We are continuing our series on how to cook what is in season. So far I’ve been loving gathering these amazing recipes and putting them into one resource for you. I hope you are enjoying it also!

Before we jump into the recipes I have to share this tool. I love mine:

It’s a Pineapple Corerand well worth the $10 on Amazon!

Side Dishes

• Pineapple and Cucumber Guacamole
• Pineapple Salsa Cups
• Broiled Caramelized Pineapple
• Pineapple-Cilantro Quinoa
• Asian Caramelized Pineapple Recipe

Soups & Salads

• Cucumber, Tomato, and Pineapple Salad with Asian Dressing
• Moxie’s Walking On Sunshine Salad
• Pineapple Melon Mint Cold Summer Soup
• Quinoa Salad with Jicama and Pineapple Salsa
• Spicy Pineapple Soup with Fresh Herbs

Meals

• Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Skewers

• Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Turkey Burgers
• Salmon with Spicy Cucumber-Pineapple Salsa
• Pineapple and Ham Grilled Cheese Sandwich on Hawaiian Bread
• Tropical Breakfast Quinoa

Extras

• Avocado Pineapple Smoothie
• Spicy Pineapple-Coconut Ice Pops
• Pineapple Coconut Cilantro Popsicles 
• Pineapple Bliss Cupcakes
• Homemade Pineapple Jam

• Pineapple & Cottage Cheese Yum

Want more? Check out more pineapple recipes on:

A lot of the above recipes are with canned but you can easily substitute fresh!

Do you prefer canned pineapple or fresh? 

This month Zarek turned one year old. Which is a big milestone. Babies learn so much in their first year and grow and change so much. For parents this is something that has to be celebrated. Their baby is turning one year old.

Last week we talked about figuring out the theme for the party.  This week we will be talking about invitations and decorations. You have lots of options for your invitations and decorations. If you are super crafty or super frugal you have great options.

Prepackaged

You could purchase your invitations and decorations prepackaged from the store. This is dependent on your theme too. But try and think out of the box too. Having an under the sea party find fish themed cards and use blue and  green streamers too make your guests feel under water. You don’t have to just look at invitations trying to find just the right thing look at blank note cards too. Make sure and look in wedding sections and baby shower sections for decorations too.

You could check out party stores, card stores, paper stores, target, walmart, and/or online. Search google for your theme and invitations just search images to get great ideas. You may be surprised what you find.

Some other great online resources:

• Oriental Trading Company -  They have an okay selection. They have themes like cowgirl, trucks, princess, jungle, “planes, trains and automobiles”, Disney Princess, and more.
• Birthday Express – They even have a section of just 1st birthday party themes. They have a huge selection of items to choose from.
• Tickled Pink Designs – Here is a good site to find even more invitations. They specialize in invitations only, but they have a huge selection of designs.
• InvitationBox – You can find some amazing cards here. Great place to just browse and find theme ideas too!

Photo Card Invitations

Photo Card invitations have become a huge trend lately. At first you saw photo cards mainly around Christmas, but now we are seeing them for all kinds of occasions and for birthdays more and more.

You can find some great pre-designed cards at these sites:

• TinyPrints – They have a huged selection! Great place to find any kind of card you may ever need.
• Shutterfly – Shutterfly is known for their photo printing, but they also offer photocard templates too!

Custom Photo Card Designs

Another option is you can hire someone to make a custom invitation. They can create an invitation for any kind of theme imaginable. Just give them some ideas of what you are looking for and the text you need on the card.

You can go on etsy to request custom made photo cards and have the designer print them or just send you the digital file. Visit the alchemy section of etsy and ask someone to create something specifically for you.

I do it for very inexpensive, only $15 for a custom card design. I send you a file you can print at your favorite local or online printer.

I created the above invitation for Zarek and had it printed online, I had free credits for 5×7 photos, and only had to pay shipping. I used envelopes I had already in our house. So his invitations were very inexpensive, but everyone raved about them.

Hand Made

If you are crafty, or know someone who is who may help you, you could create handmade invitations. There are great products out there like stickers, stamps, and scrapbook paper that you could use to make a great cards, cupcake toppers, decorate bags for goodies and more. I am sure that you will have people who will rave about how crafty and talented you are.

You could also go onto etsy to hire someone to create these invitations or decorations for you. You can either find a shop that has premade , banners, cupcake toppers, lollypops and even more. Or you can ask on alchemy for some to create a custom invitation for you. You will find some great talented people who will love helping you out.

Evite

Running out of time don’t be afraid to use evite to send out your invitations. They have lots of invitations/themes to choose from. And you will probably get more RSVPs with evites and less “drop in guests”.

Later this week we will be talking about food for your party. And who doesn’t love talking about food!

This month Zarek is turning one year old. For Zane I planned such a great birthday party. I wanted to make sure that Zarek’s birthday is just as grand as Zane’s was. I will be sharing with you my plan step by step to make the Perfect First Birthday Party.

Choose Your Theme

The first thing you need is the perfect theme. This can be the most fun part of the planning or the most frustrating, but it’s all in how you look at it. There are some great websites to give you ideas. One of my favorite’s is:

Birthday Party Ideas

Think about some of your little one’s favorite things or your favorite things to do with your little one. Obviously a one year old doesn’t tell you in words what their favorite things are. But think about their favorite food? Do they have a favorite toy or stuffed animal? Do you always read the same book to them every night? Or you can do a theme around a color, the theme of their room, or just something fun.

Some Ideas For You

Some of my favorite themes:

• Balloons (Zane’s first birthday theme)
• Camouflage Green or Pink
• Bubbles
• Prince/Princesses
• Cupcakes
• Bugs
• ABCs
• Animal Crackers (do everything in animals)
• Fishy
• Butterfly
• Nursery Rhymes
• Circus
• Trucks/Construction
• Cowboy/girl
• Dinos
• Dr Suess
• On the Farm
• Winnie the Pooh
• Rainbow
• Rubber Ducky
• Stars and Moons
• Star Wars
• Sunshine
• Tea Party
• Train Party
• ABCs
• Robots
• Pirates

Be creative think outside the box.

Six Categories

Write down 3-5 of your ideas for themes on the top of a piece of paper.  Write these six categories under each theme:

1. Invitations
2. Decorations
3. Games/Entertainment/Craft*
4. Cake
5. Food
6. Goodie Bags

*With a one year old you may not play games but you may want your guests write notes to your little one or have trivia about your little one or about the theme.

Brainstorming

Now it’s time for you to brainstorm for each theme you are considering. Write down quick ideas for each of these categories. Just write basic ideas down later on you will expand your ideas once you have chosen your theme. What you want to do is see if you can fill up each category and see which theme you start to get excited about, that sounds the most fun.

Zarek’s Example

Zarek is going to have a Cheerios themed birthday party. Here is a rough draft I created to plan his party.

1. Invitations: Modify a picture of a cheerios box with the party details
2. Decorations: Yellow: yellow balloons, streamers,  plates, etc.
3. Games/Entertainment/Craft: String Cheerios on a necklace, slide show of the year
4. Cake: I’m thinking about making a round cake to look like a big cheerio
5. Food: Cheerio Rice Crispy Treats, Donuts, Cheerio Chex Mix
6. Goodie Bags: Single Servings of Cheerios, Cheerio Cereal bars, Spoon and bowl

This is all about having fun with your theme. Don’t feel like everything has to match. Your one year old will never know that they didn’t have all yellow balloons. Or that the cake wasn’t perfect. Take the stress out of the planning, just have fun!

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, all about party invitations and decorations.

Our decorations are up, I have my Christmas cards ready to address and send out, and I have cookie dough ready in the freezer. We are ready to start having some Christmas guests. Are you?

Tonight I am going to share with you some of my favorite appetizer recipes out of my all time favorite cookbook. To give you an idea how much I love this book I have a funny story for you.

I was planning a party coming up soon so as I was going to work I scooped up my cookbook. But when I arrived at work I couldn’t find it. That’s when I realized I must have left it on the roof of the car. I loved that book I was so upset.

I decided to do the unthinkable. I was the only one working that day and it was a Sunday and we rarely had anyone come into the shop on Sundays. So I through up a sign saying I would be back in 45 min and left. I drove home searching along the road all the way looking for my book. I had no luck. I got back to work late, but no one even noticed I was missing.

I called my husband crying because I was so distraught over loosing the cookbook. He promised to take me out to Powell’s Books and buy me a used copy that night and we did. I was so happy to have a new copy of my book.

The name of the book is Favorite Brand Name 4 Ingredient Cookbook (aff link). So on to some of my favorite recipes from the book.

Hot Artichoke Dip

• 1 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing or Kraft Real Mayonnaise
• 1 cup (4 oz) Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 (14-oz) can artichoke hearts, drained, chopped

1. Heat Oven to 350F
2. Mix all ingredients: spoon into 9in pie plate or 2 cup casserole
3. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Garnish as desired. Serve with tortilla chips, crackers or party rye bread slices

Philadelphia Cranberry Orange Spread

• 1 package (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup cranberry orange sauce
• 3 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted

1. Spread cream cheese on serving plate
2. Top with sauce, sprinkle with pecans. Serve with crackers.

Tortellini Kabobs with Pesto Ranch Dip

• 1/2 bag (16oz) frozen tortellini
• 1 1/4 cups ranch salad dressing
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried basil leaves

1. Cook tortellini according to package directions. Rinse and drain under cold water. Thread tortellini onto bamboo skewers. 2 tortellini per skewer. (Or if you do not want to deal with skewers everywhere just use toothpicks)

Combine salad dressing, cheese, garlic and basil in small bowl. Serve tortellini kabobs with dip.

Chunky Hawaiian Spread

• 1 package (3oz) light cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup fat free or light sour cream
• 1 can (8oz) Dole Crushed Pineapple, well-drained
• 1/4 cup mango chutney* (which I have never used in this recipe)
• Low Fat Crackers

*If there are large pieces of fruit in the chutney, cut into small pieces

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, pineapple and chutney in bowl until blended. Cover and chill 1 hour or overnight. Serve with crackers. Refrigerate any leftover spread in airtight container for up to one week.

Cheese Creme Dip

• 1 package (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 jar (7oz) marshmallow creme

1. Mix cream cheese and marshmallow creme with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Refrigerate.
2. Serve with assorted cut-up fresh fruit or pound cake cubes. Garnish as desired.

Now I am hungry. I have made all of these for multiple parties I have had and have had rave reviews (especially the Hawaiian Spread).

Tomorrow I will be doing my December meme about family traditions. So if you want to share your family traditions, come on over tomorrow and link up!

If you would like some more yummy recipes please visit Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. Or you can go to Simply Sugar and Gluten Free to find more appetizer, mocktail, and cocktail recipes.