A Healthy Buffet for my Dad’s 80th Birthday

This weekend we had a wild 3-day celebration for my Dad’s 80th birthday and I wanted to share how I planned it to inspire your next celebration.

We had a big party on Saturday afternoon serving an array of anti-inflammatory eats including organic olives, pickles, organic sliced meat, veggie platter, black bean dip, Evy's hummus, macadamia nuts, turmeric cashews, flourless crackers, nut cheese, low lactose cheeses, sugar-free chocolate and gummies, organic cookies, and a huge bowl of mandarin oranges.

We also made Dad’s favourite starters: guacamole and salsa and served that with sweet potato crisps.

These finger foods were complemented by a lovely slow cooked chicken curry, smoked meat with the sugar-free BBQ sauce from my latest book, Becoming Sugar-free made by Allen, our neighbour, and some flourless sugar-free cupcakes from my friend Samatha that were snatched up quickly.

For beverages, we served glass packed sparkling mineral water, stevia sweetened soda, stevia sweetened lemonade and iced tea.

I made two types of cake: the “8” was made from two flourless chocolate cakes and the “0” was made from an olive oil lemon cake.

This entire meal was mostly certified organic yet cost a fraction of takeout and people adored the variety.

On his actual birthday, we went indoor sky diving!

More than enjoying the flight myself, I was elated and proud of my Dad for being able to go high flying in the tunnel because it take tremendous strength and flexibility. The instructor was so impressed and said that he is a wonderful example of how people should age.

To top things off, we enjoyed a steak dinner and my sister made her decadent chocolate cheesecake with a cherry and coconut whipping cream layer.

It was fabulous!

This morning, we all went for a walk and Dad was so grateful to have his kids together for this major milestone.

Thank you all for showing him such love and positive energy on my social feeds. He very much appreciated it!

Sending you a glass of lemonade and a piece of olive oil lemon cake,

xo Julie

PS. If you would like to watch my speech to my Dad, check it out on my Instagram!