Making healthy choices during Summer BBQ Season

Summertime is all about barbeques with your friends and family, but the food available at these barbeques may not always be the healthiest. There are ways though, that you can eat healthy while still enjoying yourself and eating what you like.

One way to ensure you eat healthy is to make your own dish and bring it. This way, even if all of the foods there are not as healthy as you would have liked them to be, you can have at least one healthy meal to indulge in. Portions are another huge part of being able to stay healthy. You can still eat those macaroni and potato salads as long as you don’t over-do it. Make sure to pay attention to the amount of starchy foods you are eating and try to keep portions small.

Start out by eating vegetables. If you fill up on the healthy stuff first, you’ll have less room for the non-healthy foods later on. Getting up and doing some physical activity after your meal is helpful too. Although you don’t need to go and run a marathon, having a catch in the backyard or doing some other kind of backyard game will definitely have a positive impact on your body and the way your meal is digested.

Another way to make sure to stay healthy but still be able to eat the good stuff is by eating salads. If you are having trouble figuring out what you should put into your salad, La Bottega in Farmingdale has a number of different salads for you to choose from. Salads are a great thing because you can add ingredients to them while still being able to keep the meal healthy. Two ingredients that are not only healthy but tasty are fish and grilled chicken. Fish is one of the healthiest foods in the world. It’s loaded with protein and vitamin D and grilling is a low-fat cooking method for chicken. Grilled chicken is a great source of protein and carbohydrates. La Bottega has a large selection of salads that are both healthy and delicious and contain grilled chicken as well as different types of fish. Adding these healthy ingredients not only make your salad more enjoyable, but give you a healthy amount of protein and vitamins too.

How to craft the perfect summer salad

With the summer essentially here, there will be a ton of barbecues to attend as well as dishes to bring with you. One dish that is always put out first, is the salad. For many, the salad course gets lost in the shuffle, but truly paying attention to the details, will get you compliments from everyone at the party!

When creating a salad, the ingredients are always the most important: You want the salad to not only be nutritious but delicious. Deciding your overall theme for your salad whether it’s sweet, tangy, savory, or a combination will help you hone in on the best ingredients for your salad. Having a wide array of fresh fruits and vegetables on hand will leave you with many options. A good salad will be well balanced, with colors, texture and flavor. When making a salad the end product should always be to make it look as aesthetically pleasing as possible and as delicious as possible. Also while creating the perfect salad it is important to incorporate some type of lean meat, like chicken. This will give you that special taste as well as make it more of a filling dish to put it over the edge. To give you salad the best flavor you should marinate the meat you use as well as to make sure the dressing used for the salad compliments well with the consistency of the whole dish and doesn’t overpower it so that it just tastes like dressing the whole time. The last part of creating the perfect salad is the assembly of the salad so that all the ingredients are mixed in just right so that every bite shares the same complexity.

Salads like our Rucala Caprino e Pollo, combine grilled chicken, baby arugula, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, toasted walnuts, with a balsamic dressing for a sweet and crunchy texture. One of our new salads called Insalata di Mango features baby kale, fresh mango, grilled chicken, quinoa, cherry tomatoes, almonds, shredded mozzarella, with a mango dressing provides a unique sweet and savory experience. Whatever salad  you decide to craft, creating unique flavors and textures using fresh and healthy ingredients is your key to success.

Crafting the perfect salad may seem daunting to some people but with the right ingredients and the right attitude there should be no problem. Salads are meant to be healthy and enjoyable and there is no reason why either of those should be compromised.

Hot soup isn't just for the winter: Scientific reasons why soup actually cools you down

Many people believe that soup should only be had during the winter months or maybe when you’re suffering from the cold or flu, but there are many scientific reasons to suggest otherwise. There is evidence out there that shows how soup can actually cool you down during the hot summer months.

One of the main reasons is that soup can help resupply your body with fluids that are lost throughout a hot summer day. The broth of the soup is the main contributing factor to this. Another thing to consider is that drinking something hot will in turn make you hot, and that will trigger the body’s natural cooling process of sweating which will inevitably make you cooler! 

The ingredients of the soup can also have a cooling effect if they are vegetables that are rich in water content. Although soup is not the most common thing to have when it is hot out or may not be something everyone craves, this scientific evidence proves otherwise. The lasting effects of having soup will definitely be felt later in the day when you have a better feeling of energy because of increased hydration. It should also be noted that eating or drinking something cooler than your actual body temperature like ice cream or beer will not have the same lasting effects of having something hot or spicy, like a soup. Having something cool will initially feel relieving but it will only last a short while and then you’ll feel then need to have more. Something like soup will last much more into the day and by that time you most likely won’t feel the need to cool off any further.

Here at La Bottega of Farmingdale, our soup menu has a wide variety of soup options that can help you cool this summer. Our lobster bisque is a great summer option that will not only cool you down but will taste amazing.Our zuppa di pollo ai vegetali is also another great and delicious option that features vegetables that will also aid in the cooling process.

Having soup on a hot summer day may seem like a preposterous idea but these facts suggest that it may be exactly what you need. Instead of grabbing an ice cream cone, go have a bowl of soup and see for yourself!