Ideas for 3 course meal

[FlorayG]

OK I've decided to invite some friends over for dinner to prove I don't live on bacon and eggs. please some ideas for starter, main course and pudding as low carb as possible. I thought a salad or soup to start then a casserole or roast - but need a potato substitute - and am stuck for pudding except berries and cream. I don't use artificial sweeteners so need extra help there. Ideas please?

[brownkameleon]

I'm new to the site but not low carb, Start with a salad with all the fixings to include nuts and seeds and ur favorite dressing. Appetizer idea tha I've done are mini quiches...(crustless of course) you can do vegetables with mushrooms, spinach or even crab mini quiches. For main course do a pot roast or roasted chicken and you can use the au jaur or chicken stock to cover your mashed cauliflowers (similar to mashed potatoes) Of course you can do pretty much any type of steamed green vegetable, I totally love roasted aspargus made with pepper, cloves and sea salt.

For dessert, do a mixture of berries with cream topping... you can mash some nuts to give it a crunchy coating or do a crustless cheesecake... I crush peanuts and melt with butter bake for abt 15 mins then let cool... that will be ur base, make ur own cream or use cool whip(be carefulP mix together with cream cheese and splenda and you can top it with berries or sugar free strawberry preserves or a preserve flavoring you like.

I cook for my family all the time and have to add in carbs for them, but they look at meals like the one above and they enjoy them.

Good Luck!!!

[Tril]

I just found this thread... have you had your dinner yet?

My ideas:

Starter - Cream of mushroom (or broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower) soup
Starter - Oven baked spicy chicken wings/drumettes with celery sticks and dip (blue cheese and/or ranch)
Starter - Romaine with feta, walnut and strawberry salad (wonderful with a raspberry vinaigrette)

Main course - Herbed cheese filled chicken breasts, roasted mixed veggies (you can roast nearly anything but I love cauliflower, red peppers, asparagus, onion, garlic)
Main course - Pork chops, purple cabbage slaw, asparagus sauteed in EVOO with garlic and red pepper flakes
Main course - Meatloaf, roasted cauliflower, green beans almondine

Dessert - individual berry and yogurt parfaits made in shot glasses, top with toasted almonds
Dessert - strawberries dipped in very dark chocolate
Dessert - mixed berries topped with freshly whipped cream

[FlorayG]

N0 I've had to put it off a week but still have it planned.
I'd love to do some sort of flan/tart for dessert - anybody got a crust recipe?
Mushroom soup - yes great I hadn't thought of that

[GuyK]

I think all of Tril's vegetable recommendations are great -- we rotate among those, depending on what's available at the local market, and also add mashed cauliflower, sauteed spinach, and pan-roasted broccoli to the mix (saute quickly!). We particularly like Rico's mashed cauliflower recipe (but we enjoy subbing minced shallot for the onion in his recipe). We often make sauteed cabbage or brussels sprouts too, but I limit my portion sizes on those.

One recipe we do often, when asparagus is in season, is to roast it with olive oil and garlic (we like thin spears, roasted until just starting to turn dark), tossed with lemon juice and sprinkled with a little bit of goat cheese.

My wife came up with this one last week, based on a recipe we've done often. The recipe she started with was a Cook's Illustrated homemade green bean casserole. Slight modifications to become more l/c. Make a "cream of mushroom soup" base, with sauteed mushrooms, cream, thyme, salt and pepper. Toss with cooked green beans. She fried some shallot rings (we happen to be on a shallot kick, rather than onion) until somewhat crispy, and tossed those in too. Then she sprinkled the top with some crushed pork rinds, and baked until bubbly.