Cooking Healthy for a Large Group: A Party Taco Bar
Plus Spaghetti Squash Bolognese with Sneaky Veggies for Color Club Members!
Colorful chefs - new and old, welcome!! This is where we cook delicious, saucy, colorful meals made from whole, unprocessed foods, and we make it fun, easy, and learn important stuff about metabolic health while doing it. If you are new and you’ve got questions or ideas or just want to introduce yourself, please head to the chat!👇🏼
This week’s newsletter at a glance:
From Farm to Festivities: Some of the ways I brought my food values to life during my wedding weekend, and tips for how you can do the same for the next event (big or small!) that you host.
Special Edition: Taco Party Recipes: 5 recipes that I collaborated on with Chef Ali and served at the beach party the day after my wedding, plus the full menu in case it inspires your next taco party!
Color Club Recipe + Video: Spaghetti squash bolognese with sneaky veggies recipe for my Color Clubbers. It’s a spaghetti squash recipe that doesn’t leave you wishing you just had pasta…(or was that just me?!)
Color Club: The payment processor issues have been fixed and we are back in business! In the Color Club, I share (at least) one colorful, blood sugar friendly, nutrient dense recipe each week exclusively for Color Club members. Based on your requests, I’m starting to dabble with adding full length videos to them as well! It’s $5/month, join or log-in here. Thanks to all of my founding members, I’m so happy to have you!
From Farm To Festivities
Okay not everything at my wedding came from a local farm, but I just loved that title.
There were a number of things we did based on our values of love and gratitude, spirituality and connection, community and friendship (i.e., guest matchmaking!), joy and adventure, learning and growth and health and food, but since this newsletter is about Cooking in Color, I’m going to focus on sharing some of the decisions we made on health & food!
One of my life mantras is you don’t get what you don’t ask for. Just because a venue or a host has done something one way in the past, doesn’t mean they aren’t open to something new!
With the venue we hosted our wedding at, their first response when I asked about things like sourcing of ingredients, or swapping certain products for others was “we don’t usually do that.” It was not “we can’t do that.” So, I’m grateful they were open to sourcing a number of brands or vendors I wanted to include (read on for the full list)!
My tips for incorporating your food & health values into your next event:
Define your event core values: Identify your food and health priorities, and determine what’s possible for your event (e.g., it might be organic, locally sourced, allergen-free, sustainable, adding some more color to existing dishes, eliminating single-use plastic, bringing a colorful side dish to add to the mains etc.)
Research and select vendors and foods thoughtfully: If you are working with a venue, ask what their flexibility is for sourcing with other or new vendors! Research vendors and ask them about their sourcing practices, ingredient transparency, and approach to sustainability. We have to start showing vendors and brands that we care about this stuff.
Be mindful of the little details: Get creative with some of the small choices - like using compostable cutlery or plates (for the beach party) or ensuring the mocktail is just as delicious as the cocktails (vs. just a glass of glorified juice, my biggest pet peeve 🙄) and made without simple syrups or additives. If you don’t ask about this stuff, chances are the norm is the something that does not support your health or your guests health.
Lastly, have fun! It might not end up being perfectly metabolically healthy (ours wasn’t, but it was close!) and that’s okay. Do your best within the system you’re in, and otherwise enjoy yourself. Don’t forget that joy is also a key biomarker (my friend Celia recently wrote about this)
Overview of food and drinks we served throughout the weekend
Drinks:
Local beer and organic natural wine: Yes, we offered alcohol and we tried to source mindfully. For our beach party, we served exclusively Dry Farm Wines. Dry Farm Wines are organically grown by small family farms, independently lab tested for purity, sugar free (less than 1g/L), lower alcohol (less than 12.5%), free of nasty additives, dry farmed (irrigation free), have lower sulfites (less than 75 parts per million) and fermented with wild, native yeast. WOW, right?
A (somewhat brief) aside on wine:
Here is the problem with wine today: Over the last 40 years, the wine industry has mutated, just like the food industry, into massive corporations that control market-wide production. In fact, the top 3 wine companies in the US produce roughly 60% of all domestically produced wine. Even more, the top 25 companies produce nearly 90% of all US wines. The government has also approved 76 additives for use in winemaking in the US. Click here for the full public list. Some of these additives are harmless and natural, while others are actually classified as toxic and or as health hazards by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is why when I drink wine, I try to prioritize organically farmed and grown wine without irrigation and other industrial farming techniques. Dry Farm Wines does not work with any large companies, only farmers who prize biodiversity and healthy soil, to meet all of the standards I outlined above. Since I found out about Dry Farm wines it’s been my go to, and their team has given me a link (or head to dryfarmwines.com/sonja) where if you give it a try, you’ll get a bottle for 1 cent (you can't give away free wine). I only promote or share products I fully believe in. I will make a small % if you click that link, but my primary goal is to help get you a discount on products that align with Cooking in Color values.
Our cocktails and zero proof cocktails at our wedding were sweetened with a little honey or agave, no simple syrups. In our tasting, I had them cut the sugar content by basically 2/3, and not one person complained our drinks were not sweet enough (or if they thought so they didn’t tell me LOL). I was looking out for their metabolic health and also trying to prevent worse hangovers 🤣
Note: I always prioritize honey vs. agave if given the choice between the two. Agave has a higher fructose content and it’s highly processed which removes the natural nutrients from the agave plant. Honey, especially raw unfiltered honey, has beneficial enzymes and antibacterial properties and contains a mix of glucose and fructose. You should still consume honey in moderation, but it’s a better option than agave or other refined sugars.
Olipop instead of soda: We had ZERO Coke or Pepsi products on the premises all weekend, despite the venue telling me those were “included” in the existing cost (this is a bundling bias and a sunk cost fallacy). Just because something is included, does not mean you have to use it! If people wanted a rum and coke, they could have it with Olipop which only has 2g of added sugar, and includes 9g of fiber.
Boochcraft hard kombucha: Organic and made with real fruit, most varieties only have 2g of added sugar - served at our welcome party
Coffee and Tea Bar: At the day after beach party we served Pique matcha with Malk Organics almond milk (they have a shelf stable version without any additives!) or Organic Valley dairy milk. I love Pique because they are 100% organic, and triple toxin screened. They are the first tea company to triple toxin screen all of their teas for heavy metals, pesticides, and toxic mold and I hope others begin to follow-suit. We also had cold brew from Santa Barbara Roasting Co! To sweeten these drinks, we offered individual RX Sugar Allulose packets.
Wait, WTF is allulose? Let me explain! Allulose is a low calorie alternative that occurs naturally in small amounts in figs, kiwis, molasses and a few other products. Allulose is not readily metabolized in your body. So after being absorbed in the small intestine, much of it gets excreted in your urine. Because of that, research suggests that allulose doesn’t cause a rise in blood glucose levels or insulin. I’ve tested this many times on my CGM, and can confirm it does not cause a rise in my blood sugar. Watch this short 2 minute video where Ben Bikman explains how allulose works in the body and how it’s similar to fructose. Note, if you use allulose in baking, it’s about 70% as sweet as cane sugar so you’ll want to adjust your recipes accordingly. In most of my recipes I offer allulose as an option and include the precise measurement I recommend!
Non-alcoholic Little Saints mocktails: No sugar, cute canned mocktails. At our welcome party and beach party!
Other non-alc options: We also had Spindrift (thank goodness for the value packs of 30 from Costco) and LMNT (my fave flavor is orange) for electrolytes at our beach party! While there are natural flavors in LMNT which I’m not a fan of, my research has led me to believe that the LMNT natural flavors are distilled or extracted from fruits, roots or spices (but I’m not 100% positive so don’t hold me to this!)
Here’s a reel on all the drinks from the beach party!
Food:
Santa Barbara BBQ: We picked our welcome party spot largely based on the food. If you find yourself in Santa Barbara, pay a visit to Shaloobs in the Funk Zone! All of their meats are hormone and antibiotic free, fruits and veggies locally sourced, and fish caught by local Santa Barbara fisherman! They’ve been family owned and operated for three generations and we worked with them on a menu that was largely gluten free, filled with colorful veggies, meats and fish.
Fermented sourdough vs. refined grain bread roll: Our wedding venue agreed to work with one of my favorite farmers market vendors - Hasi bread - to serve a heritage grain, wild fermented sourdough roll with turmeric and blue pea flower. Good news, they ship nationwide if you want to try! I’ve been gluten free for 10+ years after discovering I was sensitive with some blood work, but I’ve been incorporating fermented heritage grains back into my diet and feeling GREAT (especially when part of a balanced meal with protein, fat and fiber). I’m planning to get re-tested for wheat soon, because I’m realizing I probably was not sensitive to “wheat” or “gluten” but just the refined gluten products my body has no idea how to digest because it was never meant to! Stay tuned for more in a future Substack.
Dinner menu: We collaborated with the chef to ensure the menu was refined grain and refined sugar free and of course…full of color! This meant things like local organic baby greens, roasted squash bisque, short rib, seabass, and risotto with yellow and purple cauliflower from the Santa Barbara farmers market.
Gluten free carrot cake: Yes, there were probably refined sugars in this cake, but remember when I said joy was also a biomarker!? Because refined sugars are not part of my diet, my metabolism is well-equipped to handle the very occasional sugar intake. Also, I certainly did some post meal movement on the dance floor! We also had gluten free macarons.
Late night food: We did breakfast burritos (Alex’s love language) on Coyotas Organic Grain-Free Tortillas. These tortillas hold up really well!
Beach Party Taco Bar: This menu might have stolen the show for the weekend! Read on for all of the recipes.
I’m so excited to share 5 recipes from my day-after wedding beach party, because these DESERVE to be made again, either on their own, together for an event, or for an epic week of meal prep.
If you don’t follow Chef Ali (@healthysexystrong) yet on Instagram, you should because she is a colorful food visionary. She also just launched her own substack, so subscribe to that for more Ali recipes! She partnered with me and brought my vision of a healthy, colorful, taco bar to life.
Some tips for scaling a healthy menu to a large group:
Pick a theme where you’ll have a crossover of the same ingredients in multiple dishes (e.g., you’ll notice tomatillos, chiles, avocado, and cilantro appear in multiple dishes!)
Select a “star” main dish that can be easily prepped and cooked in bulk, or a recipe that’s easy to double (here it was the Chicken Tinga). When I’m entertaining at home, I find my slow cooker is my best friend for this!
Keep the mains/base dishes simple and allergy-friendly. We had two vegan veggie mains and one dairy free protein and then gave people the opportunity to add stuff on top via sides, sauces, toppings!
Outsource some things to make your life easier. For example, we sourced locally made tortillas and chips in Santa Barbara vs. making those from scratch like we did when we tested everything.
Remember that sauces, herbs, and ferments and simple toppings go a long way in adding flavor and zhuzh to any meal! We had tons of saucy-things, salsas, and simple toppings like cilantro, red onion etc. to add more flavor. The salsas can be prepped way in advance to eliminate stress before the event.
My goal for the food served to 140+ people on the beach was the same as my Cooking in Color principles for any meal: colorful, blood sugar balanced, no bad stuff (refined sugars, grains, seed oils), quality ingredients (all organic and most locally sourced), and a lil’ zhuzh (herbs, spices, sauces, ferments!). It takes a little extra thinking for how to do this at scale, but Ali has shown me multiple times that it’s 100% possible.
For the beach party recipes, we got inspiration from the cookbook Tu Casa Mi Casa: Mexican Recipes for the Home Cook.
In the recipes below, you’ll notice the ingredient lists are short and simple (YAY!) but they require a little more time than my usual recipes, and a number of small little steps to make them sing. You may notice the method sections look longer and more involved than my other recipes, but don’t be intimidated! Most of the steps are simple and can teach you a lot of fun ways to coax the most flavor and love out of your ingredients as possible. For example, small things like toasting chilies, chopping up cilantro stems, and pre-roasting, grilling, or sautéing ingredients are what make these recipes so amazing, and will make a big difference when it comes to the food that makes it onto your table or at your party in the end!
Big thank you to Ali for writing these up to share here!! You might need to click “read in app” to view the entire thing pending your email provider.
Chicken Tinga
Serves 6-8 people, double or triple for more!
Ingredients
1 whole organic chicken - You could also use an already cooked rotisserie chicken to save time!
2 white onions, one quartered and one sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 bay leaves
1 tbsp avocado oil
10 vine or heirloom tomatoes, roughly chopped - If you don’t have good quality fresh tomatoes available, a good brand of canned tomatoes would also work! (Ali’s fave)
1 28oz can organic whole peeled tomatoes
1 small can chipotle chiles in adobo, chiles removed and chopped into a paste
Note: In the method section. We recommend adding one chili at a time as they can be super spicy. If you really want to keep the heat low, you can just add a teaspoon of the liquid from the can. Otherwise start with one chili and add more if needed.
Salt, to taste
Method
COOK CHICKEN
Break the whole chicken down into quarters. In a large pot, combine chicken, onion quarters, peeled and chopped garlic cloves, bay leaves and a heavy pinch (about 1 tbsp salt). Add water to cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked through, about an hour.
Remove chicken from the poaching liquid and set aside until it is cool enough to handle. Using your hands pull or shred the chicken, discarding any bones/skin/cartilage or reserving for another use.
Run the broth through a fine strainer and reserve broth as well.
PREPARE TINGA SAUCE
In a medium to large pot, add avocado oil and add the sliced onion and smashed garlic, cook until translucent…about five minutes.
Add chopped tomatoes, the canned tomatoes, and one cup of reserved chicken broth. Add one chili from the can of chipotle in adobo…these little guys are pretty spicy, and you can always add more once all the flavors in your Tinga have combined!
Cook at a low simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until the tomato breaks down and deepens in color.
COMBINE AND SERVE
Add reserved shredded chicken and another cup of chicken broth, you want your texture to be quite loose and soupy.
Let simmer for an additional 10 to 15 minutes to bring all the flavors together. At this point, you can taste it for spice and seasoning. If you would like a little more heat, add additional chopped chipotles one at a time. If it has thickened up quite a bit, add some additional chicken broth. Salt to taste.
Freeze or save the leftover broth: You can also freeze any leftover broth, and use it in place of chicken or vegetable stock in future recipes.
Fridge or freeze: This keeps in the fridge for up to a week, but also freezes super well!
Mole Verde with Market Veggies
Serves 6-8 people, double or triple for more!
Mole Verde
Ingredients
2 tbsp avocado oil
1 white onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 poblano chile, deseeded and sliced
1 yellow chile, deseeded and sliced (can use two poblanos if you can’t find a yellow chile)
1 cup tomatillos, outer husk removed and chopped (about 5-6 medium sized tomatillos)
1 cup filtered water
1 cup roasted pistachios
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 hoja Santa leaves
Note: Hoja santa has a slight pepper aroma and flavor along with anise, eucalyptus, and nutmeg notes. There are also hints of mint and tarragon, and a strong aroma and flavor of sassafras. If there is a Latin grocery store in your area, they will usually carry this, if not, you can substitute fennel or Thai basil to get some similar floral and herbaceous notes. You can also skip this entirely, I’ve done it both ways, and they recipe will still be delicious!
½ cup baby spinach
1 tsp salt, more to taste
Method
In a medium pot heat oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook until soft and translucent, about five minutes. Add the chilies and cook until softened, also about five minutes.
Add the tomatillos and cook until they start breaking down, 5 to 7 minutes.
Add the water and the pistachios and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and add to a blender or food processor along with the cilantro, hoja santa, and spinach. Blend until smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
Serve Mole Verde tossed with your grilled market veggies and garnished with additional cilantro. For even more zhuzh, add some edible flowers such as marigolds to really make it look extra special!
Market Veggies
Ingredients
2 zucchini or summer squash, halved longways
2 baby or Thai eggplants, halved through the top
2 delicata squash, halved and deseeded
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
Heat a grill or a grill pan to medium high heat.
Alternate method: Alternatively, you can roast these in the oven at 400F for about 30 minutes.
Drizzle squash, eggplant, and delicata squash with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.
Place the veggies cut side down on the grill and cook until the veggies have marks and are starting to soften, about 5-7 minutes.
Flip veggies and repeat on the other side. You want your vegetables to be tender, but not mushy. If any of the veggies need additional time, lower the heat on your grill or grill pan and cook until veggies reach the desired consistency.
Set veggies aside until they are cool enough to be handled. Chop veggies into either small to medium dice for tacos, or larger 1-2” chunks to serve over cauliflower rice. Toss veggies with mole verde and serve with cauliflower rice or fresh tortillas (I recommend Siete or Coyotas).
Lentil Ceviche with Mushrooms
Serves 6-8 people, double or triple for more!
A note on lentils: Even non-refined “healthy carbs” can cause blood sugar spikes if they are a relatively dense source of total carbs (like lentils) which is why this dish was served as part of a broader balanced meal of healthy fats, protein, fiber, micronutrients etc. Lentils do have a lower GI index than other carbs, like rice or sweet potatoes for example, which is why I do like mixing them into my cooking every once and a while!
Ingredients
1 cup beluga lentils
½ white onion, rough chopped
½ red onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
4 large king trumpet mushrooms, small diced
2 dried ancho chiles (Ali orders hers from here)
2 dried pasilla chiles (Ali orders this one)
1 cup peanuts
½ cup olive oil
½ cup tomatillos, small diced (or 3 medium sized tomatillos)
4 ea limes, juiced
1 ea avocado, cut into small cubes
1 bunch cilantro stems, finely chopped (reserve teh leaves for serving)
Method
MAKE THE LENTILS
In a medium pot, combine the lentils, onion, garlic, salt, and bay leaves. Add enough water to cover the lentils and have at least 2 inches of water above the lentils. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer, cook until lentils are tender, but not mushy, about 20 to 30 minutes. If your water evaporates before the tender, add an additional cup of water.
Drain the lentils, remove the bay leaf, and set aside to cool.
While your lentils are cooking, toss your cubed mushrooms with a little oil, salt, and pepper, and roast in a 400° oven until they just start to brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
TOAST THE CHILIES
While the lentils and mushrooms are cooling, toast your chilies in a dry pan over high heat, just until fragrant. If you’ve never toasted chilies before, the oil in the chilies can be quite volatile, so you may want to make sure you have a kitchen fan on while you toast chilies. You can also toast your chilies outside on a grill, just make sure not to burn them (that’s what we did when recipe testing!)
FINISH THE DRESSING
In a food processor or molcajete, pulse half of your peanuts with your toasted chilies and olive oil until it forms a thick paste. If you don’t want your dish to be spicy, you can remove the seeds from the insides of the chilies before putting them in your processor. Add your tomatillos and lime juice into the food processor or molcajete and pulse until just broken down but still chunky. Wash your hands and don’t touch your eyes!!!
ASSEMBLE
To assemble the “ceviche”, combine your red onion, cooked lentils, roasted mushrooms, cilantro stems and the remaining whole peanuts. Mix until evenly combined, and then slowly add the peanut/dried chili dressing.
Season with salt to taste, and add more lime if needed.
Right before serving, stir in the avocado cubes and top with cilantro leaves.
Salsa Macha
Makes a little under a quart, keeps for 1-2 months
Ingredients
Ali gets her chiles here or at a local Mexican market. I will say this recipe is outside of my usual home chef comfort zone where I’m usually optimizing for simple, but I realized half the battle was just having these ingredients and the rest was worth it.
2 pasilla chiles, seeded
2 ancho chiles, seeded
4 guajillo chiles, seeded
4 morita chiles, seeded
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes and their oils
1 cup roasted salted peanuts
1/2 cup roasted pepitas/pumpkin seeds
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup olive or avocado oil
Method
Toast chiles dry saute pan on high heat. Only 20-30 seconds on each side or until chiles become fragrant. If you’ve never toasted chilies before, the oil in the chilies can be quite volatile, so you may want to make sure you have a kitchen fan on while you toast chilies!! You can also toast your chilies outside on a grill, just make sure not to burn them (that’s what we did when we recipe tested!)
Add chiles, peanuts, pepitas, 1 cup oil, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, lime juice, and vinegar into food processor. Pulse until peanuts are finally chopped and salsa has the consistency of a thick pesto. Add an additional half cup of olive oil as needed to thin out the salsa.
Salt to taste. Stir in chopped cilantro just before serving.
Without cilantro, salsa can be kept in an airtight jar for up to one month.
Dessert Station / Miso Chocolate Chip Cookie
In addition to the grain free miso chocolate chip cookies below, we also served berries, grapes, dates and Hu dark chocolate!
Note: This is an Ali recipe and I’ve never personally made these, but I had them at the party and thought they were a 10/10!
Makes 16-18 cookies
Ingredients
2 ½ cups refined grain free flour of choice (almond flour, coconut flour etc.)
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
1/3 cup allulose (or 1/4 cup of another refined sugar free sweetener)
1/3 cup chocolate chips (recommend Hu or Lilys)
2 tbsp plant milk of choice, plus more if needed
½. cup peanut butter
1 tbsp white miso
2 tbsp olive or avocado oil or melted butter
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Method
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir in wet ingredients to form a dough – it will be dry at first, so keep stirring until a cookie-dough texture is achieved. If needed, add 1-2 tbsp extra milk of choice. Form into one big ball, then refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 F. Form dough balls, and place on a greased baking tray, about 2” apart. Press cookies down with an oiled fork. Ali says “When I was little, we always used to make a crisscross pattern using our fork, so I still do that out of pure nostalgia. I still do that… But just one press also works perfectly well.”
Bake 8-10 minutes on the center rack. They’ll look underdone when you take them out. Let them cool on the baking tray 10 minutes before touching, during which time they will firm up.
Okay that’s it!! Screenshot your favorites, share with a friend, and follow Ali, @healthysexystrong on IG and newly on Substack!
Spaghetti squash bolognese with sneaky veggies and a lil tiny kick!
I know what you are thinking in the back of your head “whenever I make spaghetti squash I wish I just had pasta” or “my spaghetti squash is always sooooo watery” but NOT THIS DISH!! It’s flavorful, saucy, and it sneaks in bonus veggies like carrots and zucchini.
I was so dedicated to making this not-watery that when recipe testing I even tried squeezing the water out of the spaghetti squash in a nut milk bag. However, I found that after baking it made ZERO difference. So yay, one less step. I found the key is to fully roast your spaghetti squash before you scoop the spaghetti-like flesh out.
Spaghetti squash has a mild, but slightly sweet and nutty flavor which makes it the perfect vessel for a flavorful sauce. I zhuzh’ed up this sauce by using some harissa which (pending the variety you use) is only a little spicy, but adds a nice smokey flavor.
This dish is a little higher carb than some of my other recipes, but it’s got 12g of fiber and 20g of protein per serving to help balance the meal and your blood sugar. This meal caused me to have a gentle 20 mg/dL rise in blood sugar, but staying under 110 mg/dL. This is a great meal to do a little post-meal movement after (squats in your kitchen, a loop around the block etc.!)
FULL RECIPE + VIDEO ON THE COLOR CLUB!
That’s all for this week! Please comment below and share feedback on what you like, don’t like, want more of, and less of etc. etc.
One of the best ways you can support me and my work is forwarding this newsletter to someone you think would enjoy my recipes. My recipes are especially great for someone with pre-diabetes, diabetes, PCOS, or who eats grain-free, gluten free, or just someone who wants to eat whole foods to support their health and better learn what “healthy” actually means.
Chefs Kisses,
Sonja