To Cater or Not to Cater: Benefits of Hiring a Catering Company for Your Event

Planning for and hosting a big event can be an overwhelming and stressful process. Whether it's a corporate event, a wedding, a birthday party, or even a family reunion, feeding your guests is always a must. Hiring an outside catering company will benefit you in more ways than one and will make the event a memorable one for your guests.

Let Someone Else Do the Work

When you have an important event planned, wouldn't it be less stressful if you had some assistance? Feeding a big group of guests requires a lot of time and work: shopping for the food, cooking all of the food that you just spent hours shopping for, serving all of the food that you just spent hours cooking, etc. Catering companies know the right amount of ingredients to use and they'll make sure your event runs smoothly, giving you one less thing you'll have to worry about. So if you're planning an event and want to save some time, money, and work, hire a reputable catering company!

Professional and Knowledgeable

Not sure what foods you should be serving at your event? Catering companies will help you pick out the best menu choices that will make your guests happy and will fit your budget. Catering companies have a team of professional and qualified employees in order to properly meet your requests and provide tasty food for your guests.

Special Experience

Having a caterer at any occasion provides a special and unique experience for both you and your guests. Your caterer will make sure that the food items are up to your standards both in taste and in display. Whether big or small, the event will be a memorable one with the help of a professional catering company. 

Singapore: A Fine City Full of Even Finer Food

My Experience

Hi everyone! I traveled to Singapore this month and stayed there for two weeks so I'm writing this blog post to share my experience about my time on this tiny Asian island. Singapore is located in Southeast Asia off the southern coast of Malaysia. The residents of Singapore are diverse, mostly consisting of but definitely not limited to ex-pats of China, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia. It was interesting hearing people speak because everyone, for the most part, knows a little bit of the languages associated with these countries and they communicate by mashing all of these languages together. Singapore is a global finance center and is also one of the safest cities in the world. The climate is tropical, with an average temperature of 80+ degrees Fahrenheit and an average humidity level in the low 80s. Adjusting to the climate was a little difficult, especially since most of the apartments don’t have air conditioning (including the apartment where I stayed). The streets are clean, for the most part, since littering is one of the many fineable offenses in the country (Singapore is known as a "Fine City" for a reason). Aside from being fascinated with the cultural differences of the country, I’d have to say that my favorite experience was tasting all of the food.

The Food

The food in Singapore is as diverse as the people. My advice to you if you ever have the chance to visit Singapore is to never be opposed to trying a new dish (unless you’re allergic, of course). No matter where you stand in the city, there’s bound to be a dining facility within walking distance and from what I noticed, they were always packed. There are numerous Hawker Centres located throughout the city, which is where a majority of the locals go to eat. They open around 5 in the morning and most of them close between lunch and dinnertime. The Hawker Centres were my favorite places to eat, not only because the food was inexpensive, but also because I felt like I was getting the local experience. I tried a variety of foods, including popular Singapore dishes such as Chilli Crab, Laksa, Chai Tow Kway (also referred to as “Carrot Cake”), Sambal Stingray (also known as Spicy Banana Leaf Stingray), Chicken Rice, and the list goes on! If your mouth isn’t watering yet, here are some pictures of the food and drinks that should do the trick!

Hokkien Mee and Mango Smoothie

Dum Biryani

Sambal Stingray

Black Carrot Cake - I had this almost every morning for breakfast!

Soy Milk and Grass Jelly

Wheatgrass Juice

From left to right: Kopi O – coffee with sugar and no milk; Kopi C – coffee with unsweetened evaporated milk and sugar; Kopi O Kosong – coffee with no milk and no sugar

Variety of juices at a juice stand on Bugis Street

Would I Ever Go Back to Singapore?

The answer is yes. Even though it was a little difficult to adjust to the culture when I first arrived, it was even more difficult to separate myself from the sunny climate, the easy transportation system, the diverse group of friends I made, and last but definitely not least, the delicious food!

Important Tips Before Tying the Knot

Planning a wedding is a long process and a lot of time is involved (the average wedding takes up to 240 hours to plan, according to senior editor for ModWedding, Kara Yates)! Here are a few tidbits of information that should lessen the stress and make your big day more beautiful and memorable.

Make a Checklist, Have a Timeline, and Don't Multitask:

When you're ready to start planning your wedding, make sure to start out with a checklist. Brainstorming through every detail beforehand will make the process a lot less stressful. You can always add to your handy-dandy checklist throughout your wedding planning process if you forget something during your initial brainstorm. After making a checklist, set deadlines for tasks, payments, and RSVPs. Always complete one objective at a time so you don't overlook anything important. 

Choose a Theme:

Choosing a theme for the wedding will make the food, flowers, and décor a lot easier to pick.

Needs First, Wants Second:

First, focus on what you absolutely need, such as a wedding dress, a caterer, and a venue. You can then purchase what you want after the essentials are covered. 

Let the Seasons Inspire You:

Whether you're planning a Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter wedding, embrace the colorful pallets and ambiance that each season has to offer and use them to your advantage. 

Consider the Weather: 

Since the weather is unpredictable, always have a "plan-B" so you can be prepared for whatever nature has in store for that day. This is especially important if you plan on having your wedding outdoors.

Do the Paperwork:

Make sure to get a marriage license at the beginning of your wedding planning and that you receive written contracts from all of the vendors you choose to utilize.

Don't be Afraid to Ask for Help:

Planning a wedding is a lot of work soo don't be afraid to ask for help. Your wedding planner, venue, family, and friends are great resources and will more than likely be happy to help.

Enjoy Your Wedding Day:

All of your planning will pay off on this special day, so enjoy it! 

Adapted from ModWedding and WaverlyBride 

One Hospital Moves Towards a Healthy Change

Alright, so our last blog post was about eating healthier as preventative care (view the full blog post here) so let’s keep this healthy food/healthy body theme going. Before continuing with the rest of this post, we’d like to thank Organic Connections for providing us with this enlightening information. They have some great articles if you want to check out their site! Anyways, keep reading to learn about another potential healthcare reformation through healthy food.

When you think of hospital food, “delicious” and “healthy” probably aren’t the first words that come to mind. The mass produced foods can contain chemicals, fats, and processing, and generally have very little nutritional value. The Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital’s food is a different story. All of the patient food prepared in the hospital kitchen either comes from local sustainable producers or from an on-site organic greenhouse operated by a devoted Detroit-area organic farmer.

“’When they were opening this particular facility five years ago, the CEO at the time decided that the food culture here would be completely different,’ Michelle Lutz, resident farmer at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, told Organic Connections. ‘He really wanted the food to be fresh and healthy, and wanted to influence people in their diets – not just from a healing perspective while they were with us but long term. He wished to help people avoid bad food and heal from chronic diseases. He knew diet was a very powerful way to do that.’”

Sustainable and Locally Sourced –

Before having its own growing facility due to the lack of initial funding, the hospital sourced food that was local and sustainably grown. Lutz’s relationship developed with the hospital and its staff after growing food for them, and she now operates their organic greenhouse.

Healing and Teaching the Community –

Aside from providing leafy greens, flavorful herbs, and a handful of different fruits for the hospital, the greenhouse is also an educational and therapeutic facility. “Farmer for a Day” and “Chef for a Day” are programs taught in the greenhouse that are designed to educate and inspire children to maintain and attain a healthy diet. Patients and family members of patients will often visit the greenhouse because, as Lutz says, “just being around living things is so therapeutic.”

Multiple schools, healthcare facilities, and senior-assisted living centers in the community have visited the facility once or multiple times and have used it as a resource to better educate themselves and others on organic cultivation.

Healthy Mission –

As an experienced and passionate organic farmer, Lutz’s missions are to make a positive impact and to inspire patients to properly nourish themselves through healthy eating. As chief operator of the greenhouse, Lutz concluded, “we want to make sure that while you’re here we are giving you food that can actually help heal you and assist you on your road to recovery. Then maybe if you’ve been wanting to change your diet, we can hopefully inspire you to do so. Sometimes that’s all it takes.”

(picture from Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital website)

For more information on Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, please visit: www.henryfordwestbloomfield.com.

Source:
Organic Connections.

Preventative Care By Eating Healthy

Chronic diseases and certain cancers have been on the rise in the United States, but thankfully, healthier diets are becoming more of a priority to an increasing amount of the population. “When we see healthier eating, we see more disease prevention and less hospital stays, which means less money spent on healthcare,” says Leah Sarris, chef and program director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University.  This program started in 2012 and entails medical students better counseling the health of their patients through learning how to cook. Jasleena Grewal states in her article in YES! Magazine, “in 2010, chronic disease accounted for 86 percent of all healthcare spending; four years later, the cost of treating heart disease alone totaled $315.4 billion, including medication and hospital care.” Having a medical educational program focused on culinary practice is providing this generation of doctors a chance to learn and teach long-term health management through the art of cooking.

Students enrolled in this program complete a total of 24 hours of in-class culinary practice, are able to attend seminars focused on a variety of clinical interests, and teach free cooking classes to the public in order to enhance their learning process and get involved with the community. These free classes are extremely popular within the community and offer recipes that are affordable to those with low-income, thus helping them manage their time, budget their money, and learn how to cook healthy and inexpensive meals.

This program is not only being adopted by multiple medical schools throughout the country, but it may be reforming the way current healthcare is structured. “In five years, your doctor might prescribe you a cooking class, and healthcare companies will pay for that,” says Sarris.

Healthy cooking is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout the country as a form of preventative care. This means that patients who make their diet a priority will be able to better fight disease in a more affordable and enjoyable way.

Source:
Grewal, Jasleena. "Is Healthy Food the New Medicine?" Organic Connections. YES! Magazine.