June 2, 2009

Healthy Hospitality

At Equip Mum went to an elective on Hospitality – I decided to get double for my Money and read her notes. It looked like the hospitality seminar was really good, not just a reminder about why we should offer hospitality, but also practical tips.

One note that struck me in the booklet, was a reminder to cook healthy, low fat meals when having people over – the idea being that if you offer hospitality as often as you should then you could easily put weight on if you aren’t be careful about the food you serve. And it reminds you not to put off hospitality if you are trying to lose weight.

I have been trying to be a lot healthier in the last few weeks, but often when I have people over I think of it as a ‘free’ meal. But that’s not a good attitude to have.
Also I realised that if you serve up a healthy meal you are doing a double service to people you have over. If the people you have over are trying to lose weight they don’t have to feel bad about eating at your place.



So I’ve been thinking about how to have healthy hospitality, and here are my thoughts.

- Instead of having chips out to begin with, have chopped veggies and rice crackers and a low fat dip.

- It’s a good idea to have the meal self serve; it means you can control your portion size without making a big deal about it. If other guests want to eat less they can as well. (And the guys with huge appetites can fill up their plates)

- Have a huge green salad on the table; you can fill up your plate from that.

- Grill wherever possible – chicken, steak, kebabs are all good low fat options which can be easily cooked on mass.

- In the cooler months have a huge soup which is low fat; home made pumpkin or minestrone are good ideas.
Or make a casserole with heaps of veggies, and with both the casserole and pasta/rice self serve you can fill up on the veggies and have less of the carbs.

- Desert is tricky, but after a nice meal you don’t have to have anything big. Consider a nice fruit salad or a fruit crumble with a small scoop of low fat ice cream.

Do you have any other ideas for healthy hospitality?

1 comment:

Samalah said...

One thing I remember from my Mum's weight watcher days is that low fat icecream can have nearly 50% more sugar in it! That caught Mum out a couple of times....