Last month I had the honor of attending the Disney Social Media Moms Conference. One of our dinners was called the Magic of Healthy Living Celebration. Disney has launched a healthy program promoting happy, healthy children who are making smart choices for eating and and who are getting plenty of exercise. We were treated to a special dinner with extremely healthy choices. Some of the other guests that were in attendance were the winners from the Healthy Living national essay contest.
On the table to start we had house made multi-grain baguette with edamame hummus. The hummus was really good. I thought it was the right texture without being too grainy, and the bread was really fresh. There was butter in the shape of Mickey!
For the appetizer we had Heirloom tomato water with basil essence and white balsamic vinegar; fregola, lentils, quinoa, and burgundy amaranth served in a mini martini glass; and watermelon radish, rainbow carrot, and quick pickled cucumber summer roll with ponzu sauce. I know that some of you are going ponzu sauce? Fregola? For some of us this is not the norm for daily dinners that we make. Disney wants people to branch out and try some new healthier options to introduce to the family. Ponzu sauce is citrus based and used in Japanese cooking and fregola is a kind of pasta similar to cous cous. I thought that the tomato water was good but wasn’t sure why it was there.
For the main course we had pan seared poulet rouge breast with heirloom beans paired with slow poached US wild caught striped bass with preserved lemon and “Epcot The Land” harvested greens. It was served with Mickey Mouse polenta with toasted flaxseed. I really enjoyed the harvested greens; they were seasoned perfectly and had the bitterness cooked out of them. The polenta was delicious and the cute Mickey embossed on it was a nice touch.
Overall most people were a little shell -shocked on the selection for dinner. Some of the kids were happy to eat it, and some were not. If things had been seasoned a little differently, I think it would have went over better. Most of the ingredients and menu items were so far out of the box America may need some time to get used to it.
Contributed by: Ashley Reeve (NDW#43) Ashley is the DDL Food Blogger. She is also the creator of A Cup of Disney.
Ashley is DDL’s resident food expert and is a passionate foodie who enjoys cooking, fine dining, traveling and all things Disney. From a young age she has been in love with the magic of what Disney represents. She is the chief editor of her website acupofdisney.com where she shares Disney information,vacation tips, videos and Disney recipes. She also currently is a columnist for StudioCentral.com. To contact Ashley you can find her on Twitter @acupofdisney
It was yummy and beautifully presented, but I agree that a lot of the kids didn’t enjoy it. I loved that the greens were grown in The Land and the dessert party afterwards was awesome.
I totally agree with you Elle! Thank you for the comment 🙂