I am falling in love with this holiday season! The main reason behind that is I am surrounded with all the delicious FOOD! I am super excited with brainstorming for party food ideas. For people like me, who has no family around to celebrate with during the holiday, I am always being invited to many parties. And to attend the parties, I will always make sure to bring some well-presentable food. This means, during this time of the year, my pinterest account is filled with my want-to-make recipe ideas.
So far, I have made mini cream cheese bites, spicy Asian vegetarian meatballs, vegetable wellington and lemon curd pavlova. At most of the parties I’ve been to, I noticed we hardly miss protein dishes (or I should say meat items). Therefore, I always try to prepare some veggie dishes. As for desserts, I make them as light as possible. (You know we are going to enjoy the dessert once in awhile at the party, so just enjoy it in moderation, then move on!)
Mini Cream Cheese Balls
Recipe adapted from delish. I modified a few part based on my own preference by omitting bacon and adding chopped green onion and dried cranberries into a cream cheese mixture.
Yield: 25 cream cheese balls
Ingredients
Cream cheese balls
1 block (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon green onion (green parts only), finely chopped
2 tablespoons dried cranberries, finely chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
To taste salt and ground black pepper (optional)
Coating
¼ cup pecans, finely chopped
¼ cup dried cranberries, finely chopped
2 tablespoons green onion (green parts only), finely chopped
** 25 pretzel sticks
Instructions
For cream cheese balls: In a small mixing bowl, stir together all ingredients. Chill the cream cheese mixture in refrigerator until firm (approximately 1 hour)Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl, stir together coating ingredients (except pretzel sticks). Set aside.Once cream cheese mixture is firm, roll into approximately 25 small cheese balls. Then coat with coating ingredients. Insert a pretzel stick into each (If not serving right away, insert the pretzel stick before serving).
Spicy Asian vegetarian meatballs
The recipe was adapted from both this gal cooks and epicurious
Yield: 14 veggie balls
Ingredients
For the veggie balls
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained
1 cup cooked quinoa
½ cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
¼ cup green onion, thinly sliced (more for serving)
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ tsp salt
1 tablespoon sesame oil
** You might need some all purpose flour if the mixture is coming out too runny, and it will also help to prevent sticking to your hand.
For the sauce
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoons Sriracha (*adjust the amount based on your preference)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 cloves garlic (large), finely grated
1 teaspoon ginger, finely grated
For Serving
14 pieces pineapple chunks
2 tablespoons green onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
14 3 or 4-inch skewers
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F. For veggie balls: In the large food processor, blend all the ingredients. Add 1 tablespoon (at a time) of all purpose flour if the mixture is too runny Coat your hand with some flour. Roll mixture into approximately 1 tablespoon balls and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.For the sauce: Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook sauce over high heat for approximately 5 minutes. Remove from heat.Coat cooked veggie balls evenly with the sauce.For serving, skewed a piece of pineapple with a veggie ball. Then sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onion.
Mushroom Wellingtons
The recipe adapted from Bianca Zapatka. This is a very well written recipe as it provides several filling ideas for the mushroom Wellington. I made my Wellingtons into individual serving sizes. Each Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry sheet can make 9 mini Wellingtons. Instead of spinach, I incorporated finely chopped roasted potatoes and chopped mushrooms. Serve the Wellington with a good amount of warm balsamic roasted vegetables.
Pavlova with Lemon Curd
*** If you are not in a rush, I highly recommend this dessert. To make pavlova, (also known as meringue shell), it requires longer cooking time. If you are interested in making this dessert, please refer to Food Network.
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