Barbeques are a summer tradition that everyone loves to attend. While almost everyone cherishes the taste of certain favorite dishes, a strictly traditional BBQ menu can present some obstacles to your health goals.

The traditional BBQ Menu typically includes:

Appetizers
Potato Chips and Fatty French Onion Dip
Nacho Chips and Salsa

Salads
Cole Slaw made with traditional mayonnaise
Macaroni Salad
Potato Salad
Caesar Salad

Meat
Cheeseburgers
Hot Dogs or Kielbasa
Ribs

Sides
Baked Beans
Corn on the Cobb

Desserts
Watermelon
Ice Cream

You can host a semi-traditional BBQ without disappointing your guests or coming up short on taste. To start, switch potato chips and French Onion dip with whole wheat crackers and low-fat cheese slices. Substitute baked chips and light dip for nacho chips and salsa. Finally, include sliced veggies and hummus for the ultimate healthy alternative.

Cole slaw and potato salad are BBQ favorites that most guests look for on the picnic table, and with some simple recipe substitutions can still be part of a healthy meal.

•Prepare coleslaw or potato salad in the same manor, using light mayo instead of regular mayonnaise to cut  calories by up to half.
•Some potato salads also include hard boiled eggs. Removing egg yolks will reduce overall fat content of salad.
•To reduce calories by even more, use a ½ mayo – ½ fat free plain yogurt combination as a dressing for either salad.

Replace macaroni salad, which is high in fat and high glycemic carbohydrates, with fruit salad. Fruit salad offers a sweet alternative that also contains fiber and natural anti-oxidants and vitamins. When choosing fruit, include cantaloupe and honey dew melon, apple slices, blueberries, and strawberries and steer clear of the mandarin oranges and pineapple to keep sugar content relatively low. Caesar salad in comprised of mostly lettuce, croutons, parmesan cheese and is usually dripping with high fat dressing. Replacing it with a garden salad made with a mixture of spinach and romaine lettuce and light balsamic dressing adds fiber, natural vitamins, anti-oxidants, and also significantly reduces fat content.

Instead of cheeseburgers made with American cheese and ground chuck, try using a more natural cheese and lean sirloin or ground bison to make your burgers. You can also replace a white flour buns with whole wheat or multi-grain buns without missing too much of the flavor. If you must have hot dogs, make sure they are 100% beef with a relatively low fat content and I recommend staying away from kielbasa all together. The only way to replace barbeque sauce slathered ribs without getting thrown under the bus by your guests is to grill some pork tenderloin instead, trim visible fat and marinate before grilling.

A great choice for grilled vegetables is zucchini or summer squash. To prepare either, you should first cut ends off zucchini, use a large knife to slice lengthwise. Before setting on grill, brush both sides with olive oil and dash with a little balsamic vinegar. Luckily, corn on the cob is a healthy BBQ tradition, who knows, if you keep it on the table maybe your guests won’t notice the other healthy substitutions.

When it comes to dessert, watermelon is the healthiest item on a traditional BBQ menu, don’t change a thing. Instead, focus on substituting traditional ice cream for ‘Skinny Cow’ Ice cream sandwiches to reduce overall calories and especially fat calories consumed during dessert. If traditional ice cream is a must-have, try serving ‘snack sized’ ice cream bars instead of ice cream scoops. Snack sized bars obviously taste the same, but the smaller portions will (hopefully) lead to eating fewer total calories.

Finally, as a rule, replace fatty condiments with light or low salt versions to maintain your healthy theme. But I don’t recommend removing BBQ standards from the table completely. You can have small portions of traditional baked beans, regular mayo, and even ribs along side your new and improved BBQ ingredients. This will give your guests both the opportunity, and a slight nudge to start eating in a healthier direction.

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