New Year’s Eve Party Appetisers

I love a party as much as the next person but despair quite often at the party fare on offer for a bariatric! Greasy fried chicken, high-fat dips, crisps/chips and pastry-wrapped dubious foods do nothing for me other than weigh down my enthusiasm to go to the buffet table – and maybe that’s a result…

 

It needn’t be that way however and the following are a list of foods that can be gathered together as a bariatric-friendly antipasto feast for this New Year’s Eve party time. I generally like to serve the food selection individually so that guests can pick and choose what they like but I have also served them in small mixed dish selections with great success. Use ramekins, small decorative paper cups or even shot or drink glasses for these.

 

Consider:

 

*  protein (a must!)…so add chunks of tuna, cubes of cooked meat and poultry, flaked pieces of smoked fish, cooked prawns, slices of salami or other cooked and cured meats and quorn style deli offerings.

 

*  some dairy…like low or half-fat Mozzarella balls, cubes of low-fat cheese, pieces of feta cheese, halved hard-boiled/hard-cooked small hen’s or quail’s eggs and quartered pieces of Babybel Light.

 

*  vegetables…like chunks of cucumber, small cherry tomatoes, quartered canned artichoke hearts, griddled/broiled roasted vegetables and crisp vegetable sticks.

 

*  some pulses…nothing is more surprising and flavoursome than a drained and rinsed chickpea or giant butterbean in the mix.

 

*  a few roasted nuts, like pine or almond, for a bit of a crunch.

 

*  some seasoned seeds, like sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, linseed and flax, for yet more crunch with nutrition.

 

*  olives…green, black, stuffed or exotically-flavoured…your choice!

 

*  a little dressing to moisten the combination. Choose your own low-fat version or just a hummous mixture thinned with a little wine vinegar and smidgen of oil.

 

Alternatively, why not serve a small selection of favourite salads the same way?  I shall be serving mini glasses of Greek Salad, Waldorf Salad, bariatric-friendly Caesar Salad and Salad Nicoise at my gathering, along with some retro prawn cocktails (always a favourite). Sometimes I serve these on rice cakes for easy one-hand eating!