Birthday party help!

[crunchy_mommy]

What do you normally do for food for parties?

NO ONE I know in real life is vegan. Everyone coming to my DS's birthday party is going to want the typical junk food & wouldn't touch a vegan cake with a 10-ft pole.

I guess what I'm thinking of doing is just buy all that junk and also a few healthy vegan things that DS, DH, & I can eat. And make a vegan cake and buy a bakery cake... or maybe cupcakes instead of having 2 separate cakes?

I just bought $15 of paper party supplies & feel like crap lol... It seems so wasteful but it doesn't seem festive without some COLOR etc.

Anyway... so what do you normally do when you throw a party? It's DS's 1st birthday, I know he won't remember it but of course I still want it to be special

ETA: It will be all (or almost all) adults, we don't have friends/family with young kids.

[MountainMamaGC]

I cant tell the difference between vagan cake and normal cake. I would make a vegan cake and not say its vegan. Have a fruit/veggie platter with dip, some potato/nacho chips, and since its adults, make some crock pot chilli. Vegan chilli is awesome.

[notjustmamie]

Originally Posted by Lydiah

I cant tell the difference between vagan cake and normal cake. I would make a vegan cake and not say its vegan. Have a fruit/veggie platter with dip, some potato/nacho chips, and since its adults, make some crock pot chilli. Vegan chilli is awesome.

I agree. Just don't tell people. Fruits, veggies, chips and salsa, pita and hummus--that's what I would serve at a party and I'm not even veggie!

[mumkimum]

Yeah, most vegan cakes are done pretty well - check out the vegan cupcake book! If you're really concerned, I've found that recipes that use a bit of vinegar turn out really fluffy (and are particularly moist) and you really couldn't tell the difference texture-wise.

Vegan chili is a great idea - you could do grilled polenta or mini cornbreads with it too, pasta salad, veggies, fruits, chips, salsa. You could 'splurge' on grated cheese for the guests that you won't eat, but I don't think you really need to go very not-vegan with your foods.

[crunchy_mommy]

Hmm I'm not convinced it will go over well with my guests but I guess I could try!! Typical party food around here is cheese doodles and pepperoni rolls and stuff... but I really would love to throw a vegan party!!! I just hope my guests wouldn't feel...cheated or whatever.

[notjustmamie]

I think if you serve people some good "heavy" food with good fats (maybe make some guacamole, too) nobody will miss the animal products. They may not even notice!

[Sayward]

Make them a bunch of vegan junk food and they won't even notice the difference -

crockpot chili 'frito pie' (fritos are vegan!)

7 layer dip with a nutritional yeast cheese sauce (make it one of the middle layers, not the top) and tofutti better than sour cream

something deep fried (those Trader Joes veggie wontons?)

vegan cupcakes, but make them with white flour, real sugar, lots of Earthbalance, etc. This is not the time for 'whole wheat maple syrup muffins', haha.

Stuff like that! I bet you nobody will even notice.

[crunchy_mommy]

Haha yeah I guess if I give up the idea of a whole wheat low sugar etc. cake maybe they will actually eat it

Thanks for the ideas, keep 'em coming!! I'll actually have FUN making a vegan party I think!!

Does Whole Foods have natural food coloring?

Trader Joe's wontons, YUM...

[MountainMamaGC]

Oh veggie spring rolls with some kind of dipping sauce.

I agree about the guacamole. Who doesnt like that?

If they are hungry they will eat and if not, whatever.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

Does Whole Foods have natural food coloring?

Yes they do. They also have very good vegan b-day cakes that really aren't noticeably vegan. They also have cake mixes.

I would pick a food theme that can be easily done vegan. I would go for mediterainian. I would serve:

• Pita bread (freshly toasted would be great, don't get whole wheat they will notice it's vegan)
• Hummus d'tahini
• baba'gnosh
• Falafel (serve with tahini sauce, tomato and lettuce)
• taboleh
• cuscus (I like to use broth to cook it and I and frozen pees, here you do want the whole grain it's much more flavorful and has a heartier texture.)
• Stuffed grape leaves
• Olives (visit the olive bar and get a large variety.)
• grilled vegetable kabobs.
• green salad
• baklava

(My spell checker was useless on that forgive the spelling.)

Between the variety, filling nature and exotic lack of familiarity of the food they probably on't notice that it all happens to be vegan.

I would avoid vegan verions of things, that are typically non-vegan most people notice the difference. Just stick to things that are vegan in their everyday forms.

[catnip]

We're serving veggie Pirate's Booty, veggies with a cashew-based dip, cut up fruit, and a homemade chocolate cake. I realized that when my daughter joined us on the vegan wagon, I was going to have to learn to decorate them well.

For her first birthday, I did a vanilla sheet cake, for her second birthday, we did chocolate cupcakes with these: http://www.newmansownorganics.com/food_alphabet.html# (the chocolate ones are vegan) spelling out Happy Birthday Kaia on the cupcakes.

For her third birthday, she wanted a pink cake, so we did little pink heart shaped cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting and sprinkles.

Last year we got ambitious and made a castle cake with ice-cream-cone towers. It was awesome. This year, I'm doing a chocolate pirate ship. Wish me luck.



I agree with the ethnic food suggestions. Samosas, potstickers, spring rolls, and the like are usually hits with my omni friends.

[crunchy_mommy]

Wooohoooo you guys are awesome, thanks for all the ideas!!!!!

Last question, what about drinks?? Would coffee, juice, seltzer be good or should we have Coke & Sprite?

[mumkimum]

Drink wise, if you don't want to have soda around I'd recommend having some iced tea or lemonade (possibly sparkling lemonade) as most people like those and there are def. good quality ones you can get easily.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

Last question, what about drinks?? Would coffee, juice, seltzer be good or should we have Coke & Sprite?

If you do "coffee, juice, seltzer," Then I would also include tea and milk. I would make it a variety of juices, not just one kind such as both both apple and orange. Even if you went the soda route, I would still include the seltzer. If there will be many 2-8 yo I would also include juice.

There are more exciting and festive drink possibilities too; such as Martinelli's sparkling cider, Trader Joe's strawberry lemonade, San Pellegrino, etc.

[Ianthe]

Our standard Bday party is vegan cupcakes (From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World), chips/salsa, hummus/pita, potato chips, pasta salad and drinks. All of which is vegan, and no one has ever complained. They won't even realize the meat and cheese is missing!

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

Wooohoooo you guys are awesome, thanks for all the ideas!!!!!

Last question, what about drinks?? Would coffee, juice, seltzer be good or should we have Coke & Sprite?

For drinks we do beer for the adults who drink it, and juice boxes for the kids. Also water and natural soda.