Gluten-Free Weekend Menu for Guests: What We Served

Hi friends! How are you? How was your weekend? We had a good one and welcomed one of Ryan’s childhood best friends and his family in town. Terry, his wife Janelle, their 7-year-old son and two dogs stayed with us through the late morning on Sunday en route to Florida for their spring break and we had great time. We loved catching up, watching our boys have a blast playing with each other and simply enjoyed our time together.

I didn’t snap many pictures throughout the weekend but I did manage to take pictures of some of the meals we enjoyed together and thought I’d share them with you guys below. Our meals were mostly gluten-free, as Terry’s wife is gluten-free and we wanted to make sure we made meals we could all enjoy together.

I know hosting and meal planning can be a little intimidating at times (at least it can still be for me), but over the years I’ve learned to chill out about it. I’ve slowly come to realize not everything has to perfect. We just try our best to make our home welcoming and take away the self-imposed pressure to make every meal over-the-top amazing. (Why we chose to try new tricky recipes when we were hosting in the past, I’ll never know.) Now we gravitate toward meals we know are delicious but also meals that are easy and stress-free to put together when we’re hosting.

Below you’ll see our menu for the weekend and find a lot of the meals are meals that can be prepped ahead with some store-bought items in the mix to keep things nice and simple.

Gluten Free Weekend Menu for Guests

• Friday Dinner: Crockpot Chicken Corn Chili

This crockpot chicken corn chili has been one one of our family’s favorite meals for years. It’s also one I feel confident serving to guests because it took top prize in the “non traditional chili” category at a small chili cookoff a while back. I know it’s more of a fall or wintery-type meal, but on Friday night it was chilly and rainy so chili felt right! We served the chili it with tortilla chips, homemade guacamole, shredded cheese and cilantro.

• Friday Dessert: Frozen Vanilla Layer Dessert Cake

This was an impulse buy at ALDI that I scooped up on Friday morning and it ended up being a huge hit! I can often put pressure on myself when hosting to have homemade meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert but I’m learning to let that go. Friday night’s dessert was a perfect example. It was already made and everyone loved it! There were zero complaints from anyone about it being purchased from the frozen foods section at the grocery store and I don’t think anyone cared one bit that we didn’t have a homemade dessert to enjoy after dinner.

• Saturday Breakfast: Chicken Sausage and Spinach Frittata with Fresh Berries

Frittatas are forever and ever a breakfast I make when we have guests in town because they are easy and a dish I can make without following a recipe. I’ve made my chicken sausage and spinach frittata too many times to count so I can do it by heart which makes getting breakfast on the table for a group stress-free! On Saturday morning, as we sipped our coffee, we ate slices of frittata with fresh berries, orange slices and buttered toast for the non-gluten-free folks!

• Saturday Lunch: Publix Subs

Ryan’s friend Terry grew up in Florida with Ryan and, like many Floridians, has a strong affinity for Publix subs. We made sure to work them in to our weekend menu and grabbed subs and gluten-free wraps from Publix for lunch on Saturday!

• Saturday Dinner: Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas 

This is another meal I make frequently for guests because it can be prepped ahead of time! I hate disappearing into the kitchen to make meals when we have guests in town (I get serious FOMO) so anytime I can prep food ahead of time, I am all about it. On Saturday, we dug into oven baked chicken fajitas (I followed the recipe from Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook but this shortcut version on Tina’s blog is wonderful, too) and served them with tortilla chips, tortillas, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, cilantro and cheese.

• Saturday Dessert: Homemade Cheesecake Cookies ‘n’ Cream Ice Cream with Gluten-Free Brownies

We may have demolished the brownies I made for dessert before dinner even began on Saturday but I figured I should mention them anyway since they were intended to be part of our dessert. I’m sorry I didn’t snap a picture of them though! Since the brownies were all gone before dinner and ended up being more or less an afternoon pick-me-up, our Saturday night dessert looked like homemade cheesecake cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream which we all loved enough to have second helpings all around. This was my first time making the ice cream with gluten-free Oreos and I’m happy to say it turned out great! The gluten-free Oreos don’t crumble quite as well (they’re stickier and don’t hold up quite the same if that makes sense) but the flavor was still on point!

• Sunday Breakfast: Simple Mills Waffles, Fresh Fruit, Sausage, Greek Yogurt and Granola

This was more or less a DIY breakfast with a lot of options for people to choose from depending on their preferences on Sunday morning. I made an entire box of Simple Mills waffles from their box mix and our group ate every last one! We also had fresh fruit, sausage links, Greek yogurt and granola out for everyone to enjoy.

Question of the Day

When you’re hosting, do you have any go-to meals you like to serve to guests? Please share!