Are you looking for the perfect dinner menu that is both delicious and healthy? If you are planning a holiday meal for a large group of people, you will find that it can be difficult to accommodate everyone?s dietary requirements. You will have some people that are unable to eat certain foods, due to intolerances and allergies. You will also have some people that do not like certain types of foods. When you accommodate all of these different dietary needs, it seems impossible to create a holiday menu that everyone will enjoy.
Focus on a wide variety of appetizers
It might not be practical to cook multiple types of meat. Properly cooking a single meat can take many hours and the majority of your over space. However, it is possible to serve a wide variety of appetizers. As guests begin to arrive at your house, serve them with these finger foods. They will fill up on these items, easily choosing the foods that they can or like to eat. The main meat choice won?t matter as much and you won?t have to purchase as much to feed a large number of people. Additionally, appetizers are relatively low key to prepare and don?t take a lot of time to create.
Create a basic menu free of added spices
It can be difficult to choose spices and unique ingredients that every guest will enjoy or can eat. Instead of cooking an elaborate dish, consider cooking with the most basic of ingredients. Then, provide guests with many condiments and spice options. This way, they can choose the extras that they enjoy. You also won?t exclude anyone based on an allergy to a specific spice or seasoning sauce. Also, your guests are more likely to enjoy the foods, because they can customize it exactly to their taste.
Create a lot of healthy desserts
You are also likely to find many guests turn down desserts. Desserts often do not fit in with strict dietary restrictions and most people try to limit their intake of desserts. For this reason, it is a good idea to offer multiple types of desserts. You can still create the large chocolate cake that is full of sugar and hot chocolate. But, offering healthier alternatives like frozen yogurt or edible crystallized rose petals on a low fat cake are also a good idea. Sugar flowers do not have to be unhealthy. There are many edible blossoms that are full of healthy ingredients, like numerous micro greens. In fact, there are perhaps 100 types of common garden flowers that are both edible and palatable.
Design a salad as a main meal
While many holiday parties usually include some type of a side salad, it can also be useful to create a salad as one of the meals. If guests do not enjoy the meat served, they can always fill up on the salad. Add in extra healthy ingredients, like microgreens and other specialty produce to the salad to better cater to your healthy eaters. You can even decorate your salad to be more festive with edible crystallized rose petals. When it comes to food presentation or plating, remember that children prefer 6 food colors and 7 food components and adults prefer 3 colors and 3 different food components. Guests enjoy eating colorful festive looking meals at holiday parties and edible crystallized rose petals can spruce up the whole meal.
Catering to multiple dietary needs and preferences can be extremely difficult, especially if you are cooking a meal yourself. Instead of fretting too much of what to serve, plan your meal around one single meat. Then, serve guests many different appetizers. Deserts should be both healthy and sweet with extras like edible crystallized rose petals. Designing a large salad with many colors can also give guests another meal option.
