Holiday Appetizers

For my last cooking class at my current job, my topic last month was “Healthy Holiday Habits”.  And I focused on healthier dishes that are easy to prepare and bring to a party.

All the recipes I made are from Diabetic Living (Winter 2014), and I personally loved the recipes I made – and so did my class participants.

Pear Salad Bites

What you need:

3-4 heads Belgian Endive

1 large pear, cored and chopped

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (goat cheese works well too)

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup snipped watercress

1 tbsp lemon juice

Serves: 12 leaves

Serving size: 2 stuffed leaves

Macros:

Calories: 46; Total Fat: 3 g; Saturated fat: 1 g; Cholesterol: 4 mg; Sodium: 67 mg; Total Carbohydrate: 4 g; Fiber: 1 g; Sugars: 2 g; Protein: 1 g

Separate endive into 24 leaves

In a medium bowl stir together pear, blue cheese, pecans, and lemon juice.  Spoon mix into endive leaves, garnish with watercress.

**Prep tip**

Since I prepped this in advance I had to figure out a way to cut the pears in advance without them browning. So I did some google, and pinterest searching, and pleased with what I found.  So I cut the pears the night before, placed them in a big big bowl, squeezed some lemon juice on them, and then put ice cubes on top of them, then filled the bowl with ice cold water.

The next night for my class, I drained the water, and I had perfectly fine pears.

Feta- and Grape- Stuffed Mini Peppers

What you need:

10 miniature sweet peppers

1 cup seedless red grapes

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (goat cheese also works well here)

5 Tablespoons light cream cheese

2 tablespoons fat free milk

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon thinly sliced green onion

1/2 teasoon finely snipped rosemary

Yields: 10 stuffed peppers

Serving size: 2 stuffed pepper halves

Macros

Calories: 71; Total Fat: 4 g; Saturated Fat: 3 g; Cholesterol: 16 mg; Sodium: 156 mg; Total Carbohydrate: 5 g; Fiber: 1 g; Sugars: 4 g; Protein: 3 g

Um so just the cream cheese alone in this recipe is so fantastic.

Halve and seed sweet peppers, cut up the grapes as well – set both aside

In a food processor – combine the feta, cream cheese, milk, and cayenne pepper (I added the rosemary right in at this point, along with the green onions) – you can either do this – or fold them in after removing from the food processor.

Fill each pepper half with a about 2 teaspoons of the feta mixture.  Top with grapes- if desired sprint with additional rosemary and/or cayenne pepper.

Avocado, Mango, and Radish Dip

Servings: 16

Serving size: 1/3 cup diep and 1/2 oz crackers each

2 cups chopped fresh mango (about 2 mangos)

**you can also use frozen and thawed – to speed things up 🙂

2 cups chopped firm ripe avocados (about 2)

1 cup havled and sliced radishes

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro

1/2 tsp chili powder

8 oz whole grain crackers

Macros:

Calories: 119; Total Fat: 6 g; Saturated Fat: 1 g; Sodium: 215 mg; Total Carbohydrate: 16 g; Fiber: 2 g; Sugars: 3 g; Protein: 2 g

In medium bowl stir together the mangos, avocados, and radishes

In a small bowl whisk together lime juice, cilantro, chili powder, and 1/4 tsp salt; and stir to combine.  If desired, sprinkle with additional cilantro.

You have to basically make and serve this – so this recipe is great if you are having people over – or you can prep it prior to serving – but because of the avocados – you want to serve it right away.

Remember these yummy favorites when planning items to serve at your own party, or items to take to a party.  The recipes and photo are all from the winter edition of Diabetic Living Magazine.

These were all really simple to prep and to make – under 30 minutes to make each of them.