The heat wave still continues and I have nobody to blame but myself for not finishing this post much earlier of the day before the computer room turns into a sauna by afternoon.

Anyway, Hubby K and I were the first guests who arrived at M, my friend’s house.. LOL…well not exactly the first though. Apparently, my friend G was there before us but she stayed in her car for a bit until her baby woke up.

The objective of this gathering was so for those who have kids would be able to have them play at this kiddie backyard. M’s husband, K recently put together this playground set at their backyard.

The potluck was held at the backyard since it was pretty hot inside the house. Besides the kids had so much fun climbing and sliding.

The foods:
Roasted mixed veggies (asparagus, red onion, carrots, sweet potatoes tossed with avocado oil, fresh herbs and balsamic vinegar)

Cherry tomatoes and red seedless grapes

Chinese sweet steamed buns and fried rice

Chicken and grapes Spring Mix Salad (with Asian sesame dressing on the side – not pictured) – my personal favorite! G made this!

Potato chips, tortilla chips (with mild salsa – not pictured)

A little note about this: my old self would have hard time resisting these! Chips are my biggest weakness and the sight of them just makes me crave for them like crazy. After been on Paleo for about 6 months, my cravings for carbs are totally under control. I didn’t even crave for them, even when people were eating them right in front of me.

My contributions were Meat Sauce, Rotisserie Whole Chicken and cut up cantaloupe.

I loaded up my plate with lots of protein and veggies.

I just realized I didn’t take a picture of the Pork Sausages that came a bit later, so you just had to be content with these pieces that I had. Honestly, I wasn’t super hungry when the potluck started prolly from the late lunch I had prior.

After waited for a while, I had two servings of these fruits.

Of course a birthday wouldn’t be complete without a CAKE! One of our friend brought this Sweet Potato Cake topped with Macaroons from Paris Baguette.

YES, I HAD A SLICE OF CAKE and finished the entire thing (did you hear sugar!gluten! choirs in the background?)

Not gonna lie. A first bite into that pink macaroon, I surely felt a huge sugar rush in me. It was way too sweet, like biting into a rock sugar, so in the end I didn’t really finish it. The cake itself was ok though and I love sweet potatoes! Consuming a bit of high sugar/gluten once in a blue moon won’t kill you, given you are not metabolically deranged or severely allergic to gluten. Just jump back on to clean eating afterwards, plain and simple. This is one example of how I derail off from Paleo bandwagon. I don’t want to be look like a healthy snobs in front of friends where everyone just wanted to have a good time together. Besides I know myself won’t binge on sweets just because I had a slice of cake.

The kids however did have some good sugar rush after eating the cake though. They ran around the room shouting for a good 30 minutes..I think. Yup, SUGAR!

There were tons of food left so everyone took a little bit of everything home and I’m happy that I don’t have to cook anything the next day. The meat sauce was a HUGE success. Nothing left for me to bring home *sniff* but I’m happy that everyone enjoyed it.

What do you think of someone who’s always fashionably late to a party? When I mean late is arriving more than an 1 hour from the starting time.
I usually don’t come much later than 30 minutes from the starting time, or sometimes I come exactly on time. Very rarely I come a lot later, but usually I’ll inform the host about the situation.

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