The Best Workplace Christmas Party Catering

The Best Workplace Christmas Party Catering

For many people, Christmas is all about spending time with family and friends. If you work in an office, then chances are that you like to do the same. You might even be thinking about throwing a company Christmas party for your colleagues to celebrate the festive season and spend some quality time together outside of work. But how do you make sure that everyone has fun? The answer is simple—book workplace catering! Of course, you can do the catering for your christmas party yourself but finding the time to do so is not easy, especially around Christmas time. There is the time to go shopping for all the food, planning the options, making sandwiches and having the fridge space to store it all. Don’t worry Lauren’s Catering can solve this problem for you.

One of the biggest headaches when planning a buffet is what food to include, here are some of top choices…

Light finger food options
For a workplace party, there are certain rules to follow when choosing food that will go down well with your colleagues. Here are some ideas:
● Light finger food options, such as mini quiches and mini sandwiches.
● Food that can easily be eaten by hand without utensils or plates.
● Food that doesn’t require a lot of chewing, because some people may be nervous about speaking in front of their boss at this event and may not want to talk with their mouth full!
● Easy-to-digest snacks like crackers or fruit slices so no one feels too full after eating them

Delicious sandwiches
Sandwiches are a great option for Christmas parties as they can be served either hot or cold, and are perfect for serving both vegetarians and those with dietary requirements. Most sandwiches contain bread, but wraps and pitta bread are also popular alternatives. You could even serve a sandwich that uses tortillas instead of bread if you wanted! Sandwiches can be made using just about anything you can think of – meat, cheese, vegetables or fish – so there’s no limit to your creativity when creating these delicious treats. We can also provide Gluten free options if required

Savoury Snacks
● Pizza
● Kebabs
● Pasta
● Crisps
● Chicken Wings
● Salads (e.g.: potato, pasta, fish or chicken)
● Mini Indian treats

Sweet treats
Everyone loves a sweet treat at their buffet, this can include:
● cake
● cupcakes
● muffins
● pastry
● desserts

Set Menus
If you visit our website, you will find various set meus and their prices but if this doesn’t quite hit the spot for you don’t worry! We can tailor your buffet to suit your needs, including any dietary requirements you and your team may have.

Book your party catering today!
If you’re planning a Christmas party but haven’t reserved your catering yet, it may be worth considering booking this now. Christmas is a busy time of year for any catering company so to ensure we can meet your needs call us today to discuss your requirements. We wouldn’t want you to wait to late and we cannot meet your requirements!

To find out more about our catering services visit www.laurenscatering.co.uk or give us a call on 01452 382690

Benefits of sandwich delivery vans to your workplace

Benefits of sandwich delivery vans to your workplace

Sandwich delivery vans are a great benefit to any workplace. It makes it easy for employees to get food without leaving the building, and they can choose exactly what they want without having to go out on their own time. It also helps with dietary restrictions or allergies because there’s usually a variety of options available.

We are very proud of our snack vans (technically known as ‘jiffy vans’) and you may well have seen them delivering to all parts of Gloucester as well as Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, Stonehouse, Stroud and Wotton-under-Edge.

Each of our 6 vans is refrigerated and has a hot oven, allowing us to provide a wide range of hot and cold snacks including:

  • Hot breakfast rolls
  • Burgers
  • Freshly prepared sandwiches, wraps & rolls
  • Crisp salads
  • Cakes
  • Confectionery
  • Cold drinks

It’s convenient!
You don’t have to leave the office. The lunch hour is for eating, and when you’re enjoying some really good food, it’s no fun sitting at your desk with a tray of limp salad greens and overcooked chicken. With sandwich delivery from Lauren’s Catering, you can enjoy delicious meals without stepping foot outside of your workplace—and that means more time working instead of trekking across town only to find yourself waiting in line at a crowded deli counter or restaurant.

One of the most important benefits of delivery is that it allows employees to get exactly what they want, when and where they want it. This means that you can avoid traffic and parking hassles by ordering in advance, as well as getting something more filling or healthier than you might have otherwise considered. This can be especially useful for those who from an office with limited access to food options nearby.

Having the sandwich delivery service from our Jiffy vans means that you can check out the menu available on our website priori to delivery. This allows you to see what will be available when the van arrives and you can decide what drink and snacks you might need at lunch time!

Days and times of your choosing
Your designated van will show up on the same days each week at the same time so your employees/visitors can plan around that and get exactly what they want. If you’re a person who uses lunch as an opportunity to catch up with colleagues, this is particularly useful if your company has designated break times to stick to.

No need to be bringing food back and forth from either! Our drivers will deliver everything straight into your office kitchens so there isn’t any heavy lifting involved during this busy work day–just grab what looks appealing on the menu board today, sit back down at your desk with co-workers who’ve ordered different meals than yours…

It’s an alternative to vending machines
Sandwich vans are an alternative to vending machines, Vending machines don’t always have what you want and can be expensive, but sandwich vans offer a wide variety of options. Also health is a major concern with vending machines, especially if they’re not well maintained or kept clean.

If you would like to see if one of our vans can visit your workplace please do get in touch on 01452 382690 or visit our website www.laurenscatering.co.uk for more information

Fact or Fiction: Is Our Food Becoming Less Nutritious?

Fact or Fiction: Is Our Food Becoming Less Nutritious?

The nutrient value of some popular vegetables, from spinach to asparagus, has dropped massively since 1950! A study conducted in 2004 in America has found that important nutrients in some of the garden crops are up to 38% lower than they were during the middle part of the 20th century. On average, across a range of 43 vegetables that were analysed, calcium content had declined 16%, phosphorus by 9%, and iron by 15%. The vitamins ascorbic acid and riboflavin both dropped massively, while there were also slight declines in overall protein levels.

What’s happening?

Prompted by the food shortages that occurred after the Second World War, scientists then developed a new set of high-yield varieties of crops and different breeds of livestock to boost food production. Couple this with improvements in different varieties of irrigation and the creation of affordable tractors, and crop productivity began to increase drastically.

While yields increased, levels of nutrients in the crops declined massively, bringing the intensive farming techniques seen here under intense scrutiny.

Should we be worried?

While there are scientists who feel the decline in nutrient levels within our food over the many decades is too small to be potentially significant, the health of our soils is still a massively important relationship to the nutritional quality of all of our food. A US trial has been examining vegetables that are grown under a variety of different farming techniques in order to better understand exactly what this link really is.

A single teaspoon of soil contains more microbes than there are number of people on the planet itself. Intertwined with this network of mind-boggling life is another network of fungal filaments that are called mycorrhiza, a symbiotic relationship between microbes and plants that act as extensions of their roots.

There is a consistent dance of nutrient pass-the-parcel going on from soil to the plant. The influence of mycorrhizae is evident because it has been commercially harnessed in order to improve the productivity of crops. Specialised soil fungi will effectively extend the system of the plant root with mycelium, with a web of microscopic, long filaments called hyphae too.

 Whether human selection or natural, weather or farming techniques, the nutritional content of food is influenced by many different factors. Ensuring that we do get the best version of the foods that are grown requires a truly in-depth understanding of the network of nutrients that ultimately flows around us. What is needed is a production of food system that monitors nutrition in our food and allows it to be universally comparable, and a commercial model that truly values nutrition above everything else. If this sounds like the kind of food you’re interested in, then come to Lauren’s and get ordering today! You wont regret it, we can assure you.

 If you are looking for a reliable buffet caterer to provide you with delicious and exciting food for your Jubilee party, look no further than Lauren’s Catering.

 We are a family run firm and have been catering for the people of Gloucester for over 25 years, so you may well know us already. We are incredibly talented when it comes to cooking up a variety of tasty food. We take pride in delivering a service that leaves our customers feeling best pleased! When it comes to catering, we understand that the customer is always king. So we have included as much variety in our sandwich options as we can!

Find out more about our buffet catering services here or, discover what else we get up to here at Lauren’s Catering, and whether we can help you with your catering journey.

Why is Breakfast So Important?

Why is Breakfast So Important?

Breakfast has to be termed the ‘most important meal of the day.’ But why is that? While this might be slightly overexaggerated, there’s good reason to suggest that breakfast can be such an important meal. Replenishing glucose levels in the body to boost alertness and energy levels in the morning is the least of it. Here we cover some of the most fundamental reasons why breakfast is so important, and don’t forget, Lauren’s Catering are here to help should you need some tasty food options!

 Energy

The body’s main source of energy comes from glucose. This simple sugar is broken down and later absorbed from carbohydrates that you consume. The body will store most of the energy that it gets as fat, but your body can also store some of the glucose that it gets as glycogen, mostly in your liver. In the morning, glycogen stores are at their lowest. Once all of the glycogen stores have been effectively used up, the body will begin breaking down fatty acids to produce the kind of energy that is needed. Without carbohydrates, however, fatty acids are just partially oxidised, reducing your energy levels.

Eating breakfast can boost your levels of energy and restore glycogen levels to what they should be, keeping your metabolism where it should be for the day.

Essential nutrients, minerals, and vitamins

Breakfast foods tend to be rich in key nutrients such as iron, folate, calcium, fibre, and B vitamins. Breakfast provides plenty of your day’s total overall nutrient intake. People who consume breakfast are more likely than others to meet the recommended daily intake of minerals and vitamins.

Weight control

It’s true that those who consume breakfast are not as likely to be obese or overweight. This may because it prevents larger fluctuations in blood glucose levels, helping to control your appetite. It could also be because breakfast fills you up before you start becoming ravenously hungry, so it makes you less likely to grab whatever food is around when hunger strikes.

Brain health

Not eating breakfast can lead some people to feel sluggish and a loss of focus. This might be because the brain has not received the energy, or glucose, that it truly needs in order to get going. There have been studies which suggest that not having breakfast can affect your psychological performance, including abilities to concentrate, attention, and memory. This can subsequently make certain tasks feel much harder than it normally would.

 Better food decisions

Compared with those who choose not to have breakfast, people who frequently eat breakfast will tend to have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity. There is additional evidence which suggests that people who choose not consume breakfast might be at a higher risk of diseases such as cardiovascular.

 If you are looking for a reliable buffet caterer to provide you with delicious and exciting food for your Jubilee party, look no further than Lauren’s Catering.

 We are a family run firm and have been catering for the people of Gloucester for over 25 years, so you may well know us already. We are incredibly talented when it comes to cooking up a variety of tasty food. We take pride in delivering a service that leaves our customers feeling best pleased! When it comes to catering, we understand that the customer is always king. So we have included as much variety in our sandwich options as we can!

 Find out more about our buffet catering services here or, discover what else we get up to here at Lauren’s Catering, and whether we can help you with your catering journey.

4 Tips for the Best Outdoor Catering in the British Summertime Heat

4 Tips for the Best Outdoor Catering in the British Summertime Heat

Summertime heat is well and truly here! However, no one wants that to stop us from enjoying our outdoor garden events and parties. Extra care will have to be taken in the stages of the event planning as you look to choose the right venue, catering menu, and layout. Additional care should also be taken to monitor elements of food safety in the scorching heat. With this in mind, we’re going to share our four top tips for a successful summertime outdoor event.

Having a contingency plan

The first step to take in planning any event is choosing a venue that is perfect. For outdoor venues, you can choose from options that include courtyards, rooftop decks, gardens, beaches, or even parks. All of these options can make for a beautiful backdrop to a brilliant event, but be sure to make preparations for the weather. Contingency plans should be made ahead of time to make sure that your party continues, whatever the weather brings. If the venue is on a rooftop deck or outside area, ensuring it has an indoor or covered portion is important for shade purposes.

Choosing the correct menu for catering

Choosing the right catering menu for any outdoor event during summertime is massively important. Thinking seasonal, fresh, and light is always a good idea. Everyone knows the feeling you get after eating a large meal, and no one likes it when the heat is on! Designing a cool, light summertime menu is going to be key here. It’s hard to go wrong with dishes like grilled vegetables, salads, gazpachos, or small bites.

Strategic setup of stations and venue

Carefully planning your venue’s layout prior to an event is highly recommended. Planning to setup bars and food stations in spaces that are outside of direct heat is also a good idea. Keeping drink and food stations out of the heat will ensure that guests and also staff visiting food stations remain comfortable.

It is important to plan food displays in a way that will ensure food temperatures stay where they need to be. Utilising granite and marble serving slices that can be frozen ahead of time will keep food optimally nice and chilled. Filling trays with ice to put under the buffet dishes will keep your cheese plate as fresh as possible and green salad staying crisp!

Ensuring guest comfort

Make sure that you have plenty of water ready and plan for hydration stations that guests will inevitably need in the heat. Fans are a sure-fire way to keep guests cool, and can either be hand fans or larger ones, and they are great at keeping bugs away. Taking the correct precautions here will ensure that the outdoor event your guests attend will be one they get excited to tell everyone about for weeks to come.

If you are looking for a reliable buffet caterer to provide you with delicious and exciting food for your Jubilee party, look no further than Lauren’s Catering.

We are a family run firm and have been catering for the people of Gloucester for over 25 years, so you may well know us already. We are incredibly talented when it comes to cooking up a variety of tasty food. We take pride in delivering a service that leaves our customers feeling best pleased! When it comes to catering, we understand that the customer is always king. So we have included as much variety in our sandwich options as we can!

Find out more about our buffet catering services here or, discover what else we get up to here at Lauren’s Catering, and whether we can help you with your catering journey.

4 Reasons Why People Love a Good Sandwich

4 Reasons Why People Love a Good Sandwich

It’s hard to imagine where we would be without sandwiches. This popular meal staple can be put together with just about any diversity of ingredients you can imagine, and are loved by people all over the world. It’s difficult for us to say just how long the sandwich has been around for, with some speculating that they were being eaten thousands of years ago. However, we know that they didn’t really gain popularity until at least the 18th century. Since then, it’s clear that people can’t get enough of them! But what it is that makes a couple pieces of bread with some filling so irresistible to so many people? Here are four reasons people love a good sandwich!

So convenient

The lifestyle of human’s today is far different from what it was 500 years ago, or actually 50 years ago! Rarely will you find families sitting around at a table for a meal. People now have a very tightly packed schedule and often lengthy commutes to work. This has made the desire for convenience food larger than it’s ever been, and sandwiches here represent the perfect food for convenience. This is because they don’t require special utensils or a plate. A sandwich can be eaten in the car or easily stored in a lunchbox/cooler.

Variety

One of the most central reasons for the popularity of the sandwich is that there is an entirely unlimited variety of fillings available. At Lauren’s Catering, for example, we have up to 30 different fillings for you to choose from! Think of the mind-boggling number of ingredients you can use to make a sandwich; from brie, apple, to egg, tuna, prawns, chicken and so much more.

Easily customisable

The fact you can subtract and add any ingredient you want from any sandwich also makes them one of the easiest dishes to properly customise. Some people have even come up with some bizarre combinations that are still remembered even now; Elvis Presley famously popularised the peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich! This ability to customise in such a short space of time and with whatever combination of ingredients you want makes sandwiches a certified hit.

Comfort

When it really comes down to it, one of the most important reasons why people love sandwiches is that they are firmly associated with comfort catering and food. Since comfort food is usually nostalgic, and most people often grow up eating sandwiches and taking them to school, sandwiches firmly fall into the category of comfort food. Comfort food can be a satisfying and rich meal such as a homemade spaghetti bolognaise or beef stew, or it can be something as simple as a sandwich. Although someone’s tastes may have evolved beyond the basic peanut butter and jam or ham and cheese since childhood, people often still associate the sandwich with fond memories from childhood.

If you are looking for a reliable buffet caterer to provide you with delicious and exciting food for your Jubilee party, look no further than Lauren’s Catering.

We are a family run firm and have been catering for the people of Gloucester for over 25 years, so you may well know us already. We are incredibly talented when it comes to cooking up a variety of tasty food. We take pride in delivering a service that leaves our customers feeling best pleased! When it comes to catering, we understand that the customer is always king. So we have included as much variety in our sandwich options as we can!

Find out more about our buffet catering services here or, discover what else we get up to here at Lauren’s Catering.