We had an awesome day yesterday full of good eats and great times with family. I got super lucky and won a prize pack from Coleman Naturals on Facebook. I won a variety of organic hotdogs and sausages. As soon as I received my prize pack I knew I had to host a family get-together. I am always looking for an excuse or reason to have people over and cook for them. It brings me a lot of happiness and joy putting a party/family gathering together. Is there really anything better in life than having your good family come together to have a day full of great eats? So we had some hotdogs, sausages, potato salad, macaroni salad, and corn on the cob. It all added up to a scrumptious meal. My sister also brought some side dishes and my mother-in-law brought a fruit tray. We had quite a few healthy foods to eat.
This was my first time trying out anything by Coleman Naturals. I did a bit of research on their products and think that they are an incredible brand. Hotdogs and sausages are often filled with weird, garbage ingredients but not Coleman Naturals. They do not use antibiotics, hormones, steroids, they are non-GMO, use only all natural ingredients, are gluten-free, are free range, and only use organic ingredients. I don’t feel so bad about eating a hotdog or a sausage when I know that they are only made with quality ingredients.
These hotdogs and sausages were the stars of the show yesterday. I had most of my family over and we all enjoyed these. There were chicken hotdogs, pork & beef hotdogs, apple chicken sausage, and some andouille sausage. I also created some other dishes to go with the gathering. I made a healthy potato, a gluten-free macaroni salad, and I also made paleo dark chocolate fudge cupcakes. My dad and my stepmom also brought over some Michigan sweet corn. I brushed mine up and down with some ghee and was in corn heaven!
On Friday night I got home from our day trip out to Birch Run and I had to get my potato salad and macaroni salad done. For both salads, I used my jar of Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo. This was my first time using this mayo and I had no doubt it would be great because I love everything that Primal Kitchen has to offer. This avocado oil mayo can be found on Amazon but the price at Primal Kitchen is a tad lower.
The Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo is Whole 30 compliant, paleo-friendly, keto-approved, sugar-free, gluten-free, and has ZERO grams of carbs! I was super pumped to try this healthy mayo. I love when I come across a food product that is REAL FOOD and allows me to eat clean. Primal Kitchen always comes to mind when I think about clean food. I am so happy to be able to represent and work with a brand that offers nothing but the best when it comes to eating healthy and well.
I laid out most of the ingredients to prep for my salads. You can see what I used in the photo below. I sure had my hands full and it was after 8PM when I got all of this geared up to go. I don’t mind one bit though working in the kitchen. The Give It A Whirl Girl Kitchen is my happy place. So I put on my apron and got to work!
For the potato salad, I went with little baby redskin potatoes. I also bought a package of premade hard boiled eggs because I suck at cooking hardboiled eggs (I really do suck and never get them to peel properly). I can never get it right. I ended up using four eggs in the potato salad. My potato salad has to be eggy… love that! This particular salad won me over out of the two. It was hard to resist eating a whole bunch the night before the party. It really was marvelous and not too shabby for my first time making a potato salad. The Boar’s Head mustard married together with the mayo to give this potato salad an excellent creamy taste with some zip from the mustard. And of course, no potato salad is complete without some paprika as a garnish so I sprinkled that on.
For the macaroni salad, I went with Banza chickpea elbow noodle pasta. This pasta is awesome if you are trying to follow a gluten-free diet. It is made with chickpeas and it is packed with protein! Banza pasta also has a great amount of fiber compared to your usual pasta. I am definitely a big fan of Banza. I suggest undercooking it just a bit. I found that if you follow the cooking time on the package it turns out on the mushy side and nobody likes that with pasta. You can find a variety pack on Amazon and try out the assorted pasta shapes.
Overall, I was very pleased with how both salads turned out with the Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo. It is a bit on the pricey side for mayo but if you are looking for a healthy alternative to regular mayo I highly suggest giving this particular mayo a whirl!
On Saturday morning we were all in a cleaning frenzy getting the house together for the party but I found some time to squeeze in some baking. We needed a dessert so I made some healthy-ish paleo dark chocolate fudge cupcakes. These turned out to be semi-sweet… not overly sweet at all. I was very pleased with the fudge frosting I made. I combined Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Chips with a splash of Unsweetened Califia Farms Almond Milk, and a bit of Vita Coco Coconut Oil. There was no added sugar to the frosting. The sweetness was derived entirely from the chocolate chips. It still came out thick, rich, and delish!
They were low carb cupcakes as well. I used Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour (which is very low carb for a flour) to make the cupcakes. The chocolate flavor was created with LIVfit Cacao Powder. I used an entire cup of it in my recipe. To sweeten the cupcakes I used raw honey from Heavenly Organics. I also had to add my candy sprinkles to the top, just could not resist giving them a good shake!
The day of the party was a rainy morning. Thank goodness the rain cleared up and we could go on with the party outdoors. Joe did an awesome job grilling the weiners. We make such an awesome team when it comes to grilling. I love teamwork with the hubby to ensure that our guests have some good eats and we always try to make it memorable for them.
Here is a photo of my dinner plate. Man, was it ever good! It all came together to come out as a magnificent BBQ meal. My only gripe was that I bought a bag of Udi’s gluten-free hotdog buns and I was not a fan of those at all, if I am being honest. The bun was a big turnoff. I have been really pleased with a ton of gluten-free items that I have been trying but the Udi’s buns were a big fat fail to me. So sorry to Udi’s!
Since I am trying to eliminate gluten from my diet as much as possible I avoided beer yesterday and went with some hard ciders. This passionfruit hard cider really won me over and I will be returning to the Shores Canteen to stock up and try the other flavors that Rekorderlig offers.
I love days like yesterday. I am fortunate to have some wonderful family and I treasure these moments when we all get together. I really wish I could afford to do this more often.
Did anything wonderful happen to you this weekend? Any great meals? Feel free to leave me a comment.
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