3 Great Dishes to Bring to Parties that Won’t Damage Your Metabolism

During COVID, our normal holiday events and parties were all canceled. Last year, a few came back with conditions.

But this year… this year, everything is back!

The kids are practicing their holiday piano pieces for the recital.  School pageants are back.  Christmas choir and band concerts are back.  Holiday staff parties at local businesses are back.  

We are back!

Super fun, right?

Unless you’re my dad. Where large, themed, festive gatherings full of music, socializing, and games are your personal nightmare. Hang in there, Todd!

It also means… food!

As a Woman Who Eats Well, I don’t stress about this time of year at all.  Not because I’m delusional, but because I have three, holiday event dishes up my sleeve that I love to show up and everybody loves to eat.

Good food has three criteria in my book: first and foremost it must taste good. Second, it must be good for us. I really care about the people around me and I don’t want to feed them junk and toxic food just because it’s a low-hanging hit of dopamine.  And third, it needs to be unfussy.  This is not a technical term, but good food is usually simple, natural, and you know… unfussy.

I’m going to share with you my top three delicious, non-metabolic damaging, and unfussy holiday event dishes.

Let’s jump in!

The whole point of these dishes is that they won’t damage your metabolisms or the metabolisms of the people you love, or at least the people around you. So, we want to avoid all ultra-processed carbohydrates and sugar. That’s the key.  We want to focus on healthy fats and proteins for our dishes.

First up is the meat and cheese tray, or for you fancy people, the charcuterie board. I know you’ve seen gorgeous, giant spreads of salamis, smoked meats, fancy cheeses, and other fancy do-dads either on a big wooden cutting board or entire tables!

There are endless options for building your perfect meat and cheese board and they don’t need to be complicated, perfectly arranged, or expensive. You don’t need any experience or knowledge of cheese or meat to put together a really popular board.

Here is what you need:

1. 3 types of your favorite cured sliced meats.  This could be salami, prosciutto, pepperoni, sopresatta, capocollo, chorizo, even pate!
2. 3 types of cheese: a mix of medium texture cheeses: cheddar, gorgonzola, hard cheeses like Reggiano or pecorino, and soft cheese like brie.
3. 1-3 pickled or cold vegetables like roasted garlic, gherkins, pickled peppers, pickled onions, and pickled green beans.

At my local store, they have a chilled section of everything you need and you can just grab whatever looks good. They even have meat packages of 3-5 meat selections that you can grab.  If you want an expert opinion try Kylie Mazon-Chambers of Cooking with Cocktail Rings or just google meat and cheese tray.

Don’t overthink this. It doesn’t need to be super expensive.  

Don’t underestimate traditional less-expensive cheeses. People love sharp cheddar.

What we don’t want is crackers, breadsticks, toast, or other flour-based carbohydrates.  We want healthy fats and proteins only. That is what makes it so metabolically wonderful. 

Wait, what’s that you say? “But Hannah! Isn’t salami and prosciutto processed meat?  Isn’t processed meat going to cause cancer?”

Great question! No, no they will not.  And we will dive into that problem next week with a full explanation so that you confidently enjoy your soppressata and even your bacon without worrying that you're going to get colon cancer. 

The second is veggies and dip.  Again, we don’t need to overthink this.  

To elevate this dish to holiday status vs a veggie tray at a BBQ to upgrade your vegetable, keep it 1-2 vegetables, and make a homemade dip.  No spinach commercial spinach dips or ranch here!

In the Freese Method, I give you a whole recipe book for Clean Dressings, Sauces, and Dips which includes a black olive tapenade and turmeric tahini dip that look stunning on a white plate surrounded by the freshest vegetables in season.  

This is another key, buy the vegetable first, the best, freshest, and most beautiful you can. I will often buy a large jicama bulb if I can’t find a good vegetable and cut that into sticks because it’s always unique and is in season from October to the spring. Creating a visually appealing vegetable plate is the key, so try to use contrasting or rich colors.  And one other tip. Do not use broccoli.  People don’t like raw broccoli.  The little florets get stuck in your teeth, and the florets are always too big to manage in a delicate mouthful. So, try to create a vegetable experience that you would want to eat.

And if you never want to have a vegetable experience, then I would encourage you to try my last and most simple idea: a salmon board.

You can use smoked salmon, lox, or gravlax.

Interesting sidenote here, while these are all types of salmon, they are not the same. 

• Lox is originally derived from the Yiddish word for salmon (laks) and is never cooked. It's made by taking a fillet from the salmon's belly and curing it in salty brine.

• Gravlax is similar, but instead of a simple salt brine, the traditional Nordic recipe calls for a cure with three key ingredients: salt, sugar, and tons of dill. 
• Smoked salmon is similar to lox in that it's salt-cured, usually without much sugar, but there are two significant differences: It can come from any part of the fish (not just the belly), and, of course, it's smoked. Cold-smoked salmon has a raw texture similar to lox or gravlax, while hot-smoked salmon is firmer and flakier.

This could not be easier.  Buy a package of smoked or brined salmon, lay it on a plate, surround it with cucumber slices, and bring it to the party.  No, you do not need crackers.  Remember, we want to help people enjoy their food without causing a spike in blood sugar and fat accumulation hormones.  We want to help them feel satisfied, not frazzled and jittery.

Remember, you can eat and entertain and enjoy the holidays as a Woman Who Eats Well without ever missing out. It just takes a few ideas to go against the flow of sugar this time of year, but you can totally do it! If you have a great no-sugar and no-flour dish that you like to bring to parties or events leave a comment down below and share it with the group!

Remember you absolutely have what it takes to lose weight, achieve glowing health and never gain back a pound, we just need to repair your metabolism first with The Freese Method!