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Easy Italian Dinner Party

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Dinner Party Diaries – Volume 1: Issue 2

My other half’s birthday was on Monday, so my family is coming up for dinner to and to meet our 4 new harbingers of chaos (also known as the 4 rescue cats we adopted last weekend).  In the interest of giving everyone the maximum time to spend with the new herd, we’re doing dinner at home rather than going out.  As always, this means finding a balance of food that will both meet our low carb requirements and appeal to the rest of our audience.  I should probably mention that the rest of our audience doesn’t exactly qualify as the healthiest of eaters.  Pasta, potatoes, and any number of cakes and cookies rule their lists.  Needless to say, finding something to make that will be consumed is an ongoing challenge.  So . . . what shall we have?  We opted for this Easy Italian Dinner Party as the answer.

Since this was our second dinner party of the weekend and it was scheduled for a fairly early dinner time, we needed to keep our prep to a minimum. This meant a combination of an appetizer from a box, some fairly simple sides like my Italian Parmesan Broccoli and a Salad Bar, a main dish like my Chicken Parmesan Casserole that could be prepped ahead of time, and dessert also from a box. Fancy? Nope. Tasty? Yes. This Easy Italian Dinner Party combines some quick dishes that let you get a dinner party on the table with very little time needed.

What We’re Having at our Easy Italian Dinner Party

The Menu

Appetizers

  • Herbed Spinach Dip with Pork Rinds

Main Course

Chicken Parmesan Casserole
Bathed in a zippy sauce, this versatile Chicken Parmesan Casserole is great for a dinner party, weekly meal prep, or your normal family dinner. Flavor infused at every step of the process, you’ll have everyone going back for seconds.
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Chicken Parmesan Casserole - Baked

Side Dishes

Italian Parmesan Broccoli
Deceptively simple, the Aleppo pepper and Parmesan cheese impart a fantastic flavor kick to this Italian Parmesan Broccoli. It makes a great side for a cheesy, saucy main dish.
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Italian Parmesan Broccoli plated
Tossed Greens with Tomatoes, Cucumber, and Onion Salad Bar
This is about as easy as you get. The most time consuming part is chopping up the veggies. Just do that part in advance and you’ll be ready to go in no time.
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Tossed Salad with cheese, grape tomatoes, and salad dressings

Dessert

Keto Brownies
Easy, out of a box, and keto. These are always a winner.
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The Details

# of People: 5 

Serving Style: Buffet (Could have easily been Family Style instead, but I was feeling lazy.)

Guest Arrival Time: 2:00 pm

Dinner Time: 2:30 pm

Getting Ready for our Easy Italian Dinner Party

Day Before Prep

  • Italian Parmesan Broccoli
    • Trim broccoli and cut it into bite-size pieces.  Place in a plastic zip top bag; toss with salt, pepper, and Aleppo pepper; store in the refrigerator.  
  • Chicken Parmesan Casserole
    • Cut chicken into roughly 2 inch pieces, place in plastic zip top bag, toss with seasonings, and place back in refrigerator.  
    • You could actually cook the chicken and assemble the casserole completely other than topping it with the pork rinds.  Then just cover and refrigerate it.  If you do this, expect to increase your bake time to approximately 45 minutes.  
  • Keto Brownies
    • Make brownies, allow to cool, and store in the refrigerator. 
  • Herb Dip with Pork Rinds
    • You could mix up your dip and just cover it and store it in the refrigerator.  

Day Of Timeline (Guest Arrival Time 2:00 pm (“T”))

  • 11:00 am (T – 3 hours)
    • Cut up salad bar items and store in the refrigerator.  
  • Noon (T – 2h)
    • Start cooking chicken in pan
  • 12:30 pm (T – 1h 30m)
    • Combine cooked chicken with sauce and 1.5 cups shredded mozzarella.  Transfer it to the greased casserole dish.
  • 1:00 pm (T – 1h)
  • 1:30 pm (T – 30m)
    •   Transfer finished Italian Parmesan Broccoli to a 9×13 inch casserole dish, cover with aluminum foil.
    • Reduce oven temperature to 180 degrees F (this is the “Warm” setting on my oven)
    • Place the Italian Parmesan Broccoli in the warm oven with the Chicken Parmesan Casserole
  • 1:40 pm (T – 20m)
    • Mix up dip
  • 1:50 pm (T – 10m)
    • Put out appetizer plates, dip, and dippers
  • 2:00 pm (T)
    • Guest arrival time
    • Munch on appetizers.

Alternative Day Of Timeline Options:

  • Noon
    • Take Brownies out of the refrigerator and set on counter to come to room temperature. 
  • 12:45 pm
    • Take Chicken Parmesan Casserole out of the fridge.