EJ's Birthday At Home

Our son  wanted to have a little party at home for his 8th birthday.  From my past experiences, having a party is always stressful because I do all the cooking and  preparation.  This year however, I changed my strategy.  I  prepared most of the food ahead and just left a couple of menus to cook the day of the party.

 I made this puto (rice cake/cupcake) a day ahead while my kids were at school.  I did the same thing with the pigs in a blanket, I baked them ahead.  The only problem is, they keep eating them lol.

I also made  sweet rice bars.  I  tweaked the  regular sweet rice into a sweet rice bar by adding oatmeal and some   kashi cereal with nuts and  other  things.  I also added  sesame  seeds in it.

 Then I separated them for easy serving and made them into bar-type of sweets.

 We avoid chips at home but since it is a party and we are expecting company, we grabbed a bag of this  scoop chips and salsa.

 I cooked the rice noodles on the morning of the party then just warmed it up at the microwave before serving it  during the party.

 I made the  lumpia/spring rolls  two days  ahead and just put it in the refrigerator before  frying it on the day of the party.I also ran out of the sweet and spicy sauce for lumpia dipping so I just  mixed  miracle whip, ketchup, sriracha, and pepper flakes, it was good.

Our little man  had a blast and we are all glad to reunite with our friends and family at our humble abode.