Suggestions for HEALTHY soul food choices?

jsapninz

Hello all!

Boise Idaho is having a Soul Food Festival this weekend which I am very excited about as I LOVE to try new ethnic foods AND I have never been to the south or had any sort of southern cooking.

However, I am aware that southern food doesn't exactly have a healthy reputation. :ohwell: Are there any suggestions you could make so that I could still enjoy and sample true soul food but not totally blow my goal? I don't want to miss out but I want to get bang for my calorie buck!

Here is information on what will be available: http://www.boisesoulfoodfestival.com/2012/04/04/food-vendors/
Catfish sounds exciting!!

Any suggestions as too good (or bad) choices are appreciated as I am totally ignorant about this! Thanks!:flowerforyou:

Lesa_Sass

LOL, sorry my dear, soul food is pretty much bad all the way around. But OMG is it good.

My suggestion to you would be to try a bite or two of what you want to try. Do not deny yourself this opportunity. We do not fear food, we should have it in moderation.

Keep in mind a lot of the foods will be deep fried and cooked in fat back, by so delicious.

If you are in weight loss mode and have not had a spike day in the last week to 10 days, just use the festival as a spike day.

Enjoy your life my dear. Moderation is the key.

SamanthaAnnM

Yeah I don't see much on that list that could be classified as healthy... and the catfish will almost certainly be fried (it's sooooo good though!). I definitely wouldn't let that stop you from eating, just make it a "cheat" day and try some new delicious food!!! Maybe only get stuff that isn't readily available anywhere else? (Like the ice cream, asian food, hot dogs, etc)

lyttlewon

The BBQ probably isn't terrible if you are careful with the cut of meat. There is dry rub BBQ which doesn't add sauce or if they do there is very little. I would try the collard greens. There is a stand that has shish kabobs which are probably a pretty safe choice as well. The beans or black eyed peas won't be so bad either, even if they are cooked with some sugar and lard they wouldn't be as bad as fried chicken.

jsapninz

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I went and had a great time, and fortunately/unfortunately everything was overpriced and cash only, so my bf and I had to sample off the $24 of cash we had on us. We had fried catfish, collard greens, gumbo (all my first time, and LOVED all of it) and then some baked beans and cornbread (yummy as always). And I figured that I only "spent" about 435 calories since we were splitting everything. None to shabby!

However, we were both hungry afterwards so we went to a restaurant for nachos and mud pie...that was a definite splurge calorie wise.:ohwell:

Oh well, you win some, you lose some!:laugh:

And I can officially say I LOVE southern food now!

ValerieMartini2Olives

I made collard greens once buy simply steaming them then adding a bit of lemon juice. They were really good but... it's not the same without the smoked meat!