Super Eco

Photo credit: mfrietsch, SXC

So you love entertaining but you're in sticker shock at the organic grocery lately. No worries—you don't have to provide a boat-sized grass-fed organic Chateaubriand to have a good party. Entertaining can be on the cheap with great and healthy food. The trick is rethinking what it means to entertain. What's important? Getting together with people you care about. Which makes the idea of a green potluck brunch the best party idea since the invention of the beer keg. And it's even more fun when everyone brings ingredients and you cook together. What's more intimate than preparing—and then sharing—a fabulous meal?

You can plan a bit of a theme (a wonderful veggie quiche, a green salad, and something Champagne-y to toast one another with makes an elegant menu, for example) and assign tasks (someone brings OJ for Mimosas, someone else brings a couple dozen organic cage-free eggs, someone else brings fresh wonderful veggies for roasting before they're added to the quiche), or you can wing it and just whip up something fab from whatever everyone brings. The only rule? That each offering be healthy and organic. Bonus points for offerings from their own gardens.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? And it's not that much work for the host and cleanup's a breeze with lots of cooks (and dishwashers) in the kitchen. And you've had a great party with fabulous food and fabulous friends—on a budget.

Need more ideas? Check out 101 Cookbooks' brunch recipes, or use this menu from Planet Green for more inspiration.