Continued Culinary Adventures...Dinner with Friends

November 6, 2014 Kelly Thibault

One of the amazing things about Paleo is how delicious the food is! I have friends who are trying to avoid sugar and flour so when I saw this post, I told them they had to come over for dinner! Aside from fabulous company, we had an amazing dinner. I would perhaps do some things different such as adding a glaze for the pork tenderloin and adding a side of homemade applesauce, but for first time attempts, dinner wasn't bad. On a side note...as I look at this table that coordinates with our blinds and curtains and is all set nice with pretty flowers I feel like a grownup. I'm 33...I guess I should be a grownup, but when you work with college students all day and lived on a college campus until you were 31, life can be delayed!

Appetizer!!!

We all want the delicious stuffed mushrooms that are made with breadcrumbs or bruschetta or caprese salad with mozzarella. But since we gave some of that stuff up, whether by choice or not, we don't want to feel like we're missing out. So...we get creative! The appetizer was a modification of a caprese salad. I sliced up a large heirloom tomato and cut the slices in half. I then took an avocado and tried to slice them as flat and smooth as possible. I didn't drizzle with olive oil, but I have some rosemary olive oil that would have added a delish touch!

Here is our dinner :)

The Main Course!!!

To start, I marinated pork tenderloin with a rub. I bought the tenderloins at Costco. They're one of the healthier options and it comes with 2 2-packs

The rub (modified from Ellie Krieger) contained the following:

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp dried thyme

2 twists of a salt grinder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp white pepper

I put the rub on the pork, wrapped it in cling wrap, and put it in the fridge for several hours. This allowed me to prep in the morning.

Once I was ready to cook it, I turned the oven to 400 degrees, removed the cling wrap, and baked for about an hour. Depending on the size, check it at 45 minutes.

The Sides!!

Roasted Artichokes. So the recipe said to put a garlic in the middle of the artichoke...however, I couldn't taste it. To make these super yummy...

Preheat oven to 425

Rinse the artichokes

Mix together 1/4 cup olive oil and 4 cloves of garlic minced

Sprinkle the artichoke with lemon juice (best if freshly squeezed)

drizzle the olive oil mix over the artichokes and twist a salt grinder for a little seasoning

wrap individually in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet

Cooking until sizzling about 1.5 hours

Fruit Salad. Oh my God....I LOVE fruit and fruit salad is a medley of yumminess! Buy as much organic fruit as you want...cut it up and mix! Seriously....that dish of delish is that easy! We used apples, pears, grapes, bananas, and oranges. Kiwis are a delicious addition. Colorful fruits will add to the visual appeal of the fruit salad. Want to make it dessert? Grab some coconut cream (1 cup) and add honey (1 TB) and whip it up until it appears like a whipped cream.

Dessert!

Oh no...I forgot to take a picture! We made an avocado/chocolate mousse.

I'm not going to share the recipe because we didn't really modify it and it wouldn't be right to repost someone else's recipe. We made the moo-less chocolate Mousse from the Practical Paleo cookbook. Next time I would leave out the banana as we really tasted it.

I hope this post is helpful. Seriously though....Paleo is tough but amazing. We've been doing it since August 11th. I fell off the wagon from my birthday in September to mid October. I have tough days, but overall it's been good. So far I've lost 17 lbs and I've now done 2 5Ks. I managed to jog 3/4 of a 5K trail run last weekend and finish only 2 minutes slower than the flat and paved 5K I did a few weeks ago.

Vacation in Belize - August 4, 2014

Post 5K - November 1, 2014

And just cause I had this pic taken yesterday and it looks great....