Let us just agree that picnics are great. Yes, picnics are a great way to spend time with your dear mommy. It is especially more heartwarming if the picnic is just the two of you celebrating mother’s day with some much-needed mother-daughter time. You get to eat your favourite meals together while enjoying the scenic beauty of the outdoors. Birds chirping in the distance while your mother and you share a laugh or two, sitting on a comfortable spread and being surrounded by nature.
Now picnics are a little more delicate than eating outside at a restaurant. You are surrounded by nature, so the ambience is different from the usual turnabout. It would be best if you kept that in mind while selecting food items for the picnic so as to not attract wildlife, rodents and insects to your picnic spot. Otherwise, it will be a very uncomfortable experience for both you and your dear mum.
Yes, this concern surely extends to the mothers day cake that you will be picking up. Make sure that the cake is not too overly sweet. Cakes like the nutritious and low on sweet scale carrot cakes, pumpkin pie, walnut ‘n’ chocolate cakes etc., will be great alternatives to the heavily frosted desserts that are usually preferred in indoor celebration setups.
Nutritious picnic dishe alternatives
While it requires a lot of preparation since one has to make sure that only the best and enjoyable meals are served in a picnic, it should also be taken into consideration that there is no substitute for healthy and nutritious meals.
Yes, picnics may be a great way to enjoy your favourite dishes, but it could also be an opportunity to have a date with mommy and nutrition.
Let us face it. More often than not, potato salad and pasta are served on almost every picnic menu. Fact is, potatoes and pasta alone is enough to exceed your calorie intake for the day. What if you are also serving soda? Imagine the total calories that you and your loved ones have collected from the whole picnic.
The thing is, people can enjoy picnics and stay healthy, too!
Here are some ways you can turn your picnic foods into a low-calorie, nutritious and enjoyable meal:
- Replace your refined and traditional pasta and bread (or roll) with the whole-grain kind. It tastes just as good and is healthy, too. Brown bread, rice and whole wheat noodles and pasta are excellent substitutes.
- Add antioxidant nutrients by putting more greens into your salads. If you are serving pasta salad, substitute your pasta with freshly chopped vegetables instead. Veggies, anyway, blend more with a lot of salad dressings.
- Limit the fat content in your salad. You may be using veggies on your salad, but if you’re still using reduced-fat dressing or mayonnaise, your salad will still turn out to be not as healthy. Use healthy dressings with a more nutritious proportion of oil and vinegar instead.
- If you are serving steaks or barbecues, pick out the meat that you will use for grilling. Go lean. Cutting down on the fat is always the best way to go. It is better to leave steaks and other cutlery required food items because you will not get a solid and stable board to cut the meat into fine pieces for consumption.
- Serve natural fruit juices instead of soda. Besides, fruit juices taste more with your healthy, nutritious picnic dishes than with a carbonated drink. If shaken very aggressively during the commute, Sodas will spill out while opening, and the quality is dampened when left in the sun for too long. If you are in fact carrying sodas and other effervescent juices to the picnic, remember to carry them in an icebox so that they remain cool or chilled.
- Whipped cream and gelatin may give out the best in your dessert, but nothing still beats if you go for the healthy option. Instead of serving with your favourite cream, serve fresh fruits the way they are. Just make sure that they’re washed first. If you want, you can also serve sliced fruits on a platter. Not only does it give the vitamins needed for the body, but it also replaces the fluids in the body, especially if you are having a picnic on a summer day.
There are many more ways to come up with a healthier menu for your picnic with your mom on mother’s day. If you do not want to change your favourite picnic menu, the key is to just substitute the carbs, starch, calorie-rich ingredients with the lean, whole-grain, and healthy ones, then just follow the same recipe instructions. Once you get the hang of it, you will eventually be able to come up with your own healthy recipe that your mom will enjoy very much!
