Ice cream, cake and beer don't have to be on the menu for your birthday party, especially if you're trying to start a healthy and nutritious lifestyle. Nobody has to ditch health while planning and hosting a party because low-calorie treats and healthy cocktails can be just as delicious and enjoyable. Among party prepping, such as adorning your home with festive birthday decorations and sending invitations, plan a low-calorie and healthy birthday menu with the following ideas:
Fruity Birthday Cake
Bypass the store-bought chocolate and vanilla sheet cake, and go for the freshly baked homemade route. Even if it's not a traditional birthday cake, a homemade decadent dessert will still please palates. Fruit pizza is a healthy birthday cake alternative that is both delicious, colorful and pretty. The KraftRecipes.com fruit pizza recipe recommends spreading refrigerated cookie dough on a foiled pizza pan and baking for 14 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
After it's cooled, turn the "crust" over onto a plate and spread "frosting" made of blended PHILADELPHIA cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Top with fresh fruit of your choice (e.g. strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, kiwi, banana slices). Mix lump-free apricot preserves with water and brush over fruit. Chill the pizza and serve with birthday candles!
Sweet & Skinny Cupcakes
To complement the birthday cake, bake a homemade delicious low-calorie sprinkle cupcakes that taste like sugary goodness without all the calories. Six Sister's Stuff's Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes are guilt-free and only 110 calories per cupcake. The recipe requires the powder from one package of Pillsbury Funfetti Cake Mix, a 12-ounce can of Spite as well as Fat-Free Cool Whip and Fat-Free Vanilla Jello Instant Pudding for the frosting.
Mix the cake powder and Sprite together, and pour the batter into 24 cupcake holder-lined cupcake tins. While cupcakes bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, prepare the frosting by whisking the Cool Whip and instant pudding mix together in a bowl. Spread the frosting over cupcakes, top with sprinkles and display on a tiered cake stand for all to lust after.
Drinks & Cocktails
A birthday isn't a celebration unless you have a drink in your hand to cheers with. Keep the calories low with the following homemade cocktail concoctions that your guests will gush over.
Break out your bartending skills and serve any of FitSugar.com's homemade cocktail recipes that are less than 200 calories:
- Mojito: Mix together ice, zero-calorie soda water with a shot of Barcardi or Cruzan Estate Light Rum. Add one teaspoon of sugar to each serving, squeeze the juice of half a lime and stir in mint sprigs. For flavorful flair, add strawberries, mangoes or pomegranates.
- Margarita: Pour 1.5 ounces of 100 percent agave blanco tequila, lime juice and Cointreau liqueur over ice. Add a drop of agave syrup for sweetness.
- Ginger Fizz: Show off your bartending skills and shake together 1.5 ounces of ginger vodka with fresh lime juice and an ounce of ginger syrup. Pour into an ice-filled glass and top with soda water.
- (Ginger syrup: Boil and simmer for 10 minutes 2.5 cups of water, 1 cup of superfine sugar and 1 cup of ginger, ground finely.)
Guests will enjoy the unique, reinvigorating taste of ginger and its added nutritional bonuses. Ginger helps cleanse and restore your body. Serve cocktails with healthy appetizers such as hummus and pita slices, apple chicken quesadillas or asparagus roll-ups.
Author Bio: Katherine Dewey is a nutritionist, Pilates instructor and Spinninng freak, Katherine shares healthy recipes and innovations in exercise and workout equipment. She is the health nut among family and firends.