onsidering cancelling your annual holiday shindig because of cost? No need. "With planning and a little creativity, it's easy to throw a great party without spending a lot of money," says former caterer Denise Vivaldo, author of Do It for Less! Parties: Tricks of the Trade from Professional Caterers' Kitchens and Do It For Less! Wedding: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank. Try some of her favorite themes for successful celebrations on a shoestring. Your guests will never guess that you didn't spend a bundle on them.

ant to cut your risk of cancer in half? Want to substantially reduce your chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke? Want to live a longer, healthier life? The answer is simple: Eat more fruits and vegetables. At this point, you’re probably rolling your eyes, thinking “Been there! Done that!” But before you do, ask yourself how many servings of fruits and vegetables you ate yesterday. Multiple studies show that -- despite a mountain of scientific evidence supporting a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and despite years of listening to top experts (not to mention moms) telling us to eat more fruits and vegetables -- the typical American still eats a measly three servings of fruits and vegetables a day. And if you rule out french fries, which are so high in fat they hardly count, most people are down to two servings. This falls far short of the five servings a day experts keep harping about. To make matters worse, five is actually a minimum recommendation. For optimal health, experts say we should be striving for seven to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day!

Conventional chocolate is often produced by clear-cutting rainforest land, applying chemical pesticides and through the use of child labor in hazardous conditions. However, a number of companies now offer organic, sustainably-grown and "fair trade" varieties that adhere to environmentally and socially responsible production and processing standards. Pictured here: some offerings from Endangered Species Chocolate, Dagoba and others. Photo: Jason Kremkau.

ear EarthTalk: I heard a reference to “Earth-friendly chocolate” and was wondering about what goes into chocolate that would raise environmental concerns.
--Ben Moran, Providence, RI

Like coffee beans, the cacao seeds from which we derive chocolate can only be grown successfully in equatorial regions--right where the world's few remaining tropical rainforests thrive. As worldwide demand for chocolate grows, so does the temptation among growers to clear more and more rainforest to accommodate high-yield monocultural (single-crop) cacao tree plantations. What are left are open, sunny fields with dramatically lower levels of plant and animal diversity. Adding environmental insult to injury, most cacao plantations use copious amounts of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides that further degrade the land that once teemed with a wide variety of rare birds, mammals and plants.

ooking is an art. It may not always feel like it, when you're turning out three meals a day every single day like a lot of home cooks! But the more you treat it as a creative endeavor, the easier it gets to face that kitchen. At some point, though, even folks who have a great time cooking realize that their plates lack a certain something, but they aren't sure exactly what--no matter how great the food tastes.

That something is what the pros call presentation. You don't have to go to cooking school to turn out great dishes and to be able to make food that people enjoy, both in taste and appearance. It doesn't take a lot of effort or training to garnish your everyday meals in a way that will make your family sit up and take notice, and take a chore into the realm of creativity.

hat's in that jarred baby food in the cupboard? Chances are there's a ton of sugar and preservatives in it, that's what. The majority of baby foods on the market add sugar to everything, even chicken and peas. And that's not counting the extra salt!

Why should you go homemade? For starters, you'll know exactly what's going into it that way. You'll be able to tailor the ingredients to what your baby needs and likes. The food will be fresh, free of extra sugar and salt, and prepared with good ingredients, as opposed to jarred ones which are often made from bruised fruits and vegetables with chemicals added to even out the taste. The killer reason for me? Homemade baby food isn't only better for baby, it's not only easy to make--but it's incredibly cheap!

Giving babies nutritious food is not only good for their health, but it will also help establish positive eating habits, unlike our spokesbaby here. Photo: Getty Images.

ear EarthTalk: I want to give my baby fresh, organic food but I don't have the time to make her special meals. What options are out there?
--Marie L., via e-mail

Babies deserve the best possible start in life, so giving them nutritious food is a must, not only for good health but also to establish positive eating habits as early as possible.

According to Consumers Union (CU), publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, commercial baby foods, many of which are made up of condensed fruits and vegetables, can contain high concentrations of pesticide residues. “A lot of these pesticides are toxic to the brain,” says Philip Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics and preventative medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Citing studies that have linked smaller head circumference and reduced intelligence in babies to in utero exposure to pesticides consumed by their mothers, Landrigan says it is best not to gamble when it comes to baby food.

ne of your many jobs as a mom is to be a short-order cook. You know by now that your son wants the skin taken off his hot dog, your daughter will only eat the Blues Clues Mac and Cheese, and by all means, they both will only eat their grilled cheese sandwiches without the crust. Well, we can help make life easier with that last one. This -- dare we say -- ingenious product by Inventive Parent cuts a sandwich into 4 quarters, removing the crust, in one swift, mess-free motion.

fter falling out of favor for many years, cooking and garnishing with flowers is back in vogue once again. Today, gourmet restaurants from coast to coast are featuring such dishes as Quiche and Pansies, Dandelion Omelet, Carnation Cherries Jubilee, Marigold Mincemeat Pie, Violet Pineapple Parfait, and Lavender Apple Crisp to name just a few. But you don't have to be a high-end gourmet to wow friends and family with some dishes that rely on flower power.

Here are some simple ways to serve edible flowers that may amuse, surprise and delight anyone who thinks flowers are found only in vases (see comments from Real Families for more ideas).

et's make Sally Lunn bread and then turn it into a memorable sandwich dripping with juice from fresh tomatoes! As the story goes, a young girl in eighteenth century Bath, England, sold buns that were dark on top and light underneath, likened to the sun and moon (Sol et Lune). Keep saying it fast and you'll get "Sally Lunn."

ext to my stove is a clear squeeze bottle filled with dark brown stuff. People usually think it's soy sauce, but they get a shock if they put it on rice. It's not soy sauce, it's molasses.

"Why keep a squeeze bottle of molasses next to the stove?" you're thinking. "How often do you make gingerbread, anyway?" Because in modern American homes, that's about the only time molasses gets pulled out of the slightly gummy back recesses of the cupboard, if there's any in the cupboard at all--for gingerbread at Christmas.

That, friends, is a pity, because molasses is not just a sweetener, it's a flavor enhancer and it packs some serious nutrition.

When I say "iced tea," I really mean "cool tea," because I don't put ice in drinks (it's bad for digestion). But you know what I mean!

June is National Iced Tea Month, so I thought I'd take a sec to share some iced tea ideas and links with all y'all.

Go chai!
Get a little Indian flava into your life and try chai! There are pre-mixed black teas with chai spices added. I like Stash and Yogi, and have both around the house. But when I find myself out of pre-mixes, I have successfully made chai by adding whole pickling spices (one of my great culinary cheats, that stuff) to black tea and letting it steep. I can't tell you how much, you'll need to experiment yourself to find the amount you like.

For a really different drink, try a real traditional chai, cold, with milk and honey. You can either use concentrate, like Oregon Chai, or make a very strong spiced tea yourself, dissolve honey in it, let it cool, and add milk. It's a great way to get your kids to drink their milk.

Click through for even more ideas!

ith our income reduced, we're trying very hard not to let anything in the kitchen go to waste. This takes some organization, and I'm not famous for that. So I'm researching home kitchen management techniques.

I've always prided myself on stocking a pantry properly. I learned this from my mom. It makes pulling a meal together, especially an impromptu one, a lot easier when your shelves are well-stocked. The Reluctant Gourmet's list is a good one, though our shelves also always have coconut oil, coconut milk, good curry powder, and aseptic pack pureed soups. In the basement, we always have jasmine rice, short grain white rice, short grain brown rice and masa harina, which we use like some people use flour for dredging. We keep a variety of non-wheat flours for thickening and baking, since we really shouldn't eat wheat. And my two flavoring blends I always have on hand--my "cheaters"--are herbes de provence and pickling spice, which I keep in a pepper grinder.

My food storage is pretty well organized--I know what is where, and how much I have--except for what's in the refrigerators and freezer. That's where my system falls down. When I know what I have, I'm pretty handy with leftovers, and like my mom I'm famous for making tasty meals appear out of thin air (it's all in the pantry). But in the chill chests, I don't always know what I have.

So how to conquer the cold boxes?

or some people, finding a good wine is a lifetime's work. But if you're among the number of people who'd just like to find a wine they enjoy, maybe even two wines--a red and a white, have no fear. You can get to a point where you can handle some wine basics without too much trouble. And you can have fun getting there by setting up a wine-tasting evening. An Ohio couple who tried this said they'd enjoy such an evening again "whether it's just the two of us or several couples--as long as we keep it casual."

And right here I'm going to state emphatically that pregnant moms-to-be will have to wait until that baby is born--no ifs, ands, or buts.

Decide what it is you want to learn: To train your palate to distinguish between dry and sweet wine? To be able to tell expensive wines from mid-range ones? To be able to tell domestic wines from foreign ones? You might be surprised to discover that even so-called aficionados, when blindfolded, can't always distinguish a red from a white. So the first rule is not to be stuffy. We've all heard the rule of thumb, "Red wine goes with red meat and white wine with white meat," but adherence to this dictum does not a wine connoisseur make.