Our Meeting Menu: Inspiration for Your Holiday Parties

We, at AICR know how tough it is to follow our recommendations on the road – whether for vacation or work related conferences. At our research conference last week we want our attendees to be able to live the message, so we work hard to make sure they get delicious, beautiful and cancer-fighting meals.

Black Bean & Barley Salad for Day 2 lunch

Months before the conference we begin working closely with the hotel chef talking about our recommendations, recipes and research-based New American Plate. The chef had no trouble embracing our basic food guidelines:

• Eat more of a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes such as beans.
• Limit the amount of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) you eat and avoid processed meats.
• Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium).

Flavor-filled chocolate and lemon mini-tarts.

Our specifications also include vegetarian options, modest portions of whole grains, and light and small desserts.

To that end, the Chef reworked and created special recipes – no small task finding just the right balance to meet all of our visual, flavor and health requirements (not to mention our budget). We had some lively back and forth, tweaking and finally, the taste test.

Conference attendee selecting walnut stuffed mushroom – created specifically for AICR.

We tasted, tested and talked through the menus, exacting presentation and portion size to satisfy appetites without being over the top calorically.

You can try the recipe for the flaxseed raisin muffins we had for breakfast. Let these ideas inspire your holiday gatherings – large platters filled with colorful vegetable dishes, bite-sized hors d’oeuvres and flavor-packed mini desserts. For more recipes check out our weekly Health-e-Recipes and  AICR Test Kitchen recipes.