Choosing fresh fruit instead of chocolate cake

Chocolate cake with a thick layer of icing piped along the edges; apple crisp with a lovely gooey filling topped with a crisp oatmeal and brown sugar topping; mint chip ice cream with chocolate syrup and sprinkles. Mmmm, so sweet, so good.

If I'm supplying a dessert for a dinner party, I can guarantee that I will bring something along the lines of cake, crisp/pie or ice cream. After all, who doesn't love to eat tasty baked foods or cold and creamy ice cream. Convenient too, it's so easy to pick up dessert, the bakery department and the freezer is always stocked at the grocery store.

However, something changed this week; I decided to do something different. I decided that any occasion when I'm tasked to bringing food, I'm going to bring food that works for me; I'm going to bring healthy food.

Tonight we went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner. The plans came together quickly, so SIL suggested ordering pizza; I offered to supply the rest.

There wasn't going to be much time before dinner for appetizers, so I bought a small container of Japanese Rice Crackers. To help fill up my stomach with food other than pizza, I made a salad. For dessert, I put together a platter of fresh fruit (orange slices, grapes and strawberries) with vanilla flavoured Greek yogurt for dipping. To break the fruit platter ice, I brought frozen cookie dough that happened to be in our freezer.

Japanese Rice Crackers- can't overeat on these

Source: google.com via Karen on Pinterest

I know many of us are uncomfortable with the idea of serving healthy "diet" food to friends and family.Why is that? Why do we put ourselves in the position of deciding between sabotaging our own effort or missing out? Why do we assume that no one else would want to eat a healthier dessert? Why do we assume that fresh fruit won't taste good enough?

I don't have all the answers, but this is what I know: I don't want to sabotage my eating or miss out. No longer will I assume that a lighter, fresher option will not be appreciated. And I know that fresh fruit with Greek yogurt will be devoured just a quickly as an ice cream sundae and I figured, if dinner guests don't want to eat the fruit - they can always eat a fresh baked cookie.

How about you? Do you serve "healthy food" to your dinner party guests?

Getting together for a brown bag lunch

Kara: Hey Jen, do you want to get together for lunch?

Jen: Sure! When? Where?

Kara: My schedule is wide open, let me know what works for you.

Jen: This week is full, but I can get together next week.

Kara: Works for me! Do you want to do a brown bag lunch or go somewhere?

Jen: Brown bag is good.

Kara: Excellent!

My brown bag lunch

My brown bag is in fact, green. 

On Friday, I'm meeting my friend Jen for lunch. Literally. She is bringing her lunch, and I will bring mine. It's a win-win situation - we get together to catch up on our busy lives and we eat the food the food that we want to eat.

 

I always had mixed emotions about going out for lunch. I love going out for lunch, but I saw it as a drain on my wallet and invariably derailed healthy eating for the day. Of course, restaurant food is tasty - but is it worth it?

 

After I returned to work after mat leave (and 9 months of cognitive therapy), I decided to put it out there - hey girls, instead of going out for lunch at a restaurant, why don't we meet in the food court and bring our lunch?

 

They agreed. We came. We chatted. And we ate our own food.

 

In the last two years of getting together with my friends for lunch, I can only think of one occasion that we actually went to a restaurant.