goodies for a lovely ladies evening

eeek!  it's arrived - december is here AND we awoke to the first snow of the season!  being that there are now only 24 days to christmas {deep breath, jess, deep breath} i'm sure everyone is gearing up for get-togethers, parties & gatherings galore. 

last week i kicked off the season with a lovely evening spent with my running group - well, my former running group.  you see, we all learned to run together a year and a half ago and we've since moved on from the group.  some of us still meet up 3 times a week for runs, but it had been far too long since we all got together for a proper visit.  you know, the kind that takes place with a big glass of wine?

{the table, waiting}

i wanted to keep things simple because there's nothing worse that putting too much pressure on yourself with party prep, only to end up so stressed and frazzled that you can't enjoy yourself.  today i thought i'd share my little menu of sweets in the hopes that it might make an easy resource if you have a soiree such as this coming up.  our menu for the evening:

to nosh:

chocolate chunk toffee bars

raw spice cake truffles

raw walnut & almond cut-out cookies

dark chocolate covered strawberries

fresh fruit

to sip:

white wine

red wine

jasmine green tea

lavender tea

all of the sweets came together really quickly - it probably took all of 2 hours from start to finish and all the dishes done.  now, there is a slight chance that it had something to do with 2 afternoon coffees.  just sayin'.  

{raw spice cake truffles}

{raw walnut + almond cookies}

actually, part of the time saved came from the fact that i used other blogger's recipes here - no need to pause to scrawl down ingredients as i went along!  but including only one baked recipe {no, not that kind of baked recipe} really quickened things up.  here's how i got it all done...

1.  make the chocolate chunk toffee bars.  i used an awesome recipe from angela at oh she glows.  the batter mixes up in less than 10 minutes and then you just pop them in the oven.  {as a note: based on some of the comments from the post i cut down my baking time to under 30 minutes.} 

2.  while the bars are baking pull out your food processor and get started on the raw spice cake truffles.  for these i used desi's recipe from the palate peacemaker.  within a few minutes you'll be rolling away.  give the food processor a quick rinse and get ready for raw dessert #2.

3.  make up the raw walnut & almond cut-out cookies.  these were based on kristen's recipe shared on one green planet recently.  {check back tomorrow for my adaption!}

4.  by now the bars will likely be done baking.  remove them to cool. 

5.  next up: the chocolate-covered strawberries.  melt some dark vegan chocolate {you can temper it properly if you're feeling fancy}, and dip in strawberries that have been washed and dried.  sit these on a piece of parchment and pop them in the fridge to set. 

6.  do your washing up and then slice the toffee bars.  

then the only things left to do are to set up your table with stemware, mugs, plates & napkins.  plate up your sweets an hour before your guests arrive {just in case you have any early-birds!} and then pat yourself on the back.  done and done. 

time to prettied up and enjoy yourself stress-free!

remember to check back tomorrow - i'll be sharing the recipe for my raw walnut & almond cut-out cookies!

do you have any holiday entertaining tricks up your sleeve?