Weekends are the best, aren’t they? I think it’s mostly because it’s a few days off from work, with no alarm clocks and no set schedules, but it also means more time to spend with friends and family with great food.
As part of the DailyBuzz Healthy Living tastemakers program, I was one blogger recently selected to try out some lightlife products and have a sustainable / ecofriendly dinner party.
And, really, any excuse to get together with friends is fine with us!
My original plan was to use their new frozen veggie burgers as part of the menu, but our little town hasn’t gotten the memo yet and they weren’t in our stores. So, instead, I got to make a new twist on one of our favorite football-watching snacks!
I know most people have had pigs in a blanket, the little sausages wrapped in crescent rolls and baked. But I wanted to do a little twist on that, so I got the Lightlife Chorizo Style Sausages to use.
The Chorizo style was perfect for this! They had great flavor and a nice mix of spices that made these bites just a little bit different than your usual appetizer. (recipe at bottom of post).
We also had some local smoked brisket, beer but chicken, corn soup, and this corn maque choux that had me going back for seconds and thirds.
I love being able to get meat locally, and this brisket was just perfect! Everything was delicious, and it made losing our football sting a little less since we were eating well.
Besides keeping food local and seasonal, there are some other easy ways to cut back on waste at parties.
One easy thing to do is to use reusable cups and plates and silverware instead of paper plates and plastic silverware. I got these great cups and plates from World Market last year, and they have been perfect for cookouts and parties when I don’t want to use our heavier glass cups and plates. These won’t break, even if they’re dropped, and I can run them through the dishwasher!
The plates are really easy to clean and they stack nicely in the cabinet, too, which I like. This stack of 16 plates barely takes up any room, and I always have enough plates when we have people over without having to use our heavier, daily dishes.
If you don’t have reusable plates like this, there are companies that make bamboo-based plates and cups that are recyclable, which is another great option to help cut back on waste.
Day parties mean you don’t have to use much electricity for lighting, but if your get together goes into the night, we love to use candles or torches for light instead of sitting inside with the overhead lights or lamps on. Everything just feels cozier with candles, right?
And I’m completely obsessed with my vanilla candles sitting in coffee beans – it makes the house smell absolutely incredible, and it’s so easy to put together!
Of course, the only bad thing about using plates you can reuse is the dishes…but you save so much on trash and products that it totally makes up for it!
Do you have any tips for throwing a more sustainable party? I’ll take any excuse to have another one!
Chorizo Crescent Bites with Bourbon Maple Barbeque Sauce
Makes: about 32 bites
Ingredients:
- 2 packages Lightlight Chorizo Style sausages
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 package crescent rolls
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 tsp bourbon
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp molasses
- 1/2 tsp spicy mustard
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Put the sausages in a skillet with the 1 tsp olive oil and heat, letting the sausages crisp up on each side.
- Once the sausages are browned a little bit, remove the pan from heat.
- Open the crescent rolls and separate them. Roll one sausage up into each crescent roll and place on a baking sheet.
- Bake the sausages at 375 degrees for 14-16 minutes until the rolls are golden.
- While the sausages are baking, mix the tomato paste, water, bourbon, maple syrup, molasses, spicy mustard, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and cayenne together.
- Once the crescents are ready, let them cool for a few minutes.
- Cut each crescent sausage into 4 pieces and serve with the sauce.
This series is brought to you in partnership with Lightlife, Live long. Travel light. To learn more, click here http://www.lightlife.com.
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