Party foods - Appu's first b'day party

We celebrated our son's first birthday on Saturday. Since we were the hosts, we tried to keep more healthy food options in the plate. The popular norm in kids' parties is to serve pizza for everyone; or serve pizza to the kids while the adults ate regular food. We have always avoided pizza in our kids's parties because its so common here that it has become a mundane thing to eat. And now we have one more very good reason to continue doing the same thing - though Italy may have a different opinion-for good reason, every where else pizza(restaurant-made) has been transformed in to a junk food. As per our healthy eating initiative, all junk foods are off the table. I agree that its convenient(less mess eating and cleaning) and because the kids love it, its an easy choice. But we decided to give the kids one less opportunity to eat junk. Regular, good food for all.
Our menu items were the following:

Appetizers - Chips with home-made Hummus, baked Falafel with Tzaziki sauce all home-made.

Main course(veg) - Home-made Veg Biryani, home-made Paneer Masala, Green Curries with fired and plain tofu & Phad Thai noodles with tofu.

Main course(non-veg) - Home made Mutton curry(braised), Panag Shrimp Curry & Panag Chicken Curry.

Salad - My new favorite - Tabbouleh, also homemade

Fruits - Got a beautiful fruit bouquet made from a shop downtown

Dessert - Avoided the dessert as there already was cake.

'Mayavi' Cake

Though they are always very delicious and a favorite among us and our friends, I can't vouch for the health benefits of the restaurant brought thai dishes. All the thai curries had good amounts of coconut-milk - an enemy of the heart and waist. The home-made items are either entirely healthy or prepared healthy.

The Biryani has no ghee. The entire item has only about 4 to 5 tablespoons of canola oil. That is all. I would have loved to make it with brown basmati rice. But brown basmati rice is very unpopular, so I went with the traditional white basmati rice.

 The mutton was seared briefly on stove top before being braised in the oven. The only oil in it came from the mutton meat itself. The Paneer Masala has 2 to 3 tablespoons of cashew paste and about the same amount of cream. Its not super-healthy but its way better than the one we get in restaurants.

The clear winners ultimately were - Hummus, baked Falafel with Tzaziki sauce and Tabbouleh.

These dishes are absolutely healthy. You can eat them any day, any time! Not only were they super-healthy, they were also very delicious!

Edible Arrangement

There was cake and an ample amount of fruit. So there was no point in having dessert just for the sake of it, so we avoided it. That's the policy to follow for foods with empty calories - if you can avoid it, by all means do.

I am so pleased with us for having a party and yet sticking to healthy eating. Its reassuring to know that it can  be done. A party needn't scare you or derail your diet routine. You needn't starve days ahead or after the party for fear of falling off the wagon. You can still host a great party with delicious healthy dishes, satisfy all your guests and get loads of compliments for the great food. If more hosts opted for similar menu items, guests watching their diet needn't shy away from party foods or scuttle their diet plans.