By Tara Weng, GalTime.com
Registered Dietician, Stefania Manetti, offers some helpful and hopeful tips for football fans on how to switch up their usual fare and get some healthy grub on! She says the key is looking for fresh, wholesome ingredients and says opting for the "middle ground" is always the safest and best way to go--especially for us newbies. Here are some of her ideas for your football party platters:
-
Try guacamole or hummus and replace half of your chips with a plate of colorful raw vegetables. Not only these are more nutritious but they could also help you feel less hungry and possibly reduce the overall amount of calories consumed.
Related: Throwing a Super Bowl Bash on a Budget
-
Have a bowl of edame. You can find them frozen in the shell. It only takes a few minutes in boiling water to get them ready and they make a great finger-food. Instead of salt, try sprinkling a few chili flakes.
-
Grill some shrimp and serve it with light mayo or a yogurt based dip (add lemon juice and dill to your light mayo to cut down on the amounts you use or make a dip with non fat Greek yogurt with paprika to taste).
-
Make your own pizza a load it with vegetables. You can buy dough or even a ready to bake crust. Cover with tomato sauce, go light on the cheese, add all your favorite vegetables and bake before the game starts.
Chili is a game-time staple. Try a veggie version!
-
Try a vegetarian chili. This is a simple way to cut down on the saturated fats that tend to run high in the typical Super Bowl snacks
-
Since it is important to keep your hands free for cheering purposes, make mini skewers by stacking a few piece of cut fruits or vegetables with cubes of low fat cheese on toothpicks .
-
Have a bowl of popcorn. Pop your own or choose a low fat microwave type.
-
Have a variety of unsalted nuts.
-
Have alternatives to beer and sugary sodas. Shop for fruit flavored sparling water (zero calories). Prepare cold drinks with no alcohol. For example, fill ¾ of a pitcher with green tea, add some frozen peaches, and place in the fridge overnight. The day of the game top with Sprite zero (or another sugar free lemonade) and serve.
Lighten up on the cheese, pile on the veggies
-
Cut in half the amount of cheese you would normally use on your nachos by topping the tortilla chips with a generous layer of chopped tomatoes and onions (or you can use ready made pico de gallo). After melting the cheese add a sprinkle of fresh copped cilantro on top.
-
When you shop for chips, choose the ones with the lowest possible content of sodium by comparing sodium content on the nutrition facts labels.
-
Bake a skinless chicken breast. Season it to your taste with herbs, chili flakes, black pepper, garlic, olives or lemon. Wrap it loosely in aluminum foil while cooking, so it will retain more moisture. Cut in strips before serving.
-
Have a colorful salad with low fat dressing on the side.
-
As a sweet treat, buy mini meringues. They are relatively low in calories per serving as far as sweets go.
-
If you want to offer brownies, cut them in smaller squares. Offer them with fruits. For example you can place them on a platter with mandarin slices. Eating fruits might make a lot of people happy with less cake.
What will you be making for the Super Bowl? Are you rooting for the Patriots or the Giants?
More from GalTime:
