What to eat at a cookout?
 

I'm going to my friend's holiday weekend BBQ in a couple of hours today. What healthy food options, if any, are there at a good ol' fashion American BBQ (aside from a veggie platter)?

Grilled chicken with salad and veggies and fruit. Hopefully they'll grill some veggies.

Can you bring a big zucchini and throw it on the grill? It's basically my favorite grill food EVER. OMG. With salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice I can make myself sick on it. Just cut it in thick slices and grill it, or you can chop it up smaller and put it in a grill basket. Sometimes when I use a grill basket I drizzle a little olive oil over it and it gets even yummier and smokier.

Pair that with some chicken breast and watermelon and you are good to go.

I would bring my own food.. I don't see anything wrong with that.

It's hard to say at someone else's BBQ. We hosted a small last night and we had available butterflied BBQ chicken breasts, salad and corn on the cob. I always throw on chicken along with the burgers and hot dogs.

I would skip: anything mayo based. (potato salad, macaroni salad, 7-layer salad) Skip the bun, or cut it in half.

Basically, my rule of thumb at events like this is to take what I want, but only half of what I normally would have served myself

We cook out all the time, everything imaginable. In fact, my kids call me the "Grill Sgt." :lol:
What I do is have a salad, and what ever lean meat I happen to be cooking at the time. I will usually grill some zuccini also. We are also having fresh watermelon and cantaloupe instead of a sugary dessert. Of course there will be potato salad and beans which I avoid. And for BBQ sauce I will top my meat with whatever type of salsa I made for that day. I usually use green salsa for chicken and red for other meats. But after the salad, zuccini, meat and fruits, I am very full. :D Hope this helps

Consider just not eating. I hate to waste calories on stuff I don't really enjoy--I mean, I splurge once in a while, but I want it to be for things I want, not just because it's there. If you are only going to be there 3-4 hours, eat before you go and plan to eat when you get back and spend the party drinking diet coke or unsweet tea or whatever. People usually don't even notice if it's a "carry your food around and mingle" type party, and if they offer to get you something, just say "I may get some more in a few minutes, everything looks delicious". If any one is really pushy, imply you ate something bad the day before and your system can't handle much.

I find this much, much easier than fighting myself to eat some, but less than what really satisfies.