The thread title says it all.
I’m having friends over next Saturday. Unlike me, they might be grossed out by Spam on Saltines and Cheeze Whiz on Ritz crackers. Also, they try to eat healthy and I don’t want to introduce weird toxins into their systems.
Apps may be hot or cold. Meat or meatless. Any type of healthy ingredients are fine.
Basic requirements:
Thanks! (I may not get back to this thread until this evening but I will get back to it.)
Sounds like you are looking for an hors dourve, my favorite quick and easy one that fits your specs is:
1 sweet baguette
1 onion
1 goat cheese (pasty not crumbly)
Slice and toast baguette (put in oven on broil for about 5 mins)
Saute onions in butter until clear
Smear goat cheese on toasted baguette rounds and cover with onions.
Simple but always a big hit.
Tortilla roll-ups. Spread a flour tortilla with sour cream and sprinkle with just about anything – chopped olives, pimento, shredded cheese, sunflower nuts, salsa, etc. Roll it up and slice it in one-inch rounds.
Another good one – take a slice of dried beef, spread it thinly with cream cheese and put a dill pickle at one end. Roll it up and slice it.
Not particularly “healthy” but not life-threatening either.
If you can find some nice fresh figs, my favourite dead-simple minimum-ingredient app involves cutting fresh figs in half, adding a thin slice of good-quality Parmesan cheese and then wrapping up with a slice of dry-cured ham (like prosciutto or speck).
Crostini are also quite nice and ridiculously simple - just slice up a baguette into thin diagonal slices and toast under the broiler until both sides are nicely browned. Then top with something tasty like:
[ul]
[li]basic tomato bruschetta topping (diced tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil, garlic)[/li][li]apple slices with brie and fresh rosemary sprigs (toast a bit to melt the brie)[/li][li]store-bought or homemade spreads (baba ganoush, hummus, etc)[/li][li]goat cheese and thin slices of pear[/li][li]blue cheese, dried cranberries and toasted almond slices[/li][/ul]
Garbage bread. I know, it’s cheating, it’s got 4 ingredients, but it’s easy to make.
Take some bread dough and roll it out, Layer it with sliced ham, pepperoni, and swiss cheese. Then roll it into a loaf, closing the ends. Put it on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, or until it browns. Let it cool a little, slice it up, and there you go.
Not really healthy, but easy and doesn’t seem to hang around long.
Get a crock pot, add a package or two of little Smokies add a bottle of barbecue sauce. Let it go for an hour or two, and open the lid and supply toothpicks.
They won’t last long.
Have a vegetable tray.
Recipe one (the easy way):
Recipe two:
Guacamole:
2 ripe avocados, mashed
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced into tiny bits
juice of one big lime
salt to taste
Mix together and serve with tortilla chips
Bacon wrapped dates.
Get whole dates. Wrap in bacon, stick with a toothpick, broil a few minutes, turn once.
Freakishly good. I tried it for a bridal shower and they absolutely disappeared.
Do I get an award for least # of ingredients? I want the bacon bonus too!
Stuff button or baby bella mushrooms with Laughing Cow or light cream cheese. Spread a thin layer of pesto over the top, spray with non-stick cooking spray and bake at around 300 until the cheese is melty. People LOVE these and they couldn’t be easier!
That really needs mozzarella or provolone cheese instead. Ham and provolone, BTW, are insanely good together, as a sandwich, or just rolled up into a tube.
Oooh… how could I have forgotten to suggest that? Bacon-wrapped prunes are divine as well. I’m so going to have to make a batch of those for my next party.
I make a lot of quick and easy appetizers (and am monitoring this thread closely for more ideas), but this is the quickest and easiest one I do. It has the added benefit of being yummy too.
Ingredients:
-1 brick of cream cheese, at room temperature
-1 jar of hot pepper jelly (or any kind of pepper relish your store sells that you like)
-crackers or tortilla chips
Directions:
Put the cream cheese on a nice plate. If the pepper jelly is firm, warm it a little in the microwave to loosen it up. If you are using pepper relish, serve at room temp.
Pour the peppery stuff over the cream cheese. Did I mention that the plate should be nice?
Spread on crackers or scoop with chips. Vice versa if you are one of those people.
Two packs of little Smokies, two bottles of chili sauces, to 8oz jars of grape jelly, all in a crockpot. Cook on low for 3-4 hours.
Cheese + crackers
I love that one.
Substitute Pickapeppa Sauce for the hot pepper jelly.
Sausage rolls were my stock appetizer for years. Here’s the recipe:
[ul]
Ingredients:
[li]1 package of Pepperidge Farms puff pastry[/li][li]1 package of sausage. I use Bob Evans breakfast sausage, but any sausage will do. Just don’t buy links.[/li]
Directions:
[li]Thaw the puff pastry.[/li][li]Preheat the oven to 400 degrees…[/li][li]Open up one sheet of puff pastry and flatten it out a bit. Use a rolling pin if you have one, but you don’t need one.[/li][li]Break off a piece of sausage about 2 inches long if you’re using Bob Evans and roll it between your hands until you’ve got a rope shaped piece as wide as the puff pastry is. It’s like making snakes out of Play-Dough.[/li][li]Put the sausage on the puff pastry and roll the puff pastry around it. Press down on the puff pastry to seal it (you’ll have plenty left) and cut along the edge of the puff pastry. You’ve now got a log of sausage encased in puff pastry.[/li][li]Cut the log of sausage and puff pastry into 2" or 3" long pieces and cut a couple of slits in the top of each one. Put the pieces on a baking sheet. Each piece is a sausage roll.[/li][li]Repeat these three steps until you run out of sausage or puff pastry.[/li][li]Bake the sausage rolls at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the puff pastry is golden.[/ul][/li]
This is traditional British food, most people who like pork like it. When I was in college, I even used to be asked to bring them to parties being given by the East Asian Languages department. We’d have dim sum, sushi, and sausage rolls. In my family, they’re also traditional Super Bowl food, but what do you expect from some slightly eccentric immigrants? 
Cheeze and Olives
1 jar of drained Giardenera
1 drained jar of Black and /or Green Olive Antipasti mix.
1 round of fresh Mozzarella cubed.
Combine all ingredients. Dress with a bit of Italian dressing, or Red Wine Vinegar and Olive Oil- or oil from the antipasti. Serve with bread or pita. Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian.
Man, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for!
Thank you all so much. What I’m doing is pasting and copying all of the recipes into my Word files. Each recipe will be a different file.
I will use at least four or five of these recipes but right now I’m not sure which. However I’m copying all of them.
It’s always a challenge for me to find easy appetizers… I got a couple of “Easy Appetizer” books , but for my purposes they have not been accurate: too many ingredients, mainly.
This stuff is wonderful because these recipes fit the specs perfectly and have been kitchen-tested.
Thank you all very much!
P.S.: I will give y’all whose recipes I use credit as, “Nice People From This Message Board I Post On”!