Real Food Snacks for Hospitality
Life is hard; food doesn't have to be #188 [vol5, 9.4]
My daughter’s volleyball team hosted a tournament and I helped coordinate snacks for the hospitality room for coaches and officials.
Real food doesn’t have to be hard. Sometimes it takes more brain power or planning. Sometimes we can grab stuff from the store.
That was my plan for this event: make it easy on the mommas who signed up to contribute. I made a SignUp Genius with various options. As the coordinator I brought various platters and bowls from home for serving.
Top Favs
People watching might be my fav pastime in public. After the morning rush of set up was over, I sat down behind the table just to observe.
Wanna guess the most popular snacks?
Bananas went first and this surprised me. They’re so cheap, so common, I almost didn’t add them to the list! Recommended: cut in various sizes + leaving some whole.
Individually wrapped cheese sticks were very popular. I put them in a bowl with ice and they kept well this way all day.
Halved boiled eggs went flying off the plate and was the only food item that we ran out of. I made a BBQ option with a dollop of BBQ sauce with a pickle on top, secured with a toothpick. Most hadn’t tried such a thing but those who tried were fans! I did something similar this summer and called it a slider with bacon, cheese and chipotle lime mayo.
Response
Everyone seemed happy, dare I say excited, that real food was an option?
To pull this off it didn’t take that much more work than asking everyone to buy artificially colored cookies. It just needed someone brave enough to say, “Could we try something different? Could we offer real food?”
You Can Do It!
The next time you’re asked to bring a snack, even if you’re asked to bring a packaged item, consider taking real food. Most of the time the host won’t care. Suggest a healthier alternative to the host.
List of Options
Veggies & Ranch here’s my fav easy recipe
Hummus, store bought or this fav recipe
Fruit - don’t forget bananas!
Apples & Peanut Butter - I found dye free sprinkles at WalMart
Nuts / trail mix
Meats - pepperoni, salami, ham
Boiled eggs / sliders with BBQ sauce & pickle chip or bacon, chz, chipotle lime mayo
Cheese sticks
Popcorn popped in coconut oil with sea salt
Salsa / Chips not pictured
Cooler of water bottles on ice
The StRuGgLe is Real
My preference would have been for everything to be homemade, real food, or zero added sugar.
On the table you’ll also see granola bars - which in my mind are simply cookies, as well as homemade cookies and DOUGHNUTS.
It crushed my real food lovin’ soul when I found out that the doughnuts would make an appearance. It turns out that one of the officials specifically requested doughnuts of our coach…
Interesting to Watch
As people walked in the hospitality room I observed simultaneous delight and anguish on their faces. It was the classic scenario of good angel on one shoulder, devil on the other.
They saw doughnuts, smiled and mouth watered.
They saw beautiful fresh fruit and veg.
They looked longingly at the doughnuts and back again at real food. I could see anguish on the faces.
*It was almost comical* to the person! The struggle was real.
Oh how this pained me. If the doughnuts had not been there, it wouldn’t have been a struggle. The spirit was willing in so many and yet the flesh was weak.
Most could not resist the siren song of the sweets. And it made me sad. If the temptation had not been on the table (the easy button) they wouldn’t have gone looking for doughnuts down the street.
Did you know?
Sugar is more addictive than opioid drugs like cocaine. NIH study
The People Who Resisted
There were a few souls who resisted doughnut temptation. And I observed a difference in their body type. Maybe it goes without saying: those with the fewest extra pounds around the middle reached for real food and resisted the sugar.
Make It a Habit
In the NYT bestselling book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes that identity helps people achieve their goals. Do you want to identify as healthy? I certainly do. He encourages the reader to:
List a couple everyday habits.
Write "I am the type of person who..." followed by the habit.
Identify the type of person you want to be.
Examples could include:
Being healthy
Having good boundaries
Letting go of resentment
Choosing love, extending grace
Shortly after reading his book - maybe during? - I decided I would not eat doughnuts. There isn’t anything nutritive about a doughnut; they’re made of white flour, sugar and fried in inflammatory oil. I want to fuel my body with food that makes me feel good and strengthens my inner being.
To follow James Clear’s example: “I am the type of person who values my health. I want to have energy and physical ability to play with my grandchildren. I am not the kind of person who eats a doughnuts.”
Since making that decisions, when doughnuts show up in any situation, I am not tempted. I have decided I value my health more than the temporary sugary sensation in my mouth.
The Lazy Genius might call this a Decide Once Principle. I have decided that I will not eat doughnuts. It’s just not worth it to me. However, a chocolate chip cookie? Homemade chocolate cake? Powerless.
Thomas Chalmers called this the expulsive power of a new affection.
It is seldom that any of our tastes are made to disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. The heart must have something to cling to-and never, by its own voluntary consent, will it so denude itself of all its attachments. —Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847
Curious if you’ve ever thought about the power of deciding in advance? Would love to hear how you implement it. You probably do it in many ways but maybe haven’t identified it as such. Example might be, “I brush my teeth before going to bed.” Or, “I fasten my seatbelt before putting the car in gear.”
Storing Food
I showed this gamma lid on my Instagram stories last week and was surprised at the number of people who weren’t familiar. Buckets found in paint aisle of WalMart as well as home improvement stores are usually food safe. If you order from Azure, in my experience they have the best quality lids.
How It Works
Push the ring on the lid of a clean, food safe bucket. The bigger lid screws into this ring making it easy to open the bucket.
We use this system for dog food, as well as multiple buckets for dry food storage. It keeps out rodents of all kinds.
Life is hard; food doesn’t have to be.
Julie
So cool these ideas!
Definitely trying those bacon,Chipotle eggs! We are old pros at this as I have a gluten allergy and am often low carb. I usually bring my own food because you never know what to expect! I attended a family anniversary where the only offering was squares and cake! Some favorites that show up for our family gatherings are homemade hummus with veggies, jalapeño poppers, Buffalo chicken dip (or jalapeño popper dip) fruit skewers and antipasto skewers, nachos and little caprese salad bites. Great post!