entertaining your gluten free guests at the BBQ

I LOVE to eat with people. I almost think it's part of my love language. Sharing a meal with friends and family is one of my family's favorite ways to spend time. I wish we could do it more often. WE so enjoy being invited over to someone's house for dinner but there is always that awkward moment where I have to explain to them that we'd love to come but we have to eat gluten free.

We hear about more and more people having to remove gluten from their diets. But we still want to enjoy a meal with our friends! Have no fear! I'm here to help! Over the next few months I'd like to offer a variety of EASY options for entertaining those of us who can not have gluten. File these ideas somewhere and then when the time comes, let me promise you that there is nothing that will bless someone who can't eat gluten more than feeling like you took the time to prepare them a gluten free meal. Whenever someone does that for me it blesses my socks off.



My first idea is not fat free. ha! BUT sometimes you just have to eat a juicy burger! You could totally do these as turkey burgers but my goal here was fast, easy, and not intimidating.

Here we threw some pre-made sirloin burgers from Costco on the grill. Once the patties were just about done grilling we added some pepper jack cheese to melt over the top.

For ease you can buy gluten free hamburger buns by Kinnikinnick at your local grocery store in the health food freezer section. Right now they're on sale at Fred Meyer for $4.29 for a package of 4 buns. (you can totally use the english muffins if they're out of hamb. buns- I swear they're the same thing in a different package.) They taste great and can be kept in the freezer. When it's time to eat just toss them into the microwave to defrost. You can also toast them on the grill for added flavor.

Then just spread some chipotle mayo over your buns. I make this by taking 1/2 cup of best foods mayo and adding about 1 tsp of chipotle chili powder then stir together. Place the meat with the melted cheese on the bottom bun and layer lettuce, tomato, red onion- whatever you like over the meat. I can't even tell you how much you will bless a gluten free guest by serving them a delicious BURGER!



To continue with our easy theme let's just bake some sweet potato fries and maybe even some steak fries to dip into our chipotle mayo. Don't even think about the calories! This is for fun! You can eat clean tomorrow. ha! :)





If you really want to go all out you could make this very easy carrot cake recipe. You MUST try it! Let's just say it's not your grandma's carrot cake. I baked this one up today in about 20 minutes.

For the cream cheese frosting just take 1 cube of cream cheese (NOT nonfat!), 1 cube of unsalted butter, 1 box of powdered sugar and about 1 tsp of vanilla. Cream the butter and cream cheese together 1st and then add the sugar and vanilla. Blend until creamy. Spread on your cake.

Don't look to closely at my frosting. I'm still learning. But this is the best I've done yet! ;)

Happy entertaining!