I have always enjoyed entertaining in my home. For one thing it forces me to clean my house and pick up all the toys and shoes that accumulate on the stairs. Second, it gives me the chance to cook and bake for my friends. Maybe I was meant to be a chef in another life, (a pastry chef would be my preference). A lot of thought and effort goes into choosing the recipes when I entertain, especially now that I try to keep most of the food I serve to my friends as healthy as possible. Of course serving healthy snacks and appetizers means that I get to splurge on dessert. Yes, dessert is one of the other reasons I enjoy hosting parties, it gives me a chance to make a decadent dessert to share with friends. I usually send the leftover treats home with my guests at the end of the night, so I am not tempted to eat the rest of the sweets the next day.
A few weeks ago, I hosted our monthly Girls Night Out group at my house for a “Favorite Things” party. If you have never attended a Favorite Things Party, you need to plan one right away. It is a simple, fun way to give away some of your favorite things with your friends and you come home with gifts of your own at the end of the night! Here is a quick overview of how a Favorite Things Party works:
- Each guest is asked to bring FOUR of the EXACT same favorite thing to share, that costs $5-7 per item. (Can be brought to the party wrapped or unwrapped.)
- The item can be anything, as long as it is one of their favorite things. Examples could be: a favorite lip gloss, jar of barbeque sauce, copy of a favorite magazine, bath products, etc.
- The favorite thing is to remain a secret from the group before the night of the party.
- When the guests arrive at the party, they write their own name on four pieces of pater and put it into a big bowl.
- Allow time to mingle, have drinks and snacks before the gift exchange.
- When it is time for the gift exchange, pass the bowl around and each lady selects four names from the bowl. Look at them right away because if you get your own name or two of the same name, you have to put the name back in the bowl. Pass all names out before starting the giveaways.
- The first person stands up and introduces her favorite thing/explains why it is her favorite thing. Then she passes out her “favorite things” to the four names she picked from the bowl.
- The last person to receive one of those four gifts is the next person to introduce her item, and so on.
- After everyone at the party presents her favorite thing, each person ends up with four gifts to take home.
I gave away four jars of C. Booth honey almond body butter, which I discovered in my KLUTCHclub box back in January. It is my favorite product because the scent is light so it does not clash with my perfume and it makes my legs feel silky smooth (my husband is a leg man). By the end of the night I had a bottle of scented lotion, eye make-up remover, Method foaming hand soap, a Le Madeline gift card and a box of blessings inspirational card (with bible scriptures).
A few days before the party, I finally narrowed down my choices for the menu. I decided to bake a Spinach & Artichoke pizza braid; a simple salad of tomato, mozzarella, avocado and fresh basil tossed with olive oil; Ghiradelli chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chunk brownies. When I entertain during the week, I try to do as much food prep as possible the night before the party. In this case, I made the spinach & artichoke filling for the pizza braid and mixed the cookie dough on Wednesday night. Then when I got home from work on Thursday, I just had to make the pizza dough, toss the salad, then bake the pizza braid, cookies and brownies.
Once all the food was ready, I set out the plates and napkins along with a pitcher of water and few bottles of wine. Suddenly it hit me, I had nothing else to offer my guests to drink besides water and wine! Since my guest were arriving in less than 15 minutes, I did not have time to run to the store and all I had in the pantry was Pediasure. Then I remembered that Honest Tea had sent me samples of all four flavors of their newest product, a zero calorie soda called Honest Fizz.
“Say hello to Honest Fizz, our naturally sweetened soda with zero calories and zero sugars. It’s so-da-licious you’ll wish we thought of it sooner.”
Four varieties: Root Beer, Professor Fizz, Orange Pop and Lemon Limey
• Root Beer – A zero-calorie Root Beer that’s also organic
• Professor Fizz has a unique, all-natural spiced cherry flavor
• Orange Pop – a classic taste that may seem retro, but the recipe is naturally modern!
• Lemon Limey – a tangy taste of all-natural, lime flavor
My husband, daughter and I had already tried the four flavors during a backyard barbecue the week before and we each have favorite. My daughter likes the Professor Fizz, which I compared to the taste of Cherry Dr. Pepper. My husband and I both like the organic Root Beer and my favorite is Lemon Limey.
Since my guests were arriving any minute, I just put the cold cans of Honest Fizz on ice and set out some fun straws. The ladies enjoyed trying the different flavors of Honest fizz, but their reaction to the taste was mixed. A few of the girls said they did not like the taste of the sweetener, which is stevia while others enjoyed the drinks. We don’t drink soda often at our house but I enjoy having the varity of Honest Fizz for when we order pizza on the weekends or when we have barbecues. It feels like a special treat since we normally just drink water. I would also like to experiment with the orange and lemon limey flavors with baking (told you I was pastry chef in a former life).
Would you like to taste the four flavors of Honest Fizz yourself? The folks at Honest Tea have offered to give away their new Honest Fizz products to one of my lucky readers. All you have to do is leave me a comment below and you will be entered to win. It could be about a favorite things party, which Honest Fizz flavor you want to try or the favorite dish you serve when you entertain at home.
Optional: You can earn two additional entries for the giveaway if you follow me on Instagram (foodfit4real) and follow me on Pinterest (foodfit4real), just leave me a separate comment below. (1 general comment, 1 telling me you follow me on Instagram and 1 telling me you follow me on Pinterest).
Enjoy your weekend! We have a busy one planned with a trip to the zoo and maybe an outdoor concert downtown.
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