I suppose it depends on how strictly she controls her carbs. Your menu, while delightful, has quite a few carbs because of the fruits, beans and vegetables included.

"basically keto, so no sugar or grain. A lot of greens, meat, cheese, and fat from dairy, avocado, etc."

I don't think it is for weight loss, if that matters?

Both the watermelon and the bean dip have a lot of carbs. Some people eat 'low carb'. Others eat 'keto' where more than a very small number of carbs will kick them out of ketosis. Getting out and in is ok for some but unpleasant for others. I have seen it written that keto can be from 15-50 carbs a day. For reference, bean dip can have from 10-20 grams of carbs per two tablespoons.

Maybe Tricolore salad (insalata caprese with avocado)

Chicken salad in lettuce boats

What other side dish?

What fruit for dessert? berries? anyway to make it interesting?

Really, I would stick with the menu you have. Avocado has quite a bit of fiber, so the net carbs aren't that bad even though the total carbs are high. All fruit is off the menu including tomatoes. So, she can eat the chicken salad/avocado dish and some mozzarella out of the caprese salad (maybe you could use bocconcini and plate hers separately because the balsamic is really high in carbs).

I find that most people following a restricted diet are used to picking and choosing from what's offered as long as there is something they can eat. They don't expect every part of the meal to be tailored to them.

A sugar-free pavlova RECIPE LINK might work for dessert. However, some people can't handle the sugar substitutes digestively.

Yeah it is hard to guess how extreme some is being. I think of people who are stying to say "in ketosis" as people trying to lose weight, correct? She is not. I think her DH is just using keto as a sort of short hand.

I searched for "lowest carb fruits and, after berries, got watermelon since it is mostly water, which makes sense. I think I will so a fruit platter. I have to have dessert for the other guests and I won't make anything fake

Tricolore salad came up under "keto recipes," arggh

My best best is to have options I suppose, as long as they are all at least low-carb?

Any other ideas?

oh and it will be buffet style

You could also make parmesan frico as a crunchy element to take the place of crackers.

You are a gracious hostess(as we know). I try to make reasonable accommodations for my guest, but short of a full on allergy or other health issue, I serve an asortment and they can pick and choose. Especially last minute, as a guest I would not expect you to adjust your menu any more than you have. Trader Joes has some really good Parmesan or cheese crisp type crackers that could work for her.

I think that the comments here helped me see that the best bet was a buffet from which people could select ingredients. My chicken salad plan went awry when WF didn't have any of the preshredded kind and it was 9pm at night and I am still shopping. Plus I thought, I think mayo has sugar. etc etc. And If she eats this way for health, does she really like bacon?

So I bought WF london broil with chimichurri (yum), a roti chicken which I have sliced, and every fresh veggie imaginable for salads. A few kinds of cheese. Dessert is a platter of watermelon, blackberries and cherries.

The only thing I made is a ricotta spinach herb frittata. That seems safe plus we will eat it too. I don't like to entertain without making anything

PS I got those cheese crisps, Oly -- since i love them too.

Sounds good! Yeah, you'd be surprised at the number of people who eat a lot of bacon on keto, just meat in general. Get your statin ready lol.

Sounds perfect-- I'd be delighted to have that spread!

My DIL went full-on Keto when she was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic. She lost some weight and her numbers are good now as far as diabetes goes. She's more relaxed about it now, but your menu sounds good. She eats lots of eggs, cheese, avocados, caprese salad, meat. She might avoid the bean dip because of high carbs . But she never makes an issue of it and finds and eats what she can.

As usual, I'm probably too late to the party. I'd add a tossed veggie salad -- yes to nuts and/or seeds but not fruit and dressings without sweeteners (honey, etc) are fine. I'd also think about fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate as they are in season and very low in carbs. The beans could be an issue, depending on how low carb they go. Dips with cream cheese and sour cream would probably work better. The watermelon is definitely too sweet. Add some cheeses to the fruit for dessert. (Though personally cheese is never dessert for me! 😊)

I had already revised my menu.

I decided that I didn't have enough information to know...

1. exactly how strict the requirement was (was this person literally trying to stay in ketosis, or is this a short hand way of saying they avoid sugar and flour?),

2.what other dietary preferences the person might have (if this is for health and not weight loss, as I suspect, would this person want to eat bacon, which i once read is about as bad as lighting a cigarette?), or

3.what they might be sick to death of seeing from every hostess trying to accommodate them

4. What really is acceptable anyway --- e.g. I knew that berries were a low carb fruit, but I read in plenty of places that watermelon was too ("Watermelon contains a relatively low amount of carbohydrates, with about 10 grams of net carbs per cup. This is within the acceptable range for most keto diets")

And so I only made one item, a spinach-ricotta-herb frittata, that I was pretty sure would work. Everything else was a roll-your-own buffet of cold sliced steak, chicken and ham, every fresh veggie you can think of, a cheese plates, and , for the heathens among us, ciabatta, chips, a cookie platter and a fruit platter. Not bad for less than 24 hours notice.

I have to say, everyone partook heartily of everything. I noticed that my keto guest had seconds and that she had blackberries, goat cheese and Queen Anne cherries for dessert.