My dinner guests for this weekend are lactose intolerant, vegetarian, diabetic, on low-sodium diets and cannot eat soy or soy products. If my cousin and my best friend come, seafood, garlic and wheat products must be eliminated as well. There are two Meat and Potatoes guys and maybe five kids and an immature uncle. The latter six always tell me what they DO and DO NOT WANT to eat.
And yes, I have to make dessert too. Vegan gluten-free desserts? *shudder*
PS: For all you vegan gluten-free dessert eaters, the Babycakes cookbook really is not worth the money.
Resist racism 
Vegetarian chili–just use corn and beans, no TVP. Use individual spices and not chili powder because that has garlic in it.
Dessert–sorbet? Fruit salad drizzled with honey or simple syrup?
for dessert, you could do a tart with the outside made of ground almonds and coconut (with a little sugar?) held together with soy-free earth balance or else coconut oil, and then inside, chocolate mixed with coconut milk, with berries on top.
Sounds like each person gets their own meal. What a pain!
“Poor man’s cake” is vegan, but not gluten free.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/poor-mans-cake-iii/Detail.aspx
I have a best friend who is vegan and I’m a celiac, and the best dessert ever is not only suitable for both, but also VERY easy to make! Just cut up a banana and freeze the pieces. When it’s time for dessert blend them into banana ice cream. It’s naturally smooth and identical to the texture of normal ice cream. Add ice cream toppings if desired, it’s amazing with chocolate.
Maybe something like tacos where each individual can choose the toppings and fillings that work for them?
And for dessert, I think that grilled pineapple is always a crowd pleaser
if anyone likes rice pudding:
http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/67/Coconut-Rice-Pudding/
there’s a lot of good recipes there but the organization doesn’t take into account lactose or glucose inclusion. however, some of the things on there is pretty easy to make out like the rice pudding and various forms of sorbet (for the kids, they may like the chocolate sorbet). sometimes you can use recipes that call for wheat/white flour by replacing it with rice flour, but that frequently requires trial and error that you may or may not have time for. for desserts or other recipes that include sugar, it can typically be replaced with sweeteners such as splenda or stevia with only minor alterations to the amount (which can typically be determined by the box of the sweetener, which includes the conversions)
to expand on ellere’s comment, rice ice cream also has a very close texture to dairy ice cream and tastes great, it’s the kind i eat when i don’t feel like having sorbet. ice cream makers aren’t always required, some recipes can be made with putting the blended ingredients in a bucket of ice for specified lengths of time.
good luck!
You can do roasted vegetables seasoned with spices/herbs of your choice (just check labels to ensure that none have added gluten, or go with fresh herbs). Include something heavy/starchy like sweet potatoes and this becomes more filling.
Could do salad with cheese and dressing options on the side for each guest to suit their dietary needs.
If the vegetarians eat eggs, you could do a breakfast-for-dinner thing with omelettes, alongside veggie sausages. And make french toast from gluten-free bread (my good friend who has celiac disease makes this, and it’s always amazing).
The suggestion for tacos is a good one (just use corn tortillas), and you can have bean, veggie, and meat options available for each person to pick.
For dessert, I’d go with a fruit salad. Or ice cream made from almond, coconut, or rice milk. Or smoothies using one of these non-dairy milk options.
Mochi is always a great gluten free dessert go to. Not always vegan though. A strawberry daifuku usually meets both requirements.
This recipe is always a hit when I make it and you could probably get away with substituting coconut milk for the evaporated milk. Not sure what a good butter substitute would be though.
http://justjennrecipes.com/blueberry-mochi-cake/2009/06/16/
Here’s another good recipe that uses coconut milk but also butter.
http://weekofmenus.blogspot.com/2010/07/vanilla-bean-mochi-cake-my-obsessive.html
and to go with thesciencegirl’s salad idea, you can also get vegetarian cheese that’s made of things like vegetables or almonds. looks pretty much the same and can shred well.
You could make a lentil stew for the main course–mix regular, orange and green lentils, cook them in vegetable broth, add diced celery, onions, carrots, bay leaf, basil, maybe a teaspoon of curry if inclined. You can add a handful of barley or other “safe” grain if so inclined. That also helps if the stew is too soupy. Cube up some ham or turkey and have it on the side for the meat eaters to add to their soup. While the soup cooks (~2 hr.), do the prep work for the rest of the meal.
Get a loaf of spelt or oat flour bread, toast and serve as side for the soup.
Make a big salad bar style salad and let everyone concoct their own.
Get 2 flavors of sorbet, layer them in a jello mold and freeze overnight. At party-time, pop the sorbet “cake” out of the mold onto a plate, heap it with cut up berries, and have a bowl of coconut milk vanilla yogurt to dollop on top of each serving like one would use whip cream (“So Delicious” brand is pretty good). Or just layer the coconut milk yogurt and berries in glasses parfait-style.
Then relax and enjoy the day.
(Maybe have a 20 piece box of McNuggets and fries or pizza on hand for the verbose 6 as backup?)
good luck!
Wow, you are very brave and ambitious.
Maybe you could do it like BYOF
I think all the other commenters made great suggestions. My contribution would to be to suggest that each person/family with specific dietary needs or preferences bring at least one dish they can eat. You’re a host, not a frickin’ restaurant, for goodness sakes.
Thanks so much for all these suggestions! By the way, I did try the frozen banana trick and people really liked it.