The Book Club

Since I love to both read and socialize, I joined a book club with a group of gal pals last year. It essentially entails reading one book a month and gathering together to discuss said book while snacking on delicious snacks and drinking copious amounts of wine. Well, it's my turn to host tomorrow night - and I'm a little stumped over what to serve. I definitely know I'll put out healthy trays of veggies and fruit (cauliflower and carrots and cucumbers, oh my!) as well as a cheese spread and crackers/bread. But what about dips? I have a Greek yogurt spinach/kale spread from Trader Joe's, but thinking about making this light Sweet Red Pepper Hummus. This Party on a Pizza app also looks delicious, combining arugula, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese and a lot of my other fave ingredients. 

As for a sweet treat, I heart those chocolate peanut butter cups (and chocolate peanut butter pretzels) from Trader Joe's, but in an effort to curb the calories, I think this Splenda-sweetened recipe might make a great, lower-fat alternative: Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Cups. 

FYI: Have any of you read The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K. Rowling? That's our book of the month and so far it seems to be inspiring a lot of "meh" attitudes from the book club crew. It's too bad - I really wanted to love it, but had a pretty hard time getting into it. We're thinking about reading "The Fault in Our Stars" next, so apparently I'll need to get some tissues handy as I've heard it's a tear-jerker. 

Anyhoo, if you have any insight on next books to read or yummy, low-cal appetizers to make, let me know!