My very second dinner party

During the Christmas season, I hosted a fabulous dinner party for my nearest and dearest.

We worked our way through a healthy selection of appetizers, including a veggies & hummus dish and, of course, brie cheese and crackers.  For the main course, I made a healthy sweet potato casserole (with a recipe courtesy of Tone It Up) and a big salad with add-in grilled chicken – in honor of Seinfeld, my brother’s and my newfound obsession.  For dessert, I melted milk chocolate over whole-wheat pretzels and topped them with crushed peppermint.  We ate the pretzels over fresh vanilla bean ice cream.  Do I have to say it again?  It. was. fabulous.

The story behind the Big Salad:

In fact, I had such a great (and easy!) time hosting a party that I decided I would have another to ring in the summertime.  Once I established a date, time, and guest list, I had only one more task: what would I cook??

With less than a week left until the big night, I need to choose recipes and test them (always important!).  So far, I’m thinking about serving this menu:

Appetizers

• Tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa (all homemade!)
• Baby carrots and celery with hummus

Dinner

• Spicy Black Bean Stuffed Peppers from Can You Stay For Dinner
• Cinnamon Lime Quiona from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton (my favorite vegan cookbook to date!)

Dessert

• 100-calorie moist chocolate cupcakes from Can You Stay For Dinner topped with the best frosting I’ve ever had from the Pioneer Woman.
• I may lay out a selection of Not chocolate dipped strawberries inspired from How Sweet It Is.

Yum.  I’m salivating already.  One of the perks of playing hostess is that I get to taste-test all of the dishes before I serve them. =)

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