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Family Food and Beverage Ideas for Those Summertime Blues
Summer is a time of joy and abundance for many families, but everyone has times when they feel a bit sad in spite of the sunshine. If your family members are suffering from the summer blues, try these simple food and beverage concepts to cheer them up and mollify their bellies and their minds.
Barbecues in the Backyard
No red-blooded American doesn’t love a summer barbecue. Everything tastes better when cooked on a fiery hot grill surface, and being outdoors will help diminish symptoms of depression due to high amounts of vitamin D in sunshine. Even if members of your family choose not to eat meat, barbecues can still be a great way to cook seasonal vegetables and roast delicious veggie burgers. Barbecues bring friends and families together and are the perfect cure for a bout of summer sadness.
Sweeten Up Your Lives
Summer is an excellent time to have a sweet tooth — ice cream trucks are milling around, peddling their wares, sweet flavored drinks like smoothies and shakes are also seasonally appropriate. Delicious fruits like strawberries and peaches are also ripe for the picking. Some companies, like Monin, know that buying your household a container of flavored syrup could lead to several fun nights of making your own Italian ice flavors and experimenting with different creamy drinks and floats. Flavored syrup is relatively inexpensive and could make your house the go-to summer destination — just make sure the kids don’t get too much or they’ll be up all night.
Think Healthy
Ask your kids what they want for dinner, and then make a healthy, family-friendly version of whatever crazy dish they say. Unhealthy pepperoni pizzas can be replaced by delicious artichoke pita bread pizzas, and hot dogs and fries can be upgraded to black bean burgers and sweet potato fries. It is well documented that eating healthily can have a major impact on not only your body, but your mind as well.
Switch up the Routine
Some people find that they become depressed when a boring routine threatens to consume them. Make sure that you and your family go out for dinner occasionally, or devote nights to ice cream sundae production and pizza parties. Kids and adults value changing up their daily routines every once in a while, and swapping food groups and eating locales is perfect for shifting the routine without destroying it.
The summer months are a wonderful time to be alive, but depression can strike at the oddest times. Adjusting your relationship with foods and beverages can be just the thing to shake you out of your seasonal funk.
