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| Anne, Evi, me, Sarah, Sarah, Amy |
Sunday night, I had the fantastic opportunity to join a dinner put on by my friend Sarah, who is the founder of a very cool new company called Why Food Works.
Sarah is a registered dietician in the DC-area who does consulting but in addition, has started this fun, educational business to teach people about nutrition and have a good time while doing it.
What’s the fun? Nutritional and educational dinner parties! Think Groupon and Living Social awesomeness with friends. Sarah’s parties are perfect for a fun Friday night — something different than the bars or the movies. Here’s how it works:
Where: Dinner Parties are available in the greater Washington DC area (within a 15 mile radius of the city center; surcharge applies for each mile beyond 15)
Who: Minimum 4 guests, maximum 8.
Price: $60 per person – the host receives 50% off marked price.$8 per person for wine pairing (roughly 2 full servings per person)
How: All food, kitchen gadgets, utensils, plates, and glasses are provided – you won’t have to clean up!
We gathered a group of six local bloggers to try out the dinner party and see how we liked it. Any excuse to get together with bloggers is okay by me — and we really had a fun time chatting, learning and eating. Luckily, Amy offered to host this lovely evening!
We started with a veggie appetizer with homemade greek yogurt ranch dip — and wine of course:
Ranch Dip:
- 1/2 tsp. dried onions
- 1/2 tsp. onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. dried chives
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 plain 6-oz greek yogurt
Next up, we headed to the kitchen for Sarah to begin preparing the main meal, which was Savory salmon cakes with goat cheese sauce [AMAZING!], lemon-garlic broccoli, and oat risotto with mushrooms and kale.
As Sarah prepared the food, she gave us all kinds of good details about the ingredients, how easy it was to make and why she chose to put certain foods together for this particular meal. Of course we all chit chatted about a million different things along the way (we were girls drinking wine!) Plus, Anne is also an RD so she and Sarah had a lot of stuff to discuss!
And, being bloggers, we snapped away taking photos and listening intently!
I didn’t mind not cooking and watching someone else do it for me, I won’t lie — and it was nice to hear helpful tidbits of info on what we were eating and why.
**After the meal, Sarah provided everyone with a nice copy of the recipe, which included a photo and notes on why this food “works” in a healthy way for participants. I thought this was a great added touch for the end of the evening.
By the time dinner was ready, we were all more than ready to eat:
It looked delicious! I seriously need more of these healthy recipes in my life. The thing with me is, I totally love healthy food. Sometimes, I just don’t know what to make or it is not the easiest thing to have ingredients for off the bat. Getting a few staple items and meals on your list will go a long way and I just added this awesome meal to my long term list!
Check out this primo meal:
My favorite thing about this meal was definitely the goat cheese sauce but everything tasted awesome. The tastes all complemented each other extremely well and I’m such a sucker for any kind of well-roasted and seasoned veggies so the broccoli was perfect for me.
The oat risotto was a new concept but I totally loved the texture and taste together with the kale and mushroom. Look at all those veggies — a healthy living bloggers dream!
Lots of hanging out and chatting during and after the meal, while we waited for everyone’s favorite part — dessert!
I was excited to try Sarah’s coconut cheesecake with berries. Didn’t seem like that could go wrong! She had actually made the dessert first, then stuck it in the fridge to get hard so it would be ready for us to eat after dinner.
Loved the extra plump strawberries that came with this cake as well 🙂 Luckily, Sarah posted the recipe and some more tidbits about this cake on her blog.
The best thing about all of this was that it was filling but not too filling. I completed the night feeling the perfect amount of full but not wanting anymore. And…no guilt!
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| Lindsay, me, Amy |
The whole party takes about 3 hours so it really is great for a weekend night. Sarah said she recently did a party for a group of girlfriends but they can also be tailored to your needs. Right now, she has a few different menus up that are available (scroll down here to see options.) However, if you have a special request, she is open to hearing you out.
Thinking about it? Here’s a few more details:
You will learn:
- Some basic cooking skills
- 3 of my fool-proof tips for making sure any meal or snack you eat is healthy (in ANY diet or eating pattern)
- How to maximize nutrition by pairing foods with complementary nutrients
- How to eat mindfully to increase satisfaction
- Strategies for making good choices without feeling deprived
- Tips and tricks for hosting a dinner party your friends will talk about for months!
I’m thinking birthday and holiday gifts are perfect for these. I recently did a couples cooking class in someone’s home and this reminded me of that. It’s one of those “outside the box” activities that can really snazz up your weekend 🙂
Long story short — Why Food Works is a great experience and will leave with a fun, memorable time with friends. Hope you will check it out!
Also, stay in touch with Sarah and Why Food Works on social media by following her on Twitter and Facebook!