Going Green in Style

How to Throw an Eco-Friendly Dinner Party

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Dinner parties are fun to host and if you are thinking about the next holiday event, you are likely planning to send out beautifully printed invites, serving a few gourmet meat dishes, saving dishwashing time with disposable plates and finally waving goodbye to your fulfilled guests as they hop in their cars to head back home. If any of these activities is in your plans, your party may not be environmentally friendly. From leftovers to paper and energy waste, dinner parties, regardless of size, can leave a detrimental carbon footprint.

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Introduction

With simple yet innovative changes, you can do the environment (and your pockets) a favor. Whether you are planning a Thanksgiving gathering or dreaming of an intimate party with a few close friends, whether you are a planning pro or new to hosting, Going Green in Style is a how-to guide that will help you make your party eco-friendly. Read on for more examples of small changes you can make to green your dinner party.

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Let’s Go Green!

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Planning & Organization Preparing the Menu

Choosing the Theme Reducing Party Waste Going Green

Planning and Organization

Planning in the most important aspect of organizing a successful green dinner party so the first steps you should take is to determine the date of your party and create a guest list. Whether planning a big family gathering or an intimate affair with few friends, knowing the number of people coming to your party is pertinent in cutting back on waste. Invite your guests early, preferably two or more weeks ahead of time. This will give them time to RSVP and will give you more time to plan. The comfort of your guests is a primary goal, so think about compatibility, tastes, ages, and the ambiance you want to create.

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Lists are absolutely essential for any party as they free your mind to be creative with the food, fun, and decor. Once you finalize a theme for your dinner party, create a list of decorations and food you need. Menu items should be listed in the order you will be serving them. Check through each recipe carefully and make sure you have every ingredient listed. Be certain to check the staples in your cupboard before you go shopping and make sure you have enough of the things that you may take for granted, like spices and flour.

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Write down a timetable for the day of the party, counting back from party time. Leave plenty of time for food preparation, cooking and baking, decorating, setting the table, arranging flowers, and planning music or games. Each of these items can be done well in advance.

A day or two before your party, you should go over everything again to make sure you have all you will need. Set out each serving dish along with its utensil This way you can calmly take foods out of the oven or fridge and just place on the serving tray, then start eating!

Have fun! A relaxed host and hostess are key to the best party. If you are enjoying yourself, your guests will be happy and relaxed too.

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Preparing the Menu

Food is the staple of the dinner party but when throwing a green party, the host must be thoughtful about the foods she serves. An important element in deciding the menu for a green party is to find what foods are available locally and around the time of your dinner party. Purchasing products too soon is not ideal but if you can scour the farmers’ market for a few weeks, you will have a pretty good idea of what will be there the days before your planned event. If you cannot find what you want, you will have a few days to revise your menu.

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Many party hosts provide a paper menu for the evening, but you can also opt out of providing a menu, which reduces paper waste. Most dinner guests do not require an advanced menu, and most like to be surprised so you can make any changes without them knowing that it was not a part of the original plan!

A simple tip that works is using recipes that you have tried before so that there are not any unpleasant surprises at the last minute. The important thing is to make things that can be done in advance as much as possible. It is easy to mess things up (and be wasteful) if you have to do too much at the last minute.

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Reduce the amount of meat you serve or consider a vegetarian menu. Animal products are one of the largest contributors to global warming. Plan your menu so that there is less emphasis on large meat portions and replace with either tasty vegetable options, or with grass-fed, pasture-raised products instead

You should also consider using foods for dual purposes. Try hollowed out cucumbers for individual appetizer bowls, a wide carrot slice when you need a spoon for something savory, and ice cream cone bowls with a thin biscotti spoon for dessert. If that is not ideal, finger foods are always an option!

And do not forget the drinks. Organic spirits and “sustainably grown” wines are becoming more popular, and there are some excellent choices. You can also make your own beverages. Repurpose glass vases into sangria jugs and use real fruit as bottle stoppers.

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Choosing the Theme

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Creating an atmosphere for any dinner party is important; hosts often choose themes that contribute to the guest experience. A green party introduces a multitude of possibilities without compromising the fun. Click on the links below to gain some ideas for your next event!

Cultured-Themed Parties

Holiday Parties

Other Party Ideas

Outdoor Parties

Culture-Themed Parties

What a way to celebrate cultures while having fun and being responsible! Asian, Moroccan, and Caribbean parties only require a few unique candles, vibrant colors, and world music so preparation is fairly easy. For Caribbean parties, you can hang a hammock or use solar powered tiki torches for mood lighting. Asian cuisine and decor is very simple and precise, and bite-size snacks, including edamame sprinkled with coarse salt; wasabi peas; and sesame sticks can all be found at natural food markets.

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HolidayParties

From Valentines Day, Easter, and Earth Day to Halloween and Christmas, the calendar is filled with party ideas. And that includes international dates, like the Vietnamese New Year. These holidays attract family and friends so you can spruce your gathering with a few items you have around the house. Add a bowl of ornaments to the table for a Christmas party or use a plate or bowl of fruit as a centerpiece for Thanksgiving. Or you can pick clovers from your yard for an instant St. Patrick’s theme!

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Outdoor Parties

Instead of buying decorations, look outside in your yard for inspiration. Let nature be your atmosphere. You can set up tables on the patio, deck, or on the lawn. With trees and flowers as your backdrop, you only need to add a few, simple items. For an eclectic or rustic style, place candles inside of old canning jars, rather than hurricane lamps. Avoid the use of toxic strays which are bad on the environment. Purchase long burning beeswax candles to keep the uninvited guests away.

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Mardi Gras—Use the colors of green, gold, and purple for a Mardi Gras party; decorations could include lots of beads, masks, faux feather boas, and crowns. Music could be Zydeco, and the menu should include Cajun and Creole dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya, or muffaletta and po’boy sandwiches.

Eighties—Have guests wear 80s outfits. Decorate with posters of Madonna and other stars from that time period. Have a lip sync contest to 80s music. Ask guests to all bring their favorite 80s tunes. Guests can keep the posters as momentos.

American Idol—Rent a karaoke machine and let your guests perform. Appoint three of your guests to be Randy, Simon, and Paula and to come in character. Decorate with American Idol posters and CDs and serve up some Hollywood food.

Basically, if you can think of it, you can turn it into a dinner party theme! You can even throw a “Green” dinner party!

Other Party Ideas

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Reducing Party WasteNow that you know how to organize a green dinner party, plan an environmentally-conscious menu, and create the atmosphere, you can get started! There are a few key tips to remember to reduce your dinner party waste.

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Serve local and sustainable foods

Make your meals green by indulging your guests in the freshest local food ingredients. Buying from local vendors at places such as farmers’ markets cuts back on carbon emissions because fewer miles traveled from farm to table means fewer emissions produced from the vehicle transporting the food. Also, try to buy foods produced organically and look for seasonal items to save money and get the best produce available.

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Do not overdo the food

Many people have far too much food prepared for dinner parties. Plan your menu carefully and make a small portions of food at a time. As people come and go and the demand for food increases, take a break to make some more!

Even if have some leftovers, send your guests home with trays. You can lend your friends some of your sustainable tupperware or encourage them to bring their own to fill up after the party.

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Make recycling obvious

Sometimes your guests will throw away their bottles and other recyclable items. It is not because they want to hurt the planet, but because they do not know where your recycling is and may not want to bother the host or hostess. Make your recycling bins clear and out in the open so that everyone knows where to toss their trash. This will preserve natural resources, cut down on junk heading to landfills, and reduce the amount of energy used and pollution emitted in the manufacturing of new products.

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Go paperless

Send evites. They are easy to put together and make managing responses simple. Best of all, they are e-mailed so you will not be wasting trees on paper invitations. You can send them for any occasion and personalize them just as you would a paper invite. Best of all, evites are free.

Ditch the disposable dishes. Paper and plastic utensils produce tons of waste. Next time, set the table with the good stuff. It is just as easy if you use dishwasher safe plates and silverware, and nice tableware really adds class to your party. If you must use paper goods, make sure everything is recycled.

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Get creative with decorations

Cut greens if it is winter, fall foliage if it is autumn, and flowers for a spring or summer party. Your local farmers’ market will have seasonal fruits and veggies that can make attractive centerpieces and decorations, such as colorful squash, cranberries, apples, pears, peaches, etc. Just be sure you use the decorative foods and do nut throw them away. Your guests could take some of them home as favors. You can even use live plants as decorations.

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Use green cleaning products

Natural cleaning products are gaining in popularity and work well in the kitchen. Wash your tablecloths, napkins and towels, and clean counters, dishes and tabletops with biodegradable, earth-friendly detergent. Use only as much as needed. If you must use paper towels for cooking or cleaning, get unbleached, brown paper towels. And for whatever waste you have (hopefully, it is not too much), use biodegradable trash bags, brown paper bags, or biocompostable ones. Find all these products at natural foods stores, online, and even at some of the larger chain grocery stores.

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Going GreenLiving an eco-friendly lifestyle is easier than most people realize. One only has to read more guides like Going Green in Style to know how. Follow the links below to learn more.

The Daily Green http://www.thedailygreen.com/

Evitewww.evite.com

The Green Guide—For Everyday Livinghttp://www.thegreenguide.com/

How to Go Green—Treehuggerhttp://www.treehugger.com/gogreen.php

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Site MapTitle Page

Introduction

Main Menu

Planning & Organization

Preparing the Menu

Choosing a Theme Going Green

Outdoor Parties

Holiday-Theme Parties

Culture-Themed Parties

Other Party Ideas

Reducing Party Waste

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Introduction