Simple and Sweet Summer Entertaining Eats

Summer entertaining season is here! Shape Magazine's Editor-at-Large, Bahar Takhtehchian, has three simple food essentials to make your summer parties just a little bit happier, healthier and super easy!

Anything Avocado
Although available from Mexico year round, avocados are are especially perfect for whipping up summertime recipes. Eat them alone or add them to smoothies, a delicious citrus salad, or that perfect summer burger. Another crowd-pleaser: guacamole. "Avocados are high in monounsaturated fat. That's actually the good type of fat that you want to have in your diet," says Bahar. So eat on! One ounce of avocado (about three slices) is just 50 calories, and also packs nearly 20 vitamins and minerals. If you want more ideas on how to cook with avocados, go to theamazingavocado.com.

Calorie-Free Sweetness
A lot of summer favorites like iced tea, coleslaw, and even barbeque sauce, can be loaded with added sugar. Ban those extra calories and try Nectresse Natural Sweetener, a 100% natural sweetener. It's made from monk fruit (a small green melon that's been cultivated in Asia for hundreds of years), has a rich sweet taste, and zero calories. It's perfect for your summer recipes, like chili, pies, and desserts.

Guilt-Free Ice Cream
Who doesn't scream for ice cream in the summer? A delectable low calorie option: Edy's Slow Churned has half the fat and 1/3 fewer calories than regular ice cream. This summer, there are new limited edition summer flavors: Sunny Salted Caramel Pretzel and German Chocolate Cake Spectacular. Another reason to love Edys is that they're donating funds to cover 500 life-changing surgeries for Operation Smile. "Operation Smile offers reconstructive surgeries to kids around the globe who suffer from cleft lip, cleft palate or other facial deformities," says Behr. To find out more about this cause, go to Facebook.com/EdysIceCream.

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