My mother turned 80 this month and we had a lovely family gathering to celebrate her. Yes, this is most of my family and she is in the middle with the pink jacket. No, I am not sleeping.

Historically, food at these gatherings have included kielbasa, hotdogs, hamburgs, pasta salads, potato salad, chips, soda, alcohol, etc, basically all sorts of unhealthy summer gathering foods.

As I was hosting the event, and my mother is currently addressing some health issues, I informed my family that I would be providing healthy food and beverage options that would also taste good.

Initially, there was some concern related to the reality of this statement, but ultimately it turned out to be true and the best part was that my family members were the ones who ended up bringing much of the healthy foods and drinks!

So what did we have you ask?

Appetizers:

• Tri-colored carrots and farm fresh baby cucumbers cut up and served with Tzatziki (a yogurt, cucumber, dill dip)

• Fruit platter - grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe and honeydew melons

• Shrimp with cocktail sauce

• Cheese and cracker plate - this less healthy option included both white flour crackers and multi grain crackers. (Interestingly, while people certainly did eat this, there was quite a bit left over)

Main Course:

• Grilled chicken breast and chicken thighs (some plain and some with barbeque sauce)

• Roasted vegetables with a little bit of olive oil (asparagus, baby bell peppers, onions, mushroom)

• Roasted baby potatoes

Dessert

• Fruit filled sponge cake from La Fiorentina bakery (per my mother’s birthday cake request)

Beverages

• Seltzers in a variety of flavors

• Infused water with lemon and lime

• Plain water and seltzer

• Hard seltzer - brought by one family member and not really drank by anyone

The point here is not to eat ONLY healthy foods but rather to find a healthy balance in the foods you do eat.

Cake and sweets and crunchy carbs are delicious. I love them, but we can’t eat them all the time and still feel good physically or mentally.

This cake was delicious and it was what my mother wanted for dessert. We all ate it and enjoyed it because pretty much everything else we’d eaten for our meal was very healthy and some birthday cake for dessert was fine.

Action Step:

The next time you go to a family or friend gathering where you are expected to bring food, consider what some healthier options might be.

We get in the habit of bringing the same things to events and sometimes people are really pleasantly surprised when you show up with something different that is not only healthy but also tastes good.

Most times when this happens, people want your recipe because in general, we do want to eat healthier. We just want the healthier option to still taste good and these two things are not mutually exclusive!