Big Food Weekend coming up.... page

[Nanzi]

This coming weekend is NASCAR race weekend here near Dover De. We will be cooking several items to take to daughters home, as she has taken over the hosting for the 2 weekends a year. It just got to be too much for me. DH & I are smoking 4 racks of pork ribs, and 1 or 2 pulled pork shoulder roasts, mmmmmmm, that's good eating.

I am worried about healthy for me sides, and there will be lots of non primal foods there. Would a Waldorf Salad(mayo, apples, raisins, nuts, celery) be awful? I got a bunch of Granny Smiths, and then read that apples are so high in sugar. Any suggestions gratefully recd. There will be about 12 = 14 of us there.

I am also supposed to make about 4#'s of Sausage Gravy to go over biscuits. I hope I can stay away from that. I could eat just the gravy and meat, but what can I thicken the gravy with that isn't those darn grains that make me sick?? I have almond flour, rice flower, and some Xanthum Gum, so far unopened, I don't know what to do with it. Help Cooks.....and thanks in advance, Y'all always come thru for me.
Nanzi

[Lewis]

This coming weekend is NASCAR race weekend here near Dover De. We will be cooking several items to take to daughters home, as she has taken over the hosting for the 2 weekends a year. It just got to be too much for me. DH & I are smoking 4 racks of pork ribs, and 1 or 2 pulled pork shoulder roasts, mmmmmmm, that's good eating.

I am worried about healthy for me sides, and there will be lots of non primal foods there. Would a Waldorf Salad(mayo, apples, raisins, nuts, celery) be awful? I got a bunch of Granny Smiths, and then read that apples are so high in sugar. Any suggestions gratefully recd.

I honestly wouldn't worry. The big "anti-sugar" man is Professor Lustig and even he never said don't eat fruit:

YouTube - Sugar: The Bitter Truth

I think the important thing is to avoid sugar itself (i.e. table sugar) —and, of course, sweeteners like HFCS. When you eat something's ultra-refined like that, you miss out on all the other things—like vitamins—that you get in the unrefined food. Also, with a "food" stuffed with refined sugar—like Coca Cola—your system gets overloaded, but an apple isn't in liquid form and has fibre, so it doesn't hit you in a rush and there's not so much for your system to deal with all at once.

IIRC, Lustig does say that there's evidence that children fed a lot of fruit juice are shorter and fatter than they should be. But again, that's a more concentrated thing.

It might be best to avoid fruit juice—or at least dilute the juice with water—but whole fruit in moderation as part of an overall balanced diet seems absolutely fine to me and a good source of vitamin C and other nutrients.

I am also supposed to make about 4#'s of Sausage Gravy to go over biscuits. I hope I can stay away from that. I could eat just the gravy and meat, but what can I thicken the gravy with that isn't those darn grains that make me sick?? I have almond flour, rice flower, and some Xanthum Gum, so far unopened, I don't know what to do with it. Help Cooks.....and thanks in advance, Y'all always come thru for me.
Nanzi

Does it need to be very thick? How's it made? Is it a deglazed pan plus stock or something? Can you just boil it down a bit? Or could arrowroot be an option perhaps?

I'm guessing really. Perhaps you could ask that one on the Recipes board.

[Nanzi]

Thanks Lewis for your thoughtful answers. Waldorf Salad it is, thought it would be a good match with the pork.
I will try and post the question about the Sausage Gravy too, I'm not enough of a martyr to fix it for everyone
else and not eat it myself.....hahahhaha. and Yes it does need to be fairly thick.