On the side of one of our kitchen cabinets is a sort of makeshift “chalkboard wall” if you will, that my heartmate and I built when we moved into our home earlier this year. We jot down some important information like “don’t forget to pay this bill by that date” or “organics disposals on Wednesday”. And, every so often with four tiny cuts of scotch tape, we hang up printable monthly calendars for the next upcoming months.
This time, November & December. Oh boy.
Holiday season is here, and so we marked up the calendars with our days off, our evenings out, and the weekends we’ll be entertaining guests.
With both of our families from Montreal, it’s rare that we can manage to gather everyone and convince them to celebrate the holidays in Toronto. We often concede to their desires (and freezing cold winters), pack up an SUV with our suitcases (never forgetting the dog’s bags, too), and we make the drive down.
So when it comes to entertaining for us in our home here in Toronto, it’s often for our holiday get-togethers with friends.
Friends who, nowadays, all have their own specific food intolerances, allergies, and preferences, myself included!
In preparation for November and December, and in partnership with the folks at Triscuit, I decided to throw together three holiday entertaining ideas, each appropriately suiting the needs of our friends’ diverse food palettes 🙂
It’s said that we eat with our eyes first. I’m a big proponent of that, which is why over on my Instagram page, you’ll see plenty of colourful bowls, serving boards, breakfasts and snacks.
O N E | Elevated Holiday Serving Board – *Perfect for Sharing*
100% honesty here, serving boards and finger foods have a special place in my heart. Tapas and foods made for sharing have always been a favourite of mine.
Nothing screams “sharing” like a well curated serving board.
You can have one for hors d’oeuvres. You can have one with heartier mains, like a build your own sandwich station. And for dessert, you can always put out a board of mixed fruit + chocolate afterwards. I just love boards (have you guessed)?
Key for any serving board is some sort of dip, whether is a hummus or bean dip, or even a spinach dip. And some sort of crunchy cracker for the less vegetable-inclined friends out there.
For this board I’m using a homemade cilantro pesto-infused hummus, and The Hint of Salt Triscuit Crackers, because I am and always will be on #TeamSavoury. Story of my life.
I added some assorted nuts for healthy fats, and of course, an array of raw vegetables for dipping in the hummus. These are always a hit with friends at my place!
T W O | Roasted Veggie + Vegan Protein Skewers
Given my love for savoury foods, I couldn’t resist throwing an olive onto the ends of these veggie skewers. And for the tofu cubes, I doused them with olive oil and curry powder, a simple but delicious combo on the stovetop. Medium heat for five minutes, no more than that.
These were actually really quick to prepare, and while I was originally planning on charring the cherry tomatoes, I thought a mix of cooked and raw might be a nice combo instead.
The accompanying crackers for this holiday entertaining idea are the Cracked Pepper flavour by Triscuit. It’s a subtle taste that pairs well with savoury options.
And for any friends who might be following a Paleo diet, they can always enjoy the skewers without the cracker served beneath!
T H R E E | Roasted Garlic & Hummus Crackers With a Kick
I actually really like this snack! I know raw radishes aren’t everyone’s cup of tea… mostly because of their powerful bitter taste (hence, the kick). But it’s hard to not love them, too, because they’re so pretty!
Watermelon radishes are in season here in Canada around the months of October & November. They can be pretty difficult to find throughout the rest of the year. So when they’re in season, I stock up!
My heartmate and I really love infusing our hummus with different ingredients, mostly herbs like cilantro and parsley. So to add some colour to the otherwise beige colour of hummus, I threw in about ⅓ cup of fresh cilantro, and a ⅓ cup of fresh parsley to our traditional hummus recipe. Super easy!
The crackers I’m using to serve the hummus and turn this into the perfect finger food, are the Roasted Garlic flavour from Triscuit.
And for the health conscious friends, they may be happy surprised to know that Triscuit Crackers are now non-GMO Project certified!
I hope you enjoyed these three holiday entertaining ideas and use some of them this season! They’re fully customizable and interchangeable to suit the tastes, or tolerances, of any of your friends and family, I’m sure!
Which one is your favourite?! Let me know by sharing your creations on social and tagging me @inspiredbynick or using the #inspiredbynick hashtag and I’ll regram my favourites!
Nick Joly | Inspired by Nick
be good to your body
inspiredbynick.com
Thank you to Triscuit for sponsoring this post!