Here’s another great party idea designed to help you fit some girlfriend time into the busy holiday season, while doing good for the planet (more multitasking – we love it!). Our friends at Florida’s Natural want to help you host a holiday brunch for your girlfriends while promoting the selection of locally produced foods. We think this is a great idea! 

The concept is simple: Invite some girlfriends to your home, collect ingredients, use specially-prepared recipes and secrets, cook together, then enjoy the brunch.  It’s a fabulous way to share news and tips about what each of us can do to save our environment and develop more healthy eating habits one step at a time. And we’re sure you can inject some holiday spirit into your girlfriendly gathering as well.

Since many of you “green”girlfriends are interested in eating locally produced food, we thought you’d be interested in this party idea. Florida’s Natural has created a PDF guide to help you plan your own local foods brunch. Click here to see it. Did you know much of the orange juice in your grocery store is imported? Take a look at the label, and you may see that it comes from Chile or Brazil. Florida’s Natural, on the other hand, is 100% grown, produced and packaged in Florida.

Florida’s Natural Food-for-Thought Breakfast Sessions include some suggested recipes which you can download here: Farm to Table Brunch Recipe Options. They recommend choosing three to four recipes depending on what you find at your local farmers market and retailers who sell local foods. If you pick it from the garden in your backyard, even better. Here’s a sample recipe from the PDF guide:

YUMMY FRUIT DIP

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sour cream (low fat or regular)

• ¼ cup of Florida’s Natural Brand Premium orange juice

• 2 tbsp. brown sugar • Serve with seasonal local fruit, cut for dipping

Instructions: Whisk all ingredients together until well blended and sugar is dissolved. Chill in the refrigerator at least 1/2 hour. Serve with your favorite local in-season fruit, including apples, grapes, peaches and pears.

Find  some more great recipes from Florida’s Natural website here.

Cookbook Giveaway

In addition, to help you create a delicious breakfast for your girlfriends, Florida’s Natural is sponsoring a giveaway of this beautiful cookbook: Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm,just for our readers! This book would also make a great gift for your foodie girlfriends!

Here’s all you have to do to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post sharing your holiday traditions with girlfriends. If you don’t have any, what would you LIKE to have as your girlfriend holiday tradition?
2. Extra entries: Tweet, facebook, or blog about this contest, but you MUST leave a comment saying you did so. Total of 3 extra entries possible.

All entries must be received by 11:59 pm CST on Monday, December 21. U.S. shipping addresses only. Good luck, girlfriends!