What are the best ideas for a healthy wedding reception?
- Healthy Finger Foods
- Start with Leafy Greens
- You Don’t Need Beef
- Desserts Don’t Need to be Unhealthy
- Healthy Drinks
- Healthy Wedding Cake
People from all over the world are becoming more and more conscious about their health, whether it be residents of California, Tokyo, London, or even here in Manila. Wedding packages now feature more diverse offerings as a result, since providers are riding the health wave to keep up with the demand. In today’s generation, more and more people are looking to be healthy; therefore, healthy habits like proper diet and daily exercise routines are now becoming normal activities, most especially on the former.
With this in mind, people are now looking to apply their healthy lifestyle in any event and special occasion, which includes weddings. Healthy food choices are now becoming more abundant and more accessible, especially with the wide array of selections anyone can choose from. With the rise of these ingredient substitutes and more innovative and healthy recipes, there is more than a wide selection of food ideas for you to choose from and try.
Not sure how to insert healthy dishes in your menu? Here are a few ideas:
Healthy Finger Foods
Hors D’oeuvres are a staple in any wedding reception, or any meal for that matter, those fancy finger foods that you just love to chow down on before the actual program starts is a definite diet killer. Instead of sticking to the traditional menu of appetizers you can look to some alternatives. Look to have seasoned grilled vegetable skewers or small bites of grilled seafood as your starters. These can be very tasty, and even if you eat more than one it’s unlikely you will feel any bit of guilt afterwards. Other choices include vegetable quiche, steamed dumplings, bean salsa, and stuffed onions.
Start with Leafy Greens
Get a salad station! You can have a varied selection of greens and let your guests help themselves to it. Don’t forget to request for a variety of dressings as well! If it’s a sit-down style of reception, choose a tasty seafood salad or a simple Tuscan salad. Vegetables like lettuces, tomatoes, cabbages, and kale would be nice leafy vegetables that would make your salad selection a solid one. You can also offer a variety of salad dressings to enhance the flavor. Dressings like Thousand Island, Ranch, Herb, and Chile are great selections that would satisfy a lot of tastes.
You Don’t Need Beef at a Wedding
The main course is usually either a selection of beef, pork, or chicken. But there are other, healthier sources of protein such as salmon, lamb, or chicken.
Imagine a main course of boiled salmon with herb and butter seasoning, and grilled vegetables on the side, or a rack lamb grilled to perfection perfectly seasoned with herbs and spices. There are other variations of seafood you can serve in your reception such as squid or other forms of clams, even a perfectly cooked chicken breast can beat pork if done right.
Having these wonderful main courses on your menu would ensure that you have some hefty, yet nutritious meat to enjoy. For sides, sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables, and brown rice would complete the healthy package.
Desserts Don’t Need to Be Unhealthy
Desserts are the best way to end the meal with a bang, and having a healthy selection, which is why it’s not impossible to have a good dessert station with healthy options. You can start off with fresh fruits and some yogurt!
There are also other variations such as fruit tarts or fruit-based cakes, which are healthier alternatives to chocolate covered desserts. If all else fails a good fruit sorbet is the perfect back up. It’s full of flavor and is absolutely refreshing! Mixing up these healthy foods would give some nice diversity that would satisfy all of your guests.
Healthy Drinks
Most weddings serve a selection of sweet juices, which may not be healthy after a good number of glasses. The best alternatives to sweetened juices are fresh ones. You can choose from fruits like oranges, lemons, pineapple, pomegranate, and coconut for your healthy drink choices. These are great alternatives to sodas and alcohic drinks like wine, whisky, and champagne.
If you want to be a bit more creative, you can mix and match these fruits to create some wonderful flavors that go along well with your main course. Another option besides juices are smoothies. Simply get some ice and fruits, and put them into a blender. Smoothies are a tasty and chill choice that your guests would surely enjoy.
Healthy Wedding Cakes
The most important part of your wedding reception dinner is the wedding cake, which tends to be the centerpiece of your meal selection. One of the issues that these cakes have is that they are heavy and unhealthy. This is attributed to the high amount of dairy products and sweets present in most cakes.
One of the best ways to make sure your cake is healthy, yet still delicious at the same time, is to use substitute ingredients. These ingredients would be able to substitute your regular sugar, honey, milk, butter, and eggs which make sure that it will still be as good. You can also incorporate fruits into your cake to give it some fresh flavors that the couple and the guests are bound to enjoy.
Key Takeaway
With these alternative ideas in mind, it’s time to step away from the stereotypical wedding reception. You can do your guests a favor and feed them what they need more than what they want. They might even thank you for introducing them to other alternative types of cuisine! They might get blown away with these wonderful food ideas that they may not have seen before, and look for more of them in your next parties and events in the near future.
