What? No Chips for Superbowl?!

About two weeks ago one of my Slim & Strong gals announced she was going to host a Superbowl party and serve only healthy food. I was curious to hear how it turned out, especially since she had the menu ready to go a long time ago and wanted to use a few items from this blog. I was wondering whether her food was rejected, thrown in her face or whether there were actually any happy individuals who appreciated the anti-chips-offerings and so I asked her for a recap. Here it is:

source: http://dearlonelyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/02/are-you-ready-for-some-futbol.html

"I just hosted a Superbowl Party - and I only served healthy food. Everyone loved everything. Yes seriously. Don't believe me? Read on.

In my experience Superbowl parties are a complete beer-chips-pizza-ice-cream-filled disaster. I wake up the next day feeling bloated, hung-over and irritable. Any two of those I can handle, but the trifecta is just pure misery. As a matter of fact, everyone reacts the same way. Just look around on your way to work the day after any food-centric holiday. Think New Yorkers have a bad attitude? You ain't seen nothin' until you try to wrestle a cab from someone the day after Superbowl, July 4, Thanksgiving, and rather ironically, the day of the New York marathon.

Bottom line: Having your hair pulled out is not an effective weight-loss technique, even if they tore out a big handful.

This year is different from other times for me. I am still reeling from having failed to run the New York marathon in 2011, despite training for it. I got injured a week before the race because I did not strength-train adequately and ate everything that wasn't locked away. Why? I was too focused on building mileage and neglected to lift weights; and like many others, I thought that training for a marathon gives me permission to eat unhealthy - both in quantity and content. I had told everyone I was running. People were coming from abroad (!) to cheer me on, and I even had my race-day outfit picked out. Having to pull out after all that made me furious. The fury has turned into a determination to run it in 2012, only injury-free and healthy, like any endurance sport is actually designed to feel.  

My biggest challenge is keeping up my interest in living clean when circumstances warrant letting one's hair down. I struggle constantly with reconciling FUN with HEALTHY in my day-to-day life. For instance, what if my parties were fun only because I made killer desserts, or I had an exquisite collection of microbrews, or if no meal was complete without potatoes? Could I still maintain friendships and a rich social life while making healthy choices? Could I influence my friends and family to adopt better practices gently and without sounding preachy? Could I tell someone that I would be happier with a shared hike in the woods than a box of chocolates bigger than my torso - lovely, red, and heart-shaped though it is? These are not easy things to address for anyone, but perhaps I could try one low-risk experiment.

I had a Superbowl party for 20 people and served them only healthy food! What blew me away was the fact that everyone loved everything! So much so that despite 6 no-shows, I have no leftovers and I have been inundated with recipe requests since Sunday. Someone even asked me to help cater their baby shower (hells-to-the-no, but I appreciated the sentiment). 

My guest list spanned the entire spectrum - the traditionalists, people who are disdainful of healthy living, those who refer to everything as a "fad", those who "don't believe in vitamins" and those for whom the holidays are meant to get gloriously fat.  I wanted to challenge my friends and family to push themselves beyond the conventional, expected fare and try something new. At best, they would believe that healthy does not have to get in the way of fun. At worst, they would hate it and we could order pizza and garlic bread. And somewhere in the middle, they would be intrigued and perhaps make some changes to their lives, going forward.  

Here's what I served. Note that every single item took only between 5 to 30 minutes to prepare, from scratch. Try one or all, you'll love the result. 

1) KALE CAKES (recipe modified from Ariane's own): For 15 small cakes, roast 2 cups sweet potatoes in an oven at 350°F until very tender. Boil 2 cups quinoa in microwave (3:1, water:quinoa, wash well first). Finely chop 6-7 de-stemmed kale leaves while other stuff boils. Place sweet potatoes, kale and quinoa in a bowl and mix well. Add lemon juice, salt, cumin, coriander, garlic and cinnamon. Mix well. Place some garbanzo flour on a plate. Take some of your mix and coat both sides, then shape into a small cake (2-3 inches across makes the cakes crispy). Heat a pan or skillet over medium heat and coat the bottom with some evoo. Cook cakes about 10 minutes on each side until golden brown.

2) LASSI DRINK: take fat free cottage cheese, add water (3 :1 by volume, water : cottage cheese) and mint leaves + cilantro leaves + green chilli (skip last item if you don't like spicy). Blend everything in a food processor or blender. Add some salt, not a lot because cottage cheese is salty to begin with.

3) PILAF with quinoa, bulgur, wild rice, spinach and pine nuts: Wash and boil 2 cups each of quinoa, bulgur and wild rice in a microwave or stovetop. Separately saute 1 bag of chopped spinach with 30-35 pine nuts in 1 tbsp evoo. Add item A to item B, mix, add salt, coarse black pepper and go. This serves 15.

4) CUMIN-CAYENNE ROASTED CAULIFLOWER: Cut cauliflower into large florets, spray with some EVOO, salt, cumin powder, cayenne pepper and shove into oven at 400 deg until tops look brown and/or try stabbing with fork.

5) NAKED SALAD:  Julienned cucumber, carrots, peppers, scallions. Chop everything into slivers, as the name suggests and mix. No dressing except salt/pepper/lime juice.

6) SALMON VINDALOO: For 2 people, you need the following (scale up proportionately for more people): Salmon 16oz, chopped onions 1.5 cups, evoo 2 tbsp, peppers 1/2 tbsp, coriander seeds 1/2tbsp, tamarind paste 1/2 tsp, turmeric, salt. Cut each slice of salmon in two, sprinkle with salt and ground turmeric, mix well and let it sit in the refrigerator. Drop 1/2 cup of chopped onions and brown till golden in evoo. Add powdered cayenne, powdered coriander seeds and brown till fragrant. Drop rest of the onions and fry till transparent. Add 2 cups of water, chopped tomatoes (1/2 cup for medium spicy), more salt if necessary, and tamarind. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15-20 minutes or until tomatoes have blended with spices and water and onions have cooked. Drop in salmon pieces and bring to a boil, simmer and cook till tender and solid about 5-8 minutes. Serve with the pilaf. 

7) COCONUT MADELINES:  for dessert - mix dried shredded low-fat coconut with a little almond milk and some protein powder. Then whip it up in some egg whites to make it thick and fry it in a pan.

I want to add that there was definitely liquor at this party, because I didn't want to alienate everyone I know in one fell swoop :-) Still, I persevere. One step at a time and everything you know.

Be well, K."