Delicious food swaps for your celebration.
Celebrating the 4th of July is as American as apple pie and hot dogs. Add to that macaroni salad, potato salad full of mayo, pie-eating-contests and burgers on the grill and we go downhill on the food-that’s-good-for-you scale pretty quickly. Tradition aside, we thought we’d offer a few healthy menu swaps you can make so that your celebration aligns with your summer wellness goals.
Here’s to a happy, healthy 4th of July.
Menu Swap Ideas:
- Instead of regular hot dogs, offer Turkey dogs and vegan options.
- Replace beef burgers with healthy veg options or use grass-fed beef and put out fresh lettuce to wrap them in instead of buns.
- Make BBQ chicken in a slow cooker and make your own BBQ sauce. It’s easier than you think!
- Deviled eggs can be replaced with hard boiled eggs, cut in half and added to a crudite platter full of veggies and healthy dips like hummus or avocado dip.
- Instead of potato salad, try organic roasted potatoes with or without a chimichurri sauce or baked sweet potato “fries”.
- Rather than dousing your fruit salad with dressing, put fresh red, white and blue fruit such as watermelon cubes, grapes, strawberries and blueberries on skewers. Grilling fruit like peaches, nectarines and plums is an amazing side dish as well and really brings out summer fruit flavors.
- Replace baked beans which are loaded with brown sugar and preservatives with a healthy side bean salad. One with black beans, avocado, corn, tomatoes, red onion and a lime vinaigrette is a favorite.
- Coleslaw is loaded with mayo and sometimes buttermilk. Keep the cabbage, add some shredded carrots and use a vinegar based recipe instead. Better yet, serve a chopped fresh green salad with a homemade dressing of lemon, olive oil, a pinch of dry mustard and salt and pepper.
- Instead of pies full of butter and sugar, make a patriotic berry trifle with real cream so you can limit the sugar content or make a berry fruit crumble that is just like a pie, but with a healthier crispy topping made from almond flour, oats, a little maple syrup for sweetener and some chopped nuts.
