A few weekends ago, on a Friday night, I decided to host a Girls Night with several of my closest friends. A few of them couldn’t make it but the ones that did, we had a great time! Three of my closest friends and I met while we were in nursing school at William Paterson University and we’ve been friends ever since. One of those friends introduced the rest of us to two other girls and we’ve been a tight-knit group ever since. As life has gone by – college graduations, marriages, jobs and job-loss, ends of relationships, engagements, new opportunities; we’ve always been able to still make time for each other and hang out pretty regularly. And I cherish my friendships with each and every one of them.
I searched for about a week on Pinterest for a few ideas and printables that I could use for the party. I decided to set everything up in the living room including the food table and bar area and I blew up an air mattress in front of the sofa facing the tv. I wanted easy access to everything and still be comfortable watching movies and hanging out.
I made these lips for the straws for our glasses. I found a tutorial online on how to make these lips and thought they’d be the perfect detail to the party.
I decided to make a mocktail and anyone that wanted to make a cocktail out of it could just add Tito’s vodka to it. The mocktail I decided to go with was pretty simple to make. It consisted of pineapple juice, cranberry juice and ginger ale. The recipe called for limes and fresh cranberries to be added to it, but I opted out on them. The mocktail tasted delicious and even better with the Tito’s 😉
The appetizers were all comfort foods. I made pizza pinwheels with pizza sauce, Mac n’ Cheese bites, sausage bites with Dijon mustard, peanut butter fruit dip with apples, bananas and pretzels, cake batter dip with animal crackers and a pull-apart cheese bread. Everything was delicious and hit the spot perfectly.
The peanut butter fruit dip was absolutely delicious. I could have eaten it with a spoon and it was pretty healthy as well – peanut butter, Greek yogurt and honey. I cut up apples, bananas and pretzels and served them with the dip. It was very addicting!
The cheesy pull-apart bread was phenomenal. Simply cut the loaf of bread diagonally and then across and fill each crevice with a mixture of garlic, melted butter and seasonings. Absolute heaven. Each bite was filled with a hunk of bread, cheese and buttery goodness.
Mac n’ Cheese bites are the ultimate comfort food. I love anything that has to do with pasta and cheese and thought these would be perfect for a girls night. What girl doesn’t love mac n’ cheese? I decided that making them in a muffin tin would be perfect for individual servings. The part about these that are extra special is a bottom layer crust of crushed Ritz crackers mixed with cheddar cheese and melted butter. Absolutely divine.
Another dip I had made was a cake batter dip. Super easy. Funfetti cake mix, plain Greek yogurt and cool whip . I added more cool whip because I felt the dip was super sweet and thick and the cool whip toned down the sweetness and the consistency became smoother. At first I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but it definitely grew on me and I think it’d be an excellent addition to any party. I served it with plain and chocolate animal crackers.
Now for my Pinterest fail and it was definitely a Pinterest fail. I made pizza pinwheels and they were delicious, however I decided to use premade pizza dough instead of following the recipe and making my own dough. This is how most of the so-called pinwheels came out:
They were pretty much flat pancakes of pizza sauce and cheese. The ones that were most like pinwheels looked like these:
In the morning after we had woken up, I served hot coffee, fresh mimosas and a small breakfast buffet. I set everything up the night before on my kitchen island and pre-cut some of the ingredients for the breakfast food the day before. I always like to plan ahead, it just makes it easier on me and things flow more smoothly.
Foodwise I had a fresh fruit salad, mini waffle and fruit skewers and mini egg muffins. Everything was delicious and worked perfect with each other.
The mini waffles and fruit skewers were scrumptious. I toasted the waffles in the toaster and then spread Nutella on one side and skewered on a strawberry and alternated with a waffle and banana. Super easy and I bet any kid would love them!
The mini egg muffins were also really good and easy. I decided to do two different ones – peppers and cheese or broccoli and cheese. The day before, I washed and cut the green and red peppers and broccoli so they’d be ready to go in the morning. The only downfall to them was it took awhile for them to cook in the oven. I had the oven on 350 degrees and what I thought would take 20-30 minutes, ended up taking closer to an hour. Next time, I’ll increase the temperature to 400 and see if that’ll work. Other than that, these muffins would be perfect for easy on-the-go breakfast in the morning. They were great!
And of course the best part of the morning were the mimosas 😉
I love entertaining and spending time with friends and family, even for a simple Girls Night In. Just hanging out, munching on some appetizers and enjoying a few cocktails, having those special moments, making memories with the ones that you love. That’s what’s important in life.
xoxo,
Katie