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Three Holiday Entertaining Ideas for the Health Conscious Friends This Season

November 13, 2018 by Nick Joly Leave a Comment

holiday-entertaining-ideas-serving-board-vegan

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*

vegan-serving-platter-charcuterie-ideas

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!  

vegan-charcuterie-serving-board-dinner-party-ideas

T W O  | Roasted Veggie + Vegan Protein Skewers

vegan-skewer-dinner-party-ideas

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!

vegan-appetizer-ideas-easy-to-make

triscuit-holiday-recipes

T H R E E  | Roasted Garlic & Hummus Crackers With a Kick

watermelon-radish-recipes-easy-to-make

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!

watermelon-radish-recipes-holiday-entertaining

vegan-hors-doeuvres-ideas-christmas-recipes

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!

Filed Under: Food, Health & Fitness, Home, Recipes, Vegan Tagged With: Cilantro Hummus, Holiday Entertaining, Inspired By Nick, Triscuit, Triscuit Canada, Vegan Appetizer Ideas

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serving you post-workout sweat and redness realnes serving you post-workout sweat and redness realness rn 💪🏼🥵💦 and I just got these super convenient deodorant wipes from @forwardwithdesign for when I have to jump from lunchtime workouts to a zoom call during the week 🤫 now you know my secret! 😂 AD #forwardwithdesign #inspiredbynick
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I always start in produce (naturally) and then jump straight to organic aisles for my fav snacks. Using the green labels in-store, I can identify (at a quick glance) which products are plant-based, vegan, or gluten-free. The My Health, My Choices program also allows me to scan product barcodes using the MyMetro app and search for exactly what I need, taking the whole experience to the next level 🙌🏼 ➡️ Swipe to see my shopping experience and what items I picked up at my local Metro. #Sponsored #MyMetro #Inspiredbynick
we’ve moved into our home 🏡 and we’re still we’ve moved into our home 🏡 and we’re still taking time to settle in. there are some projects we wanna get done asap but can’t due to lockdown, so we’re just gonna go with the flow and enjoy the ride together 👬🏻 ps, that photo is from 9 years ago on one of our first dates
When you’re craving a burger but you also want a When you’re craving a burger but you also want a #meatless option 🙌🏼🍔 Organic Black Bean Fiesta Burgers made by yours truly 🍔💁🏻‍♂️when I was vegan I really had to get creative with a lot of my recipes, otherwise I’d be eating the same old bean salad every day… and bean salad doesn’t really taste like a burger when you’re craving a burger! Even though I’m not fully vegan anymore, I do still like to swap out meat as much as possible with other #plantbased options because that’s what works for me! 
With @metroontario's new program, MyHealth, MyChoices finding products that suit your dietary needs and lifestyles couldn't be easier. With almost 9,000 products labelled with nearly 50 different attributes like plant-based, fat-free, non-GMO, etc., you can easily find what works for you. So for this recipe, I looked for the green labels in-store, found the perfect Irresistibles organic black beans and extra virgin olive oil and whipped up a batch of patties that my heartmate and I devoured! (Tip: they also freeze well)! The recipe for them is on my blog (link in bio) and on Metro’s Instagram page and website! Hope you enjoy these if you decide to make them! #inspiredbynick  #MyHealthMyChoices #mymetro #sponsored
Monday? Too ruff for me... Wake me up when it’s Monday? Too ruff for me... Wake me up when it’s the weekend please and thank you! 🐕🐾 #pawsup #rufflife
I hope our paths croissant again 🥐😂 the best I hope our paths croissant again 🥐😂 the best almond croissants from gourmet privilège 🥰 #nationalcroissantday
At-home yoga for the winnn! 🧘🏻‍♂️🌿✨ because even though supporting my local yoga studio looks different now than in the past (classes are all online or through their app), I can still feel good about being a paying member and doing a small part to #supportlocal. 
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I am not THE poster child for supporting local, that’s just the truth, but I do what I can, where I can. Honestly, I do miss being in the hot studio where after a class I would be drenched and feeling so accomplished, ironically though, I’m surprisingly still drenched after a 90 min class at home, more so than I thought I would be! So I still feel good about getting my workout in, even if it’s different than being there in person. 
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Anyone who does yoga regularly like me knows a wet bag is essential after a good flow. The team at @forwardwithdesign have this awesome bag (I link to it in my stories) that I love--it’s super practical and I love the cute print! While I’m not getting as much use out of it as I’d like right now, it will definitely be coming with me to the studio when some of our restrictions lift and small businesses open up again!! AD #ForwardWithDesign #ThatsFWDThinking  #InspiredbyNick
I really miss having people over for charcuterie b I really miss having people over for charcuterie boards and drinks 🕺🏻🍸🥑🧀🥕🫒 and am LONGING for the days when I can host a dinner party again! Tagged a few of the brands of foods on this board, including @miyokoscreamery’s #vegancheese which was to die forrrrr! 🙌🏼✨ happy Friday Junior. y’all! 
On the board: 
Dark chocolate 
Organic berries 
Mixed olives 
Mixed nuts - cashews, pecans, almonds 
Breadsticks 
Crackers 
Rainbow carrots
Vegan party platter hors d’oeuvres
Figs (obvi) 
And a spicy chutney!
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