “Great” I said. Let’s do it.

MAIN COURSE:

We brainstormed vegetarian foods that people love and we landed on Indian Cuisine. Hmmm, Indian? you might say. Indian for a Jewish event? Odd for sure, but we’ve never been conformist and we thought Indian food is a cuisine that lends itself well to being vegetarian. So Indian it was.

We found a local Indian Caterer who was willing to work with most of our requests. No dairy, no meat, not too oily, not too spicy, but no garlic? No way he said. “You cannot make Indian Food without garlic”

“No problem” I said. I called my fabulous Macrobiotic Chef friend, Tomoko, and asked her to make a few special meals for the non-garlic folks.

Please forgive my lack of food photos of this event. If you’ve followed me on Facebook or my newsletter for a while you know I’m always taking pictures of my food. But for this event, my focus was totally on the people, the warmth and the love.

APPETIZERS:

Appetizers were the no-brainer. I walked into Whole Foods and in 20 minutes had chosen a wonderful a

rray of skewers – easy finger
food. We had roasted veggie skewers, fruit skewers, and Greek salad skewer (kind of like the one in the picture, but without the cheese)

Things were seeming to come together. But then I decided that I wanted everyone to walk into the dining room, and have a beautiful, fresh green salad waiting for them on their plate.

SALAD:

Starting a meal with greens is always a good idea.

But then I decided I would make it myself. A bit crazy considering how much else I had going on.

Note to self: Washing lettuce for 100 people takes longer than you think. Thank goodness for my sister-in-law’s brilliant salad dressing (made with extra virgin organic olive oil and my favorite, fig balsamic vinegar)!

DESSERT:

Here’s where I always take a stand – against refined sugar. I just won’t serve it. Refined sugar does so many bad things to your body (check out my book to learn more about that) that I just wasn’t willing to serve a typical birthday cake.

With 12 people staying at my house (think breakfast, lunch, and dinner) – I wasn’t up to making my delicious – naturally sweetened cakes for 100 people! What’s a health coach to do?

I started calling around to gluten free bakers (remember most of my family falls somewhere on the wheat-sensitive spectrum). Many of the bakeries, even though they were wheat-free, still sweetened their cakes with sugar. No thanks. Then I found a bakery that was willing to use agave. Agave is tricky, because it’s touted as a health food – but it’s not – it’s basically high-fructose cactus syrup. I still didn’t feel good about serving it to my family and friends.

I want the food I serve to truly nourish my guests.

In desperation I called my friend Rawbert Reid, who owns the Organic Garden Cafe in Beverly, MA. It’s primarily a raw food restaurant.

“Rawbert, can you help me out? I need a dessert for 100 people that I can feel good about serving!”

He saved the day. Rawbert came up with a wonderful Raw Strawberry Shortcake. It was a delicious raw coconut macaroon – on a
puddle of strawberry sauce (just strawberries and dates blended together) – with a heap of berries on top. (Another note to self- cutting strawberries and washing berries for 100 people, takes longer than you think – big thanks to my sister and brother-in-law!)

It was soooo luscious, everyone loved it. (I really wish I had taken a picture!)

In fact, everything about the whole day was luscious.

And the moral of the story?

Always ask for more help then you think you need
Serve food you love, and that loves you back.
Even though food is important, it’s not as important as the people and the love.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, LMT is the Smokin’ Hot Mom Mentor and Family Wellness Expert. She’s the founder of SmokinHotMom.com and HealthyYummyKids.com. She helps busy moms look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t.

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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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