Healthy Birthday Party Celebration

Last year we threw a golden birthday party for me. And guess what, I never shared it with you. So in honor of last years golden birthday I will share the re-cap with you on my birthday this year!

My golden birthday was something that I remember looking forward to as a little kid. Mine is at the end of the month it felt like I was looking forward to this for decades. (Well, I was, two decades). It hit me in January that 2013 was my golden birthday year and I knew I had to do something to celebrate. So, my husband decided to throw me a party, which was so, so sweet. We thought about it and planned much of it together. I didn’t want to dump all of the food responsibility on him, so I took that part of the party. To me, the food is the easy part! And, to be honest, I kind of wanted to. I have never planned a party yet that served food that was truly healthy, tasted good and everyone could eat! It was special diet approved! I also wanted to prove to everyone that healthy foods can taste amazing!

I wanted to share my party with you. Specifically the planning and food part of it. I had SO many friends say how much they loved the food at the party because it was finally a party that they could eat all of the food, even down to the desserts. And, the food wasn’t weird or wacky. Anybody would approve. It was my little way to show the world that eating healthy can be appealing, fun and most of all delicious! And my friends on special diets, yeah, they could eat everything and finally leave a party full vs. hungry because there is nothing to eat. I hope that this post inspires you for your next get-together or party you throw and helps you with what healthy recipes to choose.

The menu was appetizers and finger foods. And of course, there were drinks and dessert too, which were all grain and refined sugar free! I included pictures below so you can see the foods I made. And I can’t take credit for all of the food. Even though I planned the food, my wonderful and amazing friends made the majority of the recipes I share below. I shout out a big THANK YOU to each of you for all of your help!

The Menu

Dark chocolate covered strawberries

Sliced Apples and Peanut Butter

Cut vegetables and Hummus

Deviled Eggs (Recipe Here)

Baked Goat Cheese Dip with Basil

Steak Bites

Antipasto Bites

Trail Mix

Rice Crackers (for the people who eat grains, but not gluten)

Dessert

Refrigerator Fudge (Recipe Here)

Happy Birthday Chocolate Ganache Cake (Recipe Here)

Beverages

I had everyone take a Mason Jar and write their name on it with a glass crayon

Organic Red and White Wine

Meghan’s Margarita (made with club soda, freshly squeezed lime, stevia and white tequila)

Iced Green Tea

Grapefruit Water (Lime Stevia and Grapefruit Essential Oil)

Beer ( We had specialty beers for the party. I personally don’t drink it because of the gluten content)

The Food Table all ready to eat! I made each food to have table tents that were printed on shipping labels and then stuck to card stock. This is a super easy party idea and if you are serving food at an event with many food allergies you can also list ingredients or contains _____ (grains, dairy, nuts). You can also hand-write on the table tents too.

Deviled Eggs, Rice crackers (to dip in the hummus or the goat cheese dip), trail mix. You can see somebody digging their hand into the trail mix when this picture was snapped

Veggies with hummus, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Pre-cut apples with peanut butter, goat cheese dip and antipasto bites

We got the trail mix in bulk at our local health food store. It’s a perfect snack and finger food for people go grab and eat as the party goes on

These were going to be chocolate filled strawberries. But it became so much easier to just “dip” the strawberries in melted dark chocolate

These are one of my favorite appetizers. And they are easy. Take a half of a slice of grass-fed beef sausage, a piece of goat gouda or raw cheese, a garlic stuffed olive and put a fancy toothpick on the top. A delicious and filling bite sized snack filled with both protein and flavor

This dip is incredibly easy but it seems like you slaved away. Take an 8 ounce block of chèvre goat cheese and mix 1 Tablespoon of freshly chopped basil to it. Mix it together and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. The perfect dip for grain-free crackers (recipe here) or rice crackers

Apples and Peanut butter are so simple but everyone loves them! Cut up your apples right before serving or put them in a bowl of cold water and a little lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown if you need to pre-cut them. Serve along side of your favorite organic peanut butter

Here is the dessert table. I made chocolate ganache cake, honey sweetened fudge and I purchased some cupcakes from Whole Foods in case someone didn’t want grain free cake. Guess what?? Nobody even took a cupcake, there were 6 left at the end of the party and we fed 18 people from the grain-free chocolate cake. It was a major hit all around. Moral of that story… people want to eat the homemade desserts and healthy DOES taste great! Chocolate Ganache Cake recipe can be found here and I added 2 Tbs honey to my refrigerator fudge here