By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

For many of us a New Year means a calendar full of birthday parties that we're responsible for throwing or attending. The best gift we can give to ourselves? That would be quick, economical tips that equal easy gourmet touches.

Munching on some delicious store-bought crunchy iced oatmeal cookies recently gave me an idea. It had been a long time, perhaps since childhood, that I'd feasted on an iced cookie and had no memory of how much instant pizzazz the thin glaze - just simple vanilla - added to the overall effect. The pop in flavor was marvelously measurable.

I had been wracking my brain for an easy, yet dazzling, treat to serve at or bring to birthday parties. This was it: A quick glaze I could whip up to top simple homemade cookies, or an undetectable shortcut in the form of that same glaze instead spread on supermarket cookies like crispy gingersnaps.

Many cookies, like gingersnaps, can be found in sugar-free versions, too. That means just the small addition of glaze has sugar, but the main part of the dessert does not.

Icing or glazing a cookie is simple: Virtually all you have to remember is to lightly drizzle it or gently and sparingly spoon it on completely cooled cookies. No dollops or putting it on thick as you might with frosting.

Other than that, remember to pair flavors well - a fairly nondescript cookie (such as vanilla wafer or sugar cookie, or, again, their easy-to-find sugar-free counterparts) with a spicier, splashier glaze or vice versa.

Spice cookies, for instance, are good coupled with sweet drizzled icing that's nothing more than confectioners' sugar, vanilla and either whipping cream, rum or orange juice, all added to taste and the mixture reaches your desired consistency.

Cream cheese is a good foundation for a glaze, too. Mix it with a juice of your choice, even fruit punch or lemonade and confectioner's sugar and consider including some citrus zest. Again, this is all to taste and the mixture reaches your desired consistency.

Fun fare like this proves innovative food preparation can be easy, nutritious, economical, entertaining - and fast. The ideas take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty "home cooking" and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it! Another benefit: You - and your kidlet helpers - effortlessly become gourmets, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong mixtures, so whatever you choose to use can't help but draw birthday "wows."

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Always carry a few zip-close plastic sandwich bags with you. Then if you or your kidlets end up getting a snack on the go, like nuts or whole-grain chips, you feel less compelled to eat the entire (often large or multiple) serving and can secure the rest for enjoyment later.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.