I absolutely LOVED the movie, DIVERGENT! Did you See it? So When Cost Plus World Market asked for Oscar party ideas, I jumped up with excitement to host a DIVERGENT movie party. I love the idea of the different factions and associating them with the food we eat, so today I am sharing a chili bar with each of the DIVERGENT factions represented. Enjoy a night with friends and family while you each build your own favorite chili combination. I've also got some free printables you can use that I designed inspired by the movie.
This post is sponsored by Cost Plus World Market on behalf of their Movie Lovers Sweepstakes. Before you go, check out the opportunity to enter to win some great goodies… giveaway info below!
DIVERGENT Movie Night
Chili bar and entertaining ideas
Before setting up all the party ideas, I headed over to Cost Plus World Market to do a little shopping. I wanted to find food ideas that represented each faction from the movie but I was also looking for some table accessories that might fit the movie style. To me, DIVERGENT is a combination of Industrial, Earthy and Modern. Warm colors and lots of tactile surfaces. The food has got to be spectacular in flavor but comforting and easy to eat. Look at all the goodies I picked up…
When I host a gathering of any kind, I really enjoy setting the table with nice pieces. They don't have to be fancy, but there does need to be a style to the setting. I think the items you use to display food is almost as important as the food… it's like the ribbon on a gift. So I looked for table accents that would coordinate with the movie and be fun to display the food in. I picked out some mat black ceramic tableware from the Trilogy collection. We like to use mugs for chili instead of giant bowls, and the Trilogy collect mugs are gorgeous! I also picked out some small mason jars and basic small white bowls to hold various ingredients. I also grabbed a couple unique spoons – my favorite is the metal spoon that looks like a metal stick – so cool!
I also picked up both a black and a white larger serving bowl/plate. As well as some small spice jars, a small cast iron baking dish and a small slate cheese board. I used all these items to display some of the ingredients for the chili bar. To decorate the table, I added in a simple glass candle lantern and a wood slatted place mat. I was trying to make sure I included as many elements and materials as I could. I had cast iron, slate, glass, ceramic and wood… and some delicious chili. I love how it turned out!
You could add whichever extras you want, or be the DIVERGENT in the family and add some of everything.
The Food
I know you are really waiting to hear about the food. So here we go!
The star of this entire event is the chili. Most of the time I make my own from scratch chili, but I love the Cost Plus World Market soup mixes, so I decided to try their White Chicken Chili Mix. My family loved it! It's got tons of flavor and even a little bit of a kick. I stuck with the recipe on the back of the package with a few exceptions. I roasted chicken to use in the chili and then used the same pan to cook up the beans. Leaving the chicken drippings in the pan, it created a yummy chicken broth. So, I omitted the chicken stock from the recipe and replaced with with a little bullion and water.
This chili comes with everything you need except the chicken. Look at all these delicious spices… all included in the package!
Cost Plus World Market does not carry fresh produce, so I picked up all the veggies and fresh items from my local grocer.
For my evening of entertaining, I picked up some great spices, chips and cookies for desert from CPWM. I also brought home some Lornia sparkling beverages. The flavors are delicious and just the right touch to add to a chili party. I wanted to pick a flavor for each faction until I realized how large the bottles were. Just looking at photos online, I thought the bottles were single servings. Had I read the description, I would have noticed they are larger servings, so I opted for 3 flavors to offer a variety to the movie waters.
Doesn't Blood Orange sound like a MUST flavor for a Dauntless?
Food for the 5 factions
I created groups of mix-ins for the chili for every faction in the movie. Here's what I came up with.
Dauntless – The Brave – Bold flavors, peppers and spicy extras.
We had salsa and Sriracha, green chilis and Chipotle peppers.
Candor – The Honest – Clean foods & Fresh vegetables.
We chopped up heirloom tomatoes, red bell peppers, green onions, cilantro, red onions and included a bowl of sweet corn.
Erudite – The Intelligent – Smart brain foods.
Quinoa, chia seeds, parmasean and some Janes Mixed Up Salt (from CPWM – YUM).
Amity – The Peaceful – Cooling flavors to mellow out the heat.
We included sour cream to cool down the chili spice and cheese for a yummy melted bite.
Abnegation – The Selfless – Food that doesn't take away.
My hubby was the brain behind this one. With Amity already owning the quiet flavored foods, I wasn't sure what to add. I still needed some kind of bread to go with the chili but couldn't figure out the “story” and then my husband said “tortillas and bread take on the flavor of whatever you put on them”. BRILLIANT! So there it was, tortillas, chips and mini biscuits to complete any bowl of chili.
Dessert
I separated out all the cookies, picked our 5 favorites and dictated which one represented which faction. There are not an even amount of each cookie type, so don't expect to divy them up evenly. We all become factionless at this point, gobbling up all the flavors because they are so delicious!
We finished off the meal with a variety of cookies. I picked up a single bag of Nobelesse cookies (assorted biscuits and wafers).
Don't forget the Extra Touches
Adding final touches and entertaining essentials to complete our party set up, we lit some lantern style candles and made our own food group labels. I have a free printable for you to use to make the labels for your own event. To make these labels, I used empty spice jars, filled them with small stones or dried lentils (dried beans would work too). Print out the DIVERGENT factions name printables, cut them out and then tape them to a wooden skewer. Stick the skewer into the jar and voila, you're good to go!
Grab the free printables!
This printable set includes DIVERGENT faction name labels in a few different sizes as well as a series of blank labels. You can use these printables to decorate your party table, label the food, seats and even make wrist bands for your party guests.
If you want to make more party accessories, the font is free and you can grab it here: Free Divergent font download
More Divergent Series Ideas:
- Divergent Series Red Velvet Stacked Cookie Cakes from Living Locurto
- Divergent Date Night from Dating Divas
- Be Brave Divergent Party Ideas from Melissa Creates
- Surprise Inside Divergent Cake from Once Upon a Pedestal
Do you LOVE World Market too? Check out this fun gift inspiration from World Market: Gift Ideas for the Art Loving Mom
I absolutely loved Divergent, too (and – ahem – Four)! This is such a great idea!
Oh YES, Four! Thanks so much for the note.