It's her birthday...what do we do?!

A few years back...birthday parties used to throw us for a loop. Hers, her brother's, her sister's...her father's. Thankfully there is now an ever-growing selection of quality and, yes, tasty all-natural and/or organic options!

Of course, the first option is to make everything from scratch. As much as I'd love love love to do this, being a working mother of a family of 5 is just not conducive to being a Ms Sally-From-Scratch chef.

So off to Stop and Shop's Organic aisle I go. Here's what we got (in order of importance of course ;)

1. THE CAKE!!

Thank you 1-2-3 Gluten Free for your delectible cake mixes. While Jessica is NOT celiac and does NOT have to be gluten free, a lot of gluten free products are all-natural and/or organic, and this one just happens to be the best of cake mix options. Heavy on the sugar, eggs and butter like all tasty cakes should be...this one is fabulous and no one would know that it's gluten free or all-natural.

2. THE FROSTING!!

This one is actually easy and all-natural by nature. Follow the recipe on the Domino's Confectioners Sugar for Buttercream Frosting and just be sure to use 100% Vanilla Extract versus Imitation Vanilla (otherwise known as Vanillin) and you are good to go!. If you are looking for chocolate frosting...follow the same recipe, but add 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate melted and cooled. I recommend using Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Baking Bar since it is pure and natural.

3. TASTY SNACKS!!

Our "stock" staple snack foods work for anyone: Lay's Potato Chips (be sure to read the label depending on the flavor you choose), Simply Natural Cheetos, Pirate's Booty, Mott's Medley Fruit Snacks, All Natural Tostitos & any kind of Paul Newman's Own Salsas do the trick here!

4. PIZZA!!

We are extremely lucky to have Rhode Island's own Pier Pizza Company in our town. A family run operation who only uses the best, was wonderful enough to send me their ingredient lists for any of their menu items we are looking to get. Since Cheese Pizza is the most popular and fortunately our favorite, we were grateful to read that their dough, their sauce and their cheese are all-natural ingredients. And bonus: they offer online ordering!! SCORE :o) If you live somewhere that you can't get your hands on a pizza place's ingredients, Paul Newman's Own has a fantastic frozen pizza line to choose from!

All that's left is the fun and games! The party is ON! :)