Short On Time Dinner Party

Dinner Party Diaries – Volume 3 Issue 2 – Short on Time

Even if you’re short on time, you can still have some fun and food with friends!

Sometimes (in our case) lots of the time, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.  However, one of the ways we like to unwind at the end of a week is to spend time with friends.  Much of the time, we do this by hosting dinner at our house.  For those occasions when time is just not on your side, here are some of our favorite ideas and recipes for tossing together a Low On Time Dinner Party.

Benefits of Hosting at Home Even if You’re Short on Time

While going out can be and often is fun, some of the nice things about hosting at home include: 

• No firm timing – We plan food so that there are enough appetizers to keep everyone happy and then serve the main meal once everyone is assembled.  
• Comfort is encouraged – There will be food, food, and more food; followed by either a boardgame or movies.  Being comfortable is paramount. 
• Control of ingredients – (Hence the purpose of this blog.)  Controlling for several dietary restrictions at once can be a challenge, but I will tell you that finding a restaurant that covers all of them can be just as daunting.  I can easily adapt recipes to fit my guests’ criteria, so that’s what I like to do. 
• Easy access to whatever I need – Cooking, heating, serving implements–they’re there. Last minute change or addition to the menu–staple ingredients are on hand. Lighting, music, random pulling up of a youtube video mentioned in conversation–at our fingertips. 

As previously noted, sometimes cooking a full meal is not in the cards.  Depending on the scenario, we’ll turn to a combination of easy recipes, store bought dips and dippers, and take-out.  

Continue reading for some ideas and what I would call our general guidelines.  

Guardrails for your Short on Time Dinner Party

#1 Selecting Take-out Options

• Choose options that can be served tapas or family style (i.e. shared). 
  • We typically use take-out for the main(s) and serve it buffet style. 
  • Some of our favorites take-out options for a group are Thai, Indian, and Mexican cuisine.
• Be prepared to add sides that comply with whichever special dietary restrictions you are serving.
  • Often, it’s not the main dish that’s a special diet challenge in a restaurant. It’s the sides or accompaniments.  
  • Example: For take-out situations, it is very little time or effort for us to make some cauliflower rice or shirataki noodles to replace typical rice or pasta.  
• Have a plan for warming and / or reheating the take-out. 
  • You’re fitting this into your time table, not necessarily trying to serve it as soon as it arrives. 

#2 Buying Dips, Dippers, and other Appetizers

• Establish a repertoire of “go to” buys so that you are familiar with the ingredients list and how it applies to your guests’ dietary restrictions.
  • I have a host of minimal ingredient dips that I use time and again. (See my list below.)
  • I also have curated my list of crackers or chips suitable for various diets.  If I have time to make my own, great.  (Spoiler: If I’m making this menu, that’s not the case.) 
• Consider buying pre-cut veggies for dippers rather than cutting your own.
  • As with most things, it’s a balance of time and money, so do what works for you. 
• Remember that Cheese & Charcuterie make a very delicious set of appetizers.  
  • Even for special diets, there are often options in this category.  Some of my favorite examples are below.
    • Vegan – There are cashew based spreads in a variety of flavors.  However, do not tell your guests that it’s cheese.  It’s not.  It’s tasty.  It’s not cheese.  It is cashew spread; call it cashew spread.  This does a MUCH better job of setting expectations on what someone will be tasting.  
    • Dairy Free vs. Lactose Intolerant – Find which version of lactose intolerance you’re dealing with.  They differ.
      • Some people can’t eat any dairy.  
      • Others are fine with non-cow’s milk cheeses, so goat and sheep’s milk cheeses like chevre and Manchego are completely fine.  
      • Yet other people are fine with A2 Cow’s Milk Cheeses.  
  • You can make them look very fancy with very little effort–slice, fan out the slices on plate, add some olives or a daub of jam.  Done.

#3 Figuring out Dessert

• Consider “Build Your Own” Options like a Parfait Bar.
  • To handle dietary restrictions, you can easily grab a couple of bases.
    • Ice Cream Example: I’ll grab a vanilla-flavored pint of each of these or a subset, depending on my guest list: regular, dairy free, keto friendly, coconut free.
    • Yogurt Example: I grab a vanilla container of whichever subset of these is appropriate for my guest list: regular, dairy free, sugar free, coconut free.
  • Buy pre-cut fruit from the grocery store.
    • As with the veggies, it’s a time and money balance, so whatever you prefer.
  • Grab a couple of sauce toppings and / or granola options for various dietary restrictions.  
• Leverage pre-packaged baking mixes, if you’re going to bake something.
  • Personally, anything that is going to need to get baked is often among the first items to be cut from my menus when I’m short on time.  
  • That said, if I’m going to bake, it’s going to be something where the only things I need to measure are liquids like water, oil, almond milk, etc.  There will be no floury mess on the counter for me.
    • (There might be a reason that I’m developing my own baking mix.  I want the shortcut and think everyone else should have it too.) 
• Remember that freshly cut fruit can make a tasty end of the meal treat.
  • Use some pretty bowls or rocks glasses and you’re good to go.  
  • Again, if going this route, you may want to consider buying the fruit precut from the store.  
  • For a simple dip, invert the Yogurt Parfait Bar idea from above.  Grab some yogurt and drizzle in some honey, honey alternative, maple syrup, or maple syrup alternative. 
• Chocolate 
  • It’s often available in the store to meet a variety of dietary restrictions–vegan, sugar-free, nut-free, etc.

The Details

Number of People: 10

Serving Style: Appetizers on Table, Main served Buffet Style, Dessert as a Build Your Own Bar

Guest Arrival Time: 7:00 pm-ish

The Menu

Appetizers

To keep things easy, we relied on some tried and true dips that I know cater to multiple tastes and dietary restrictions.  For this particular occasion, I went with these ones:

Toom Garlic Spread & Toom Basil Garlic Spread

Bitchin’ Sauce (Any flavor)

I grabbed a tray of veggie dippers, already cut, from the store.  

Cheeses – LaClare Creamery Aged Cheddar Goat Milk Cheese and Beemster Cheese Goat Gouda plus Don Juan Don Wine Goat Cheese Soaked in Red Wine and Manchego Cheese 

• Keeping things edible for some forms of lactose intolerance.

Salami, Pepperoni, Prosciutto

Veggie Dippers – I bought a pre-cut tray at the grocery store. 

Entrées

We ordered in some of our crowd-pleasing mainstays from a local Indian restaurant. 

Some of our “regulars” include (but are not limited to): Lamb Rogan Josh, Chicken Makhani, Paneer Tikka

Sides

To provide a low carb accompaniment, we steamed (in the microwave) some quick cauliflower rice.  I usually make 4 bags (10.5 – 12 ounces each) for a party of 10 people.

For dipping both during the appetizer phase and with the entrées, we grab various versions of flatbread, pita, or naan options, depending on dietary restrictions.  I usually grab regular, keto, and gluten free.  

If there are leftover variations that won’t be consumed in our house, we send them home with whoever will eat them. 

Desserts

For desserts I went with 2 of my dead simple options.  

I made the “munch mix” format of my Delicious Keto Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Treats.  This means skipping the chilling in the fridge and then cutting up steps.  Instead, I just spread it out on a wax-paper-lined sheet pan, let it harden, and crinkle it up to serve in a big bowl.  

“Build Your Own Parfait” Bar

For option #2, I fell back on “Build Your Own Yogurt Parfait Bar”.  I considered the ice cream version of this instead but was out of freezer space.  (Shocking, I know.)  My selections: 

• I grabbed one each of these: Chobani Vanilla (for a sugar-free option), Kite Hill Plain Unsweetened Almond Milk Yogurt (for dairy-free and coconut-free), and The Greek Gods Honey Vanilla Greek Yogurt (as a regular version).
• I bought a tray / bowl / container of freshly cut berries from the grocery store. 
• I picked a couple of granola options based on the dietary restrictions I was serving. This time around, I picked these 3:
  • Witzi’s Raw Granola – gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, low-carb
  • NuTrail – gluten-free, grain-free, low-carb
  • SeedWise – gluten-free, grain-free, non-gmo, soy-free, egg-free, peanut-free, dairy-free, tree nut-free, sesame-free, low-carb
• To top things off, I offered regular honey and keto honey substitute.

Wine and Cocktail Pairings

The wine pairing was the “easy” part. We needed wines that could stand up to the big flavors we were working with, so we chose these ones: 

• Domaine Carneros Blanc de Blancs (2018)
• Ca’ del Prete Feisa d’Asti Blenda (2021)
• Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Vine Hill Ranch (2018)