Oscars Party Planning

Are you hosting or going to an Oscars party? Here are some simple party planning strategies.

1. Strategically place light party foods throughout the house like: fruit platters, shrimp cocktail, air popped popcorn, trail mix.
2. Put away the candy dishes. One ounce of m & m's has 140 calories, mindless snacking from candy dishes can pile up the calories in a hurry!
3. Have a 90/10 rule: 90 percent healthy items, 10 percent splurge! This will still allow for plenty of delicious goodies.
4. Lighten-up party heavy weights. For example: instead of chicken wings, make baked chicken fingers and serve with hot sauce, barbecue sauce, or light ranch dressing. And have plenty of sliced carrots and celery on the side for dipping!
5. Try a new recipe! Grab my Wasabi Avocado Dip with Crispy Wonton Chips recipe.

Last but not least, focus more on spending time with your guests and take some of the emphasis off of food!

Cooking with Kids - Try it!

My tip of the day is if you have kids in your life, cook with them! The kitchen can surely get a bit messy but it is totally worth it. Frequently I cook with our three and one year old and we make everything from oatmeal at breakfast to quinoa for dinner. Five of the best parts:
1. You get to spend time with your children.
2. It makes meal preparation more eventful.
3. It will get them excited about the meal.
4. They will be more likely to eat what you make.
5. You can answer 1000+ questions about the foods (e.g. where does oatmeal come from?).

Need a recipe to try? Grab my Grilled Asparagus and Quinoa Salad recipe.

The only downside is more cleanup but get them to help with that too! Share your cooking with your kids story with me via my Web site, click here.