A Birthday Bash for the Best!

I was super excited to write this post today because I had so much fun putting together this birthday fiesta for Reid.  I got some great photos, but seeing it in person was so much better!  This year for Reid’s birthday I wanted to do something bigger since I didn’t know what next year would bring.  Our favorite “quick” place to eat has always been Chipotle.  Who doesn’t love a good burrito bowl?  It’s so simple yet delicious.  I happened to stumble upon some homemade recipes for Chipotle’s menu items on Pinterest.  I also found a lot of good details about their seasonings & marinades on their website.  The key to this party for me was organization and lots of preparation the days leading up to it (which is a whole new ball park for me!)  My goal was to have everything in crock pots and ready for serving by time all of our family & friends arrived so that I was able to enjoy myself.

As for the decorations, I have always been a lover of chalkboard art.  I thought it added a nice touch to the house & helps guests navigate their way around.  The Corona bottle flower vases I found were so fun for the theme and added lots of color!  Below are some pictures I took  before the party.  I will share some links at the bottom of this post of recipes for this grand spanish fiesta!

Recipes for the DIY Chipotle Burrito Bar:

• Chipotle Adobo Chicken & Steak Marinade: I used the ancho chile powder substitute instead of soaking and de-seeing hot chili peppers and it still turned out delicious so I would recommend this option, major time saver.  I quadrupled this recipe for 40 pounds of meat.  For the meat I used boneless skinless chicken thighs and top sirloin, both from Costco)
• Cilantro Lime Rice: I did this in two different rice cookers using a Japanese long grain white rice we had in the pantry.  After rice was cooked, I added lime juice, kosher salt, and cilantro and fluffed it with a fork…super easy!
• Avocado Corn Salsa: This was the hit of the party..there were barely any leftovers!  I messed around with this recipe, added black pepper and cumin and more salt than it called for.  I purchased the large frozen bag of organic white corn from Costco, it was delicious and fed plenty of people.
• Black Beans: Simple canned black beans, no seasoning!  I thought about adding spices such as cumin and oregano but I figured since everything else going in the burritos already had so much flavor it wasn’t necessary.
• Sautéed green peppers & red onions: I glanced at the menu on Chipotle’s website to see what seasonings they used and just did a simple olive oil sauté with a little salt, pepper and oregano.
• Queso Blanco: MY FAVORITE!  It is so delicious I can’t even stand it!  The recipe is super simple minus the fact finding a block of white american cheese in this town wasn’t the easiest.  The only place I was able to find it was in the deli and had to ask them to cut me off 2 pounds off the huge block.  Worth it!

Dessert: 

• Reese’s peanut butter cupcakes: Don’t even get me started on these or it’ll make me bake more right now!  These are to die for, also the homemade frosting is super easy and delightful.
• Funfetti: Boxed funetti cake mix and vanilla funfetti frosting (Hey, I couldn’t homemake it all!!!)

Drinks:

• Margarita Bar: The idea here was to have a bunch of different options and let people create their favorite type of margarita on the rocks!
• Silver Tequila from Costco…obviously I cannot drink right now but I was told it was pretty tasty and also only $30 for 1.75 liters, score!
• Mango Margarita mix from Williams Sonoma
• Sweet & Sour Margarita Mix from Costco
• Triple Sec
• Fresh Limes
• Salt
• San Pelligrino: I was told this was a party favorite…silver tequila mixed with fresh limes and flavored San Pelligrino sparkling soda.

This party definitely required a lot of work but it was so fun seeing it all come together and watching everyone enjoy themselves!  Happy birthday Reid!

Signing off for now,

Xoxo