This weekend in the U.S. we celebrated our nation’s Independence Day, July 4th.

This year though, July 4th was a lot more for me. It was actually the date my husband and I had our BBQ Baby Shower. We got all of our families together for a full day of barbequing and outdoor games. It was a wonderful celebration for the arrival of our new baby.

Here was my challenge.

I wanted this party to be easy but I just couldn’t bring myself to feed my family unhealthy, harmful food. Here I spend each and every day teaching people the principles of good nutrition and then I was going to serve them processed hot dogs and mayo filled coleslaw?

No way!

Not only was the food at our BBQ absolutely delicious, it was almost all Diet Solution friendly! I say almost because there was cake and beer. Don’t worry, I didn’t have any beer (but I can’t say the same for the cake).

Here are just a few items served at our Diet Solution friendly BBQ (and based on the amount people ate, it was all a big hit.)

1. We ordered the Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Barbeque Beef and Chicken from http://grasslandmeats.com.

When buying hot dogs, the first thing you want to look for is that they are nitrite and nitrate free. Sodium nitrite (or sodium nitrate) is widely used as a preservative, color fixative and flavoring in cured meats and other products (particularly hot dogs, bacon, ham, lunch meats, smoked fish and other types of processed meats). Numerous studies have found that nitrites contribute to different types of cancer (like stomach and pancreatic) and brain tumors in children. With that being said, this was not something I wanted to give to my family (and I highly recommend you don’t feed it to yours either.)

All of the items we buy from http://www.grasslandmeats.com are always antibiotic and hormone free. Believe it or not, whatever the animal you are enjoying ate before you got to enjoy it, is now something you are eating too. So if you don’t want to be ingesting any extra antibiotics and hormones (which for your health and weight’s sake, please don’t), I highly recommend you look for antibiotic and hormone free on all of your meat and poultry products.

2. We served healthy appetizers.

We had an appetizer table filled with healthy and delicious goodies.

Baked Tortilla Chips with Salsa

Fresh Vegetables and Guacamole (also to be used with chips)

We did have a spinach dip provided by another family member that I wouldn’t exactly have called the healthiest. But remember, you can always replace the sour cream in a dip with plain Greek yogurt or regular plain organic yogurt for a much healthier and higher protein alternative.

3. We had healthy sides.

For those people who wanted to skip the mayo laden potato salad, there was a delicious coleslaw (made by yours truly) that was completely DSP friendly. There was also fresh grilled corn and a huge colorful salad that everyone enjoyed.

I’m not going to tell you there weren’t a few items on the menu that were a little less than my ideal version of healthy, but the point is, for those individuals that wanted to eat healthy (like myself, my mother, my sister and many of my relatives and friends) there was plenty of healthy options to choose from. You don’t have to miss out on the taste just because you’re going for the healthy stuff.

Remember, your next BBQ or the next BBQ you attend does not have to be a complete nutritional disaster. Offer to bring something healthy and the host will not only be grateful, but other health conscious attendees will be happy to see you (not to mention, you’ll also have something good to eat!)

Here are 2 great recipes to help:

No Mayo DSP Coleslaw
(makes 8 servings)

· 1 medium tomato, diced
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 1 teaspoon pepper
· 1 (16 ounce) package shredded coleslaw mix
· 1/4 cup lime juice

Place the tomato in a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the coleslaw mix and lime juice. Refrigerate for 10 minutes before serving.

Does it get any easier than that?

I’ve even put this coleslaw in my salad along with a piece of grilled chicken or grilled fish leftover from the night before. Yummy!

Here’s another easy one.

I also absolutely love guacamole and make it all the time. Here is my super easy recipe that takes less than 10 minutes.

Isabel’s Homemade Guacamole

· 2 Avocados
· ½ tomato chopped
· ¼ onion, chopped (you may want to use more or less depending on how much you like onions or how well you can stand onion breath)
· 1-2 tsps chopped cilantro
· 1-2 tsps fresh lime juice
· Celtic Sea Salt to taste

Mash the avocado first and then add in the remaining ingredients. Super fast, super easy and super tasty!

I love to dip fresh veggies in guacamole along with my lunch or dinner. I also love to make healthy taco salads with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, taco flavored ground beef and guac on top.

Happy BBQing!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com