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Planning 6FIT Friendly Parties

Since my daughter was born two years ago, I have strived to plan fabulous parties.  I won’t lie, I needed to live up to the parties I have seen on Pinterest.  Not being particularly creative or crafty, the bar was set high.  So far, I have two birthdays and two Christenings under my belt.  One of the biggest things I wanted to achieve was a good balance in planning the food.  Not everyone likes salad, or sweets, some people can’t eat nuts, little kids choke on lots of food items, etc. A major factor in my food planning was that I was in 6FIT during 3 of these parties so I had to have healthy alternatives I could fall back on and not get sucked into eating chips, cake and ice cream all day.  

Caoimhe’s 1st Birthday was the party that HAD to be the best.  It was her first, after all and obviously she would remember it forever.  So, against my husband’s better judgment, I invited 10 of her “closest” friends and our entire family and shoved them all into our 2 bedroom apartment at the end of January with nowhere for kids to run.  My theme: Winter “One”derland.  Clever huh?  Thanks, Pinterest.  I served an assortment of vegetables, healthy homemade paninis (vegetarian option available), not so healthy Framingham Bakery Pizza (if you are from the Metrowest, you must serve this at all major life changing events), mini organic Mac N’ Cheese Bites and cupcakes for the littles and cake, of course.  Beer and Sangria for the big people.  I made sure to keep my water bottle full at all times and while I indulged in a slice of cake and a couple Amstels, I was highly motivated not to go overboard.  This picture obviously doesn’t include the whole spread, but here it is anyway:

  

Next up was Caoimhe’s Christening in October.  I only had to plan it twice, thanks to non-hurricane Irene.  Immediate family and our closest friends were invited...Duh, so much easier and so much less pressure.  Still, I wanted everything to look nice.  I kept it simple with homemade healthy Jambalaya, Pulled Pork, Chili salad, veggies and cake.  Did someone say Crockpot? I went to Panara and bought some nice bread bowls for the chili.  I thought this was a nice assortment of Fall comfort food that wasn’t loaded with fat.  Plus everyone loves Chili, right?  I’m not going to share a picture of this party because the only one I can find is one of a bowl of tortilla chips and a couple of cucumbers.  Not exactly balanced.

Having learned my lesson from the first birthday, we invited only immediate family and Caoimhe’s best friend to the second birthday.  This was my favorite party to put together and even though there were only three kids (and two babies) there, the look on my daughter’s face when she saw the theme was well worth it.  This party took place during 6FIT week 1 and it was the water cleanse! At this point, I am really conscious about what I feed myself, my kids and other people’s kids.  Our theme was Gruffalo’s Child (look it up if you have kids- great books!) I made the trusty Jambalaya for the adults (which included my sister who is also doing 6FIT- extra motivation to do the right thing at a party).  For the kids we had Roasted Fox (organic chicken nuggets), Orange Eyes (easy peel clementines), Poisonous Warts (green grapes), Scrambled Snake (gummy worms), Gruffalo Pie (mini pies pops- sweets, yes, but only about 75 calories per pop) and Owl Nests (chocolate covered pretzels).  Gruffalo Tea was also served (Milk and Juice boxes).  Along with the amazing cake I ordered, I thought the spread was really well balanced between sweets and healthy and I felt good at the end of the day having stuck to my healthy eating.

 

Last, but not least was my little man’s Christening.  The same small group of people were invited, plus family over from Ireland.  My husband and I agreed on serving pulled pork and sandwiches.  His idea of serving a sandwich is ham and cheese on buttered Wonder Bread cut into quarters (would you like yours with or without crust?).  My idea of serving sandwiches is a selection of organic deli meats on artisan breads with condiments and fixings on the side so people can decide what they want.  On top of that, it was Dairy Free week for 6FIT and I don’t want butter smothered on all of my sandwiches.  I can only blame his Irish heritage on this.  Anyway, to avoid a dispute, I compromised and buttered a few sandwiches and did the rest the way I wanted to.  After all that, everyone ate the pulled pork for the most part anyway.  In addition to sandwiches, I served an assortment of raw veggies. I was bored with plain old broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, etc so I spiced it up a bit and served mini assorted peppers, carrots, mini cucumber- sliced and sweet peapods.  It looked cute and seemed less boring.  My mom made a nice salad with cranberries and feta, which I didn’t eat because of the cheese, but it looked yummy!  Cake and Bellini’s topped off the spread.  Again, I drank my water and munched on raw veggies throughout the day and used the 80/20 rule for a cheese free ½ sandwich and a small portion of pulled pork. 

Things I keep in mind when planning food for a party…keep it simple- the less ingredients, the better.  Remember food allergies are on the rise, so don’t serve allergen foods at all if you aren’t familiar with the kids coming, choose foods that you think everyone will like, but remember- you can’t make everyone happy. Have a vegetarian option.  Have lots of veggies to counteract the sweets.  Remember the 80/20 rule and don’t beat yourself up over indulging in a slice of cake (it is a party, after all).