Popcorn Becomes the "It" Snack for Girls Night in as Orville Redenbacher’s® Debuts Natural Lime & Salt

Orville Redenbacher’s® Gourmet® Popping Corn Teams Up with Celebrity Party Planner Jo Gartin to Give Busy Moms Tips for Quick, Easy Girlfriend Time

OMAHA, Neb.– Balancing hectic careers, busy partners and family obligations can be tough, and for most women, finding that extra time to spend with friends can be a rare opportunity. To help girlfriends easily unite in a fun and creative way – and to inspire women to spend more time with their friends by hosting regular Girls Night In events – Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn partnered with working mom and celebrity party planner Jo Gartin to provide tips that will make the entire girlfriend-gathering experience an easier process.

A recent survey conducted by Orville Redenbacher’s revealed that while 74 percent of women viewed a girl’s night gathering as one of the best possible ways to relax, one in six women still don’t make the necessary time for their friends when life gets busy . But there are ways to plan around busy schedules.

Gartin, who recently helped plan a fun and entertaining girls night for Poppy Montgomery, star of CBS’s “Without a Trace,” and a few of her closest friends, noted that the most successful parties include simple elements that are easy to coordinate and implement.

“With so many other daily tasks to plan and coordinate, ease your mind by making the time spent with friends fun and relaxing – not stressful,” said Gartin. “Enjoying a night with just the girls is an extremely important part of a woman’s life. So the less stress you have going into the night, the better the entire occasion will be for both you and your girlfriends.”

As a busy mother of two who plans parties for a living, Gartin has a few tricks for making time to get together with friends:

* Save a date: Whether it’s every week or every month, pick a regular time to meet. That way, everyone has it on their calendars in advance to plan around it.
* Have a dinner making party: Invite your friends over to make simple dishes they can take home to their families for dinner. That way, you can all enjoy the time you normally spend preparing a meal with each other and no one misses family dinner.
* Bring errands in-house: If you can’t find time to hit the gym, go to the salon, and spend time with the girls, consider inviting your friends over and doing those activities at home. Rent an exercise or dance DVD and sweat it up together. See if your local salon will send technicians to your home for manicures.

Gartin helped her friend Montgomery plan a Girls Night In party complete with lime-themed food and drinks to complement the newest flavor of Orville’s Redenbacher’s Natural popcorn - Lime & Salt, as well as spa treatments to create a luxurious, relaxing environment. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to pamper your guests,” said Gartin. “Many everyday grocery items make great beauty masks and scrubs, avocado and oatmeal with honey are my favorite. Your guests can take home jars of homemade face masks as a fun and useful goodbye gift.”

Gartin recommends picking a theme as a fun way to keep all elements cohesive and to make planning easier. “A theme ensures your food, décor and activities all tie together. It’s much easier to make decisions when there is a theme to filter decisions through.”

Simplify the gathering even more by keeping the menu basic – serve snacks and drinks instead of a full meal. “Popcorn is the perfect snack for any occasion and is especially great for women spending that much-needed quality time together,” said Joan Chow, Chief Marketing Officer, ConAgra Foods. “With busy schedules, finding time is always an issue. But Girls Night In provides women with a reason to get together, and when coupled with Orville Redenbacher’s tips and tricks, it’s the perfect opportunity to sample our newest flavor of Natural popcorn - Lime & Salt.”

Orville Offers Girls Night In Planning Tools
Women who are interested in throwing a party can go online at www.orville.com/girlsnightIn for tips, theme ideas and tools, including a downloadable coupon for Orville Redenbacher’s products. There, women will have the opportunity to use a custom Orville Redenbacher’s “Girls Night In” Evite® invitation to reach out to their girlfriends. Evite is the leading social event planning service on the Web, facilitating more than 200 million invitations a year. Evite makes planning easy and saves hosts time, money and paper.

Orville Redenbacher’s Natural Lime & Salt is the newest product to be launched as part of the Natural line, joining other such varieties as Simply Salted and Simply Salted 50% Less Fat, Buttery Salt & Cracked Pepper, Buttery Garlic, Butter and Butter 50% Less Fat. Orville Redenbacher’s Natural flavors are 100-percent whole grain with no artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and zero grams of trans fat per serving. The Lime & Salt flavor is available exclusively at Wal-Mart, and all other Natural varieties are available at Wal-Mart, and grocery and mass retailers nationwide.