My sister in law Tammy and her family are hosting Christmas this year. Given that a few of us are Sugar Free or watching their sugar intake, Tammy approached me to share some recipes with her. Given that I don’t really HAVE any. I looked to an old faithful. Lucky it was about the time as the Christmas magazines were calling to me from their position on the shelves. A match made in heaven, yes? 

So I grabbed the new Delicious magazine with its ice cream layer cake on a jade green background. OMG. I was sold. Even though technically I won’t ever eat that layered ice cream cake. Unless one of you would like to make it for a party and invite me!? Anybody? Ok, fine, total abuse of the party food is for parties rule. 

As I flicked through the pages recipe after recipe leapt off the page at me. Seriously, why do I buy cook books, magazines are SO much cheaper. One article in particular screamed casual Christmas lunch that could be converted to sugar free easily as it was already quite low in sugar. 

Flavours from Italy {come on, I need a little Italy in my Christmas!}, Morocco and Malaysia. Perfect for our Central Queensland Christmas by the pool. Lots of salads. BBQ’able skewers. And salmon parcel wonderfulness. Even the photographs by the team at Delicious magazine Australia looked like exactly what I imagined we were after. Sumptuous food and casual dining. I imagine you could even eat most of it with a fork only. Yeeees, less dishes! 

So I’m thinking we need to eat; 

• Salmon parcels with lemon and basil 
• Barbecued pork skewers 
• Lentil, tomato and pancetta salad 
• Green mango coleslaw {OMG, yum!} 
• Couscous salad with saffron dressing 

For desert I’ll let the others decide. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and we’ll end up with the amazing cake on the cover by chance {Hi Tam, have you got a pen, right this one down, current issue page 88. Christmas is a party right?}. 

So there’s my plan. It’s a little different to a traditional Christmas fare. But we are a flexible lot, I think we will adjust. Thank goodness for Food magazines. Otherwise I was going to be trawling the interwebs for hours making myself hungry. And that won’t be great preparation for a Christmas to be spent predominately by the pool. Sun, cocktails and morning after eggs benedict.