Eating at weddings is not easy when trying to eat healthy. I usually manage this calorie overload by watching my alcohol consumption (planning ahead how many drinks I am going to have) and eating a little bit of everything. Tasting everything helps me feel like I am not missing out on anything, while not actually overdoing it. I will never know if my estimation of calories consumed at these weddings was accurate- but I did not gain any weight after either of them.Here are 3 images taken from two different weddings TE and I attended this summer. The top two images are taken from the last wedding-- the first image is a seared halibut steak served with a corn risotto with a mango, red pepper, and tomato salsa- my order and the healthier option. It was very tasty. The middle image is of the smoked pork steak (TE's order) served on top of a polenta mash and mango. I usually do not love pork, but seriously, that pork was to.die.for. I was thankful I did not order it, because I would have eaten it all! The last image is the "salad" course at the first wedding of the summer. I put it on here because both "salads" served at the weddings were not very healthy. Thinking about the foods served at weddings in general got TE and me thinking about food expectations at these types of functions, specifically at our wedding.
We were fish-eating-vegetarians when we got married, so we did not want to serve our guests anything we did not eat. Our menu consisted of an amazingly rich wild mushroom "stew" (for lack of a better word), a tricolor tortellini with a red sauce (the three tortellinis each had a different filling but now I am drawing a blank), and a red snapper with a mango salsa. I remember one guest actually checked off each option on his response card- he thought he was choosing the red snapper as his main dish and a side of each "vegetable." We thought it was funny at the time- but now thinking back I wonder if any of our guests were disappointed with the choices. At the first wedding of the summer there was an excessive amount of food- if you happened to order the prime rib (we did), you were served at least 12oz of steak- plus a side of roasted zucchini and potatoes. It was overwhelming and I thought it was such a waste of food. No one could/should eat that much steak after all the appetizers, salad and drinks served-- and not that many people did finish their steak, so it really did go to waste.
I wondered what everyone else thought? Were they impressed? Would you have been? What if you went to a wedding and they served proper portion sizes? Or they only served vegetarian items? Would you feel a bit unsatisfied? What is it about the American culture that we feel the need to couple our celebrations (or holidays) with excessive food? I am not pointing fingers- when I host a party I serve an excessive amount of food- and anyone who has attended any of my Superbowl parties will agree! I wonder if I can incorporate any of my new CR habits into celebrations... probably not... I will probably serve just as much food, but maybe now I will have more healthy items so that the excessive eating will not be as damaging :)
