Healthy Diet for July 7 – Pack a Healthful Picnic

What’s for tonight’s dinner? Why not pack a picnic cooler before work, so it’s ready to go when you are.

• Keep clean. Bring hand wipes or sanitizer, a clean tablecloth, and separate utensils for preparing and for eating.
• Keep cold food cold. If perishable (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, mayonnaise), keep your food in a chilled cooler. Don’t store your cooler in a hot car.
• Keep bug free. Put food in well-sealed containers.

This summer, remember to make your picnic simple, safe, and savory.

• Go vegetarian: a hearty salad (beans, cooked rice or pasta, and chopped vegetables, tossed with an herb vinaigrette), peach or mango, and breadsticks.
• Keep it easy: several cheeses, hearty whole-grain bread, grapes and berries, zucchini sticks, and calamata olives.
• Toss it there: canned tuna, canned pineapple chunks or mandarin oranges, chopped bell pepper, banana slices, toasted almonds, chives, and low-fat mayonnaise (a small jar, unopened) served on fresh greens. (Tip: Remember the can opener.)
• Remember drinks: juice or water, perhaps frozen ahead to stay cold as they melt.