A mall Scavenger Hunt is perfect for teen girls!  It’s as simple as picking teams (we had 3, 3 person teams chosen by a random drawing), setting the rules and sending them off with a mall scavenger hunt list.  The only preparation was a 1 hour trip to the mall to come up with the scavenger hunt list, and I’ve already done that for you!

These mall scavenger hunt ideas should get you started…just make a quick trip to your mall to make sure you have the stores that I’ve listed in parentheses.

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Rules:

• The mall scavenger hunt will last 2 hours with a break after the first hour for dinner.
• Meet us at Sbarro after 1 hour.  Every minute your team is late will cost you 1 point.
• Every item is worth 1 point.
• Team members must stay together, splitting up will result in a 5 point penalty each time.
• No running.
• You may not get more than 1 item from a store.
• Be polite!
• If you try something on, make sure to put it back!
• Call or text us if you have any questions or problems.
• The team with the most points will get first choice for prizes!  The prizes are all items that you’ll be purchasing during the mall scavenger hunt.

 
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I divided the mall scavenger hunt list into 3 categories: shop, seek, snap!

Shop:   you’ll have a total of $40 to buy these items, so spend it wisely!  Everything you purchase will become a prize at the end of the party, so purchase items you really like!

• A chocolate bunny (Godiva, Dylan’s Candy Bar)
• A piece of jewelry with an Eiffel Tower on it.  If there’s an Eiffel Tower + other things…that’s fine! (Icing, Claires, Charming Charlies, Wet Seal)
• Sunglasses from a store that starts with the letter “A” (Aeropostale)
• Flavored lip gloss (Bath & Body Works)
• Anything with a cat or dog on it.

 
Seek: collect these items in your shopping bag!  I gave each team a reusable shopping bag & a small ziploc for the edible samples.

• Lost receipt
• A free sample of something cinnamon flavored (Cinnabon)
• A Starbucks cup
• A perfume sample (any department store or Bath & Body Works)
• A straw with a wrapper that is not all white
• A tiny ice cream sample spoon
• A take-out menu
• A business card
• A mostly pink shopping bag (Victoria’s Secret)
• A French fry (you cannot buy it!)
• Wedding registry printout (most department stores)
• Chocolate sample
• A hanger
• Employee application
• A piece of toilet paper

 
Snap: use a cell phone camera to snap pictures of the following:

• 3 stores in which the first letter is not capitalized
• Have 1 member of your team put on a pair of high heels and take a picture.
• A naked mannequin
• A pink teddy bear
• The fruitiest store in the mall (Apple!)
• 1 member of your team getting their eye make-up done

 
At the end of the hunt, we returned home to tally the points and enjoy cake. The team with the most points was given first choice of the items the girls shopped for, second place = second choice, third place = third choice. After this, the remaining items were given away in a drawing.

Best party ever according to my 13 year old daughter!

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Image courtesy of: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Could you balance 6 dice on a popsicle stick held in your mouth for 1 minute? How about removing all the tissues from a tissue box with only 1 hand?

Do you watch NBC’s Minute To Win It each week and wish you could try these crazy challenges? If so, it might just be time to host a Minute To Win It Party!

How to Host a Minute To Win It Party

1. This party is ideal for preteens, teens, a girl’s night or adult couples.
2. Invitations: purchase inexpensive stopwatches like these from Amazon
   and attach the party details to the stopwatch. The stopwatch also becomes a great party favor!
3. Choose your challenges based on the age of the guests and supplies you have on hand…this will keep it budget friendly!
4. All challenges are done by 2 person teams, so when guests arrive have them reach into a hat to find out which team they are on. Add to the fun by coming up with silly names for the teams!
5. Keep it simple, no complicated rules, afterall…we’re playing for prizes not a million dollars!
6. Each team to complete the challenge in 1 minute or less will be awarded 1 point.
7. All teams will start the challenge at the same time. Make sure to have plenty of family members to help keep time and monitor that the challenges are being done correctly. There are a few challenges that will be easier to do 1 team at a time like Foul Shot.
8. Buy an assortment of prizes, and the team with the most points gets first choice! Second place gets second choice, third place gets third choice and so on.

 
Minute To Win It Challenges

NBC offers a complete list of Minute to Win It Challenges, but I’ve come up with a few that a well suited for teenage girls. Remember to start that stopwatch because all challenges must be completed in a minute or less!

• Pyramid Power – Starting with 8 dixie cups on the bottom, build a pyramid of 36 cups.
• Double Bubble – Choose one team member to blow a bubble inside of a bubble.
• Dress a Statue – One team member dresses the other using all the items in the bag. The person being dressed may not lift their arms or legs hence the name Dress a Statue!
• Cupcake Chaos – Using all the ingredients in the bag, decorate your cupcake. Note: These cupcakes can later be used for the birthday cake!
• String Thing – Working together, cut this piece of string into 30 equal pieces! No measuring tape or rulers allowed.
• Three Leg Race – Before the stopwatch begins, we will tie one of your legs together. Can you and your partner go 100 yards in 1 minute?
• Paint My Toenails – Choose one team member to paint the other persons toenails. It must be neat!
• Braid It! – Choose one team member to braid the other persons hair in 2 braids. All the hair must be used (other than bangs) and no hairbrushes allowed!
• Tennis Ball Toss – Toss tennis balls into a bucket. You must get 5 in!
• Roll It, Roll It, Roll It – Choose one team member to hold the roll of toilet paper, the other person must unroll the toilet paper without tearing it.
• Chopstick Challenge – Choose one team member to use chopsticks with one hand to move 30 miniature marshmallows from one bowl to another bowl.
• Foul Play – Choose one team member to make 10 foul shots! The other team member may assist buy retrieving the ball.
• Book Balance – Choose one team member to walk 20 feet balancing 3 books on their head!
• Say Cheese – Throw a piece of American cheese onto your partner’s forehead and get it to stick!
• Thread The Needle – Thread 10 needles.
• Chocolate Unicorn – Stack 4 ding dongs on your partners forehead while they are standing up, leaning back.

 
The possibilities are endless for Minute To Win It Challenges! Please remember to test the challenges and adjust for your age group and length of party.

The countdown is on for another fun & frugal party from The Budget Diet girl!

Planning birthday parties used to be so easy, and then my children became teenagers!

We’ve always given our children a choice: birthday party or birthday gift. Once my boys hit their teenage years, they opted for the gift! My daughter – she still loves to have a birthday party!

Either my mind is getting too old to come up with a new clever birthday idea or party ideas for teenagers just aren’t my thing! I’m proud to say that we made it through the last two years with a couple of memorable parties that I highly recommend for pre-teens or teens.

The Amazing Race Party – one of our all time favorite parties!

The Bunco Birthday Bash – just like a Bunco party for grown-ups complete with prizes! The girls loved getting a chance to play a “grown-up” game just like their mothers!

Bunco Birthday Bash

• If you don’t know how to play Bunco, here are the official Bunco rules from the World Bunco Association! It’s a simple game, but it can seem confusing! Playing a practice round will be the best way for the girls to learn the game.
• Print FREE Bunco Score Cards.
• Instead of the fuzzy dice, get a tiara or a stuffed animal that will travel to the person that gets Bunco…the Bunco queen! The last Bunco queen for the night gets to keep it!
• Since Bunco is played in 3 rounds, use the break between rounds for the birthday activities:

– Before Bunco begins, let the girls socialize!
– Between Round 1 and Round 2, have dinner or snacks.
– Between Round 2 and Round 3, enjoy birthday cake!
– After Round 3, award Bunco prizes and open birthday presents.

• Bunco Prizes – I set a budget and let my daughter choose the prizes. We gave prizes for: most wins, most losses and most buncos.
• Bunco Food – My daughter wanted pizza, but lots of finger food would be quite fun and very grown-up!

 
I’m afraid I’ve exhausted the last of my great birthday party ideas with The Bunco Birthday Bash! HELP – please click on the title of this article if you have any birthday party ideas for teenage girls. No, she’s still not opting for a big present!

The Super Bowl’s in Dallas this year, so add some Texas favorites to your Super Bowl Party menu!

Chicken Chili

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Ingredients:
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped or 1 1/2 cups frozen chopped onions
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1, 7 ounce cans green chiles, diced (do not drain)
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 cans great northern beans (do not drain)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 8 oz. pepper jack cheese, shredded
• 8 oz. Monterey jack cheese, shredded
• optional: garnish with sour cream and diced tomatoes

• Directions:
• Simmer chicken in a large saucepan until tender, drain and shred. Approximately 15 minutes.
• Heat olive oil and saute onions, garlic, green chiles, cumin and cayenne pepper for 3 minutes.
• Add the shredded chicken, beans, chicken broth and cheese.
• Simmer 15 minutes.
• Optional: garnish with sour cream and diced tomatoes.
• recipe adapted from John Madden’s Ultimate Tailgating Book

 
 
Queso Recipe

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A Texas party is not complete without chips & queso! You’ll love this quick and easy recipe!

• Ingredients:
• 1 pound white American cheese slices from the deli (trust me, the kind from the deli is what makes this queso wonderful!)
• 4 oz. can green chiles, diced
• 4 oz. can jalapenos, diced
• 1 cup milk
• Directions:
• Put all ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until melted.
• Note:  for a milder queso, use 2, 4 oz. cans of green chiles and omit the jalapeños.

 
 

Homemade Salsa

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Another Texas favorite! You’ll never go back to the salsa in a jar again!

• Ingredients:
• 14 1/2 ounce can Rotel tomatoes, drained (regular or mild depending on how spicy you like your salsa!)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (about 2 small limes)
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Directions:
• Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
• Cover and chill overnight.
• Yield: 16 ounces.
• Serve with tortilla chips.

 
 
If you’re looking for non-Texas Super Bowl Party foods, try my recipes for:

• Pepperoni Rolls
• Crock Pot BBQ
• Pizza Poppers
• Homemade Pizza
• White Chocolate Crunch Snack Mix
• Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Please click on the title of this article to share your favorite Super Bowl Party foods!

Photo courtesy of Free Web Photos

You can be a Budget Diet girl and still throw a great party!

The budget friendly benefits of hosting a Brown Bag Wine Tasting Party:

You and your guests will learn to be cheap wine connoisseurs – not all cheap wines are created equal!

You and your guests will know which cheap wines to buy and to avoid!

A Brown Bag Wine Tasting Party requires very little preparation or expense!

Here’s how a Brown Bag Wine Tasting Party works:

• 10 – 12 guests is ideal. This party is fun for a girls night or for couples.
• Ask each guest or couple to bring a cheap bottle of wine ($10 or less) wrapped in a brown paper bag or kick it up a notch with this festive wine tasting kit!
• Number each brown bag.
• Put the red wines on one table, and the white wines on another.
• Keep the party food simple – cheese and crackers.
• Give each guest a scorecard where they will rate the wines on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being the best! Allow room for comments.
• Encourage guests to try a sampling of each wine unless you’re hosting a really big party, and in that case, you would be an irresponsible host! If there are too many bottles of wine, suggest they sample either just the reds or just the whites.
• Don’t forget a dump bucket, just in case!
• At the end of the evening, collect the scorecards and total the score for each wine.
• Reveal the winning red wine and the winning white wine, and have a small prize for the guests that brought the best cheap wine – The Cheap Wine Connoisseur award! Prize idea: a fun painted wine glass can be purchased for less than $5 at places like Homegoods, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls or Ross. Or consider having one of many wine, cheese, and chocolate hampers delivered to the winner’s home for an extra special prize.
• Unwrap the second place cheap wine, third place cheap wine, and so on. Add to the entertainment by reading some of the comments!
• Consider giving the Rock Gut Guru Award to the guest that brought the least favorite cheap wine! Prize idea: a rock inscribed with the words Rock Gut Guru

 
Go have some cheap fun this weekend, and please click on the title of this article to share your favorite cheap wines!

I’ve been hosting a cookie exchange for 10 years, and it’s one of my favorite Christmas traditions!

A cookie exchange is an easy and inexpensive party to plan, and I’ve put together some ideas to get you started.

Cookie Exchange Invitation Ideas:

• A simple e-vite
• Hand deliver a cookie cutter with the invitation attached
• Turn a recipe card into an invitation
• Clearly state what to bring on the invitation.

 
Cookie Exchange Tips:

• Be specific as to how many cookies and copies of the recipe your guests should bring. I ask my guests to bring 6 dozen cookies wrapped in packages of 4 with recipes attached…this number works well for a party of 18 – 30 guests. So, my guests come with 18 little packages and leave with an assortment of 18 little packages.
• Why you should ask your guests to package their cookies? Cookies are easier to collect if they’re packaged, cookies are easier to transport if they’re packaged and it’s easy to attach a recipe to a package of cookies which eliminates the guesswork of which recipe goes with which cookie.
• Why you might not want to ask your guests to package their cookies: time consuming, added expense.
• If you opt for packaging cookies, give your guests some suggestions: zip loc bags put inside a small gift bag, cellophane bags tied with a ribbon, zip loc containers tied with a ribbon or chinese take-out containers.
• Ask your guests to bring a basket or container to collect their cookies in.

Cookie Exchange Menu:

• We usually have our cookie exchange in the afternoon, so a few light appetizers are perfect!
• As guests arrive, have them open 1 package of their cookies on a tray to be enjoyed at the party.
• Poinsettia’s have become one of our Christmas traditions, and when you serve a signature cocktail, you eliminate the need to offer other alcoholic beverages.

 

• Poinsettia Punch Recipe:
• 3 cups cran-raspberry juice
• 1/4 cup white grape juice concentrate, thawed (do not dilute)
• 1 bottle champagne (cheap is fine!)
• 1/4 cup Cointreau
• 1 liter lime sparkling water
• Optional: frozen raspberries to float in the glass
• Non-alcoholic version: eliminate the champange and Cointreau. Substitute 1 liter of Sprite.

 
Other Fun Cookie Exchange Variations:

• Make it a mother / daughter event, and have crafts for the children! This year, the teen girls are going to make homemade sugar scrub to give their mothers. When the girls were younger, we made ornaments!
• Have an award for the best packaging, best looking cookie & best tasting cookie.
• If you have a cookie exchange for a really large group (40+), skip the packaging and just let guests pick up a designated amount of cookies. Recipes can just be left next to each tray of cookies.
• Teacher Cookie Exchange – have school volunteers bake cookies and let the teachers collect a nice assortment to take home for the holidays.

 
Now, what do you do with all those yummy cookies? Well, that’s another one of our Christmas traditions! We put all the little packages in the freezer, and each night during Christmas, our children take turns being in charge of making the cookie tray for dessert. It’s a dessert we all look forward to!

If you need some inspiration for your cookie exchange, “12 Days of Cookies” starts Monday on The Budget Diet! Each day you’ll find a delicious recipe you’ll be proud to take to a cookie exchange! Remember, bake it…don’t buy it! It’s cheaper to bake and homemade cookies taste better!

“12 Days of Cookies” Recipes:

• White Chocolate Cranberry Bars
• Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars
• Orange Coconut Cookies
• Key Lime Cookies
• Toffee Oatmeal Cookies
• Ginger Snap Cookies
• Peppermint Brownies
• Pretzel Turtles
• Spice Cake Bars
• Toffee Bars
• Cookie Dough Truffles
• Oreo Balls

 
Please click on the title of this article to share your favorite cookie recipes.

Happy Baking!

Cheap Eats – Actually, Cheap Drinks for a Party!

Don’t blow your party budget on beverages! Serve a signature cocktail in lieu of assorted beer, wine, liquor and mixers!

Poinsettia Punch Recipe – Ideal for a Christmas party!

• Mix together:
• 3 cups cran-raspberry juice, chilled
• 1/4 cup white grape juice concentrate, thawed (do not dilute)
• 1 bottle Champagne, chilled (cheap is fine!)
• 1/4 cup Cointreau
• 1 liter lime sparkling water, chilled
• Optional: frozen raspberries to float in the glass
• Non-alcoholic version: eliminate the Champange and Cointreau. Substitute 1 liter of Sprite.

 
Warm Sangria – A winter favorite! The spices will give your home a wonderful aroma for your Christmas party!

• 12 cups cranberry-raspberry juice
• 4 cups orange juice
• 1 bottle red wine (cheap is fine!)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 teaspoon whole cloves wrapped in a cheesecloth bag
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 oranges, sliced
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 cup craisins
• Heat all ingredients together in a large saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Serve warm.

Bellini Recipe – Perfect for Bunco or Brunch!

• Mix together:
• 1, 16 oz. bottle peach nectar, chilled
• 1 bottle Prosecco sparkling wine, chilled
• Note: elegant served in a champagne flute!

 
Mimosa Recipe – Another Brunch favorite!

• Mix together:
• Equal parts of chilled Champagne and orange juice
• Serve in a Champagne flute

 
White Sangria Recipe – A light and refreshing drink for a summer party!

• Combine in a large pitcher and chill 3 hours:
• 2 bottles Pinot Grigio, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 firm peaches, chopped
• 2 lemons, sliced
• 2 limes, sliced
• Just before serving add:
• 2 liters lemon-lime sparkling water
• 1 cup frozen green grapes

 
Margarita Recipe – FIESTA! (recipe from: St. Laurence Ladies Guild cookbook)

• Mix together in a blender:
• 1, 6oz. can frozen limeade, thawed
• 1/2 cup Tequila
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup Cointreau
• 1 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• Top off blender with ice

 
The other secret of a signature cocktail…you can use cheap wine or cheap champagne and nobody will know!