How to Make Healthy Picnic Side Dishes

Picnic food can be both fun and healthy. Follow these tips to pack a tasty, healthful basket for you next outing.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Ice
• Picnic basket
• Hard plastic cooler or insulated cooler bag
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Dishes, Cutlery, Napkins
• Garbage Bags
• Antiseptic Hand Wipes or Antiseptic Cleansing Gel For Hands

Choosing Food

1. Choose a healthy variety of food for your picnic. Beyond your main meat or protein-based dishes, a healthy selection of picnic side dishes will make it a more delicious event. Not all salads have to be laden with fattening mayonnaise and made with carbohydrates like pasta and potatoes. If you do make potato or pasta salad, add healthful food to the mixture and look for lower calorie dressing

2. Make picnic side dishes with lots of color. Nutritional experts say that the more color you have on your plate when it comes to fruits and vegetables, the more vitamins and nutrients you will get. Go for recipes that use plenty of colorful vegetables. Ad lib recipes by adding extra colorful vegetables. If your recipe calls for a bell pepper, use two or more bell peppers of different colors, for example.

3. Swap regular dressing for low calorie options in your recipes or exchange mayonnaise for yogurt or fat-free sour cream. If you want a mayonnaise flavor, consider halfing the amount of mayo and topping up with lower fat alternatives

4. Replace cooking and salad oils with healthy fats like olive oil or coconut oil and use sparingly. Consider using a spritzing bottle for oil based dressings instead of pouring it.

Food Safety

5. Pack your basket carefully. If you are transporting both hot and cold foods, don't pack them together or everything will end up warm and that will give bacteria a chance to grow. When going out on a picnic, it's often advisable to plan for all cold dishes from a safety perspective.

6. Bring plenty of ice to keep food cold. Many picnic baskets are not equipped to handle ice as they're made with bamboo or rattan so the basket itself can be good for your dry and non-perishable goods and a cooler bag or box is better for transporting food that can spoil. This will keep food fresh and safe, longer.

7. Eat food with mayonnaise in it within an hour to two hours after it is removed from the cold environment. Eat sooner if it is particularly hot outside. Many insulated cooler bags are available for small dishes to pack within a larger cooler and this can be a good idea to prevent food spoilage or food poisoning.
   

8. Keep raw and cooked meats safely separated. While they both need to be kept cold, they should be well packaged so that there isn't cross contamination of raw meat juices into something cooked like fried chicken or cold cuts.

9. Wash your hands frequently, especially when preparing food. Bring either antiseptic hand wipes or a gel for cleaning your hands without water if your picnic spot won't have a washroom facility with hot and cold running water.

Tips & Warnings

• Wash and prepare fruits and vegetables before you leave if preparing any of your dishes while at your picnic. You don't know if you'll have access to running water and saving time by doing this ahead of time can enhance your picnic experience.
• If food looks or smells suspect while you are out picnicking, don't take a chance by consuming it.
• Don't use the same plate twice, especially when dealing with raw meat. Bring plenty of plastic dishes or disposable paper plates with you. If bringing reusable dishes, be sure to have an extra bag to store dirty dishes for transport home.
• Don't save meat marinade. Whatever isn't used to baste the meat with while cooking should be discarded for reduction of bacteria.