Easy Appetizers

Everyone loves to start a party with appetizers. It is an easy way to "break the ice" and get people relaxed and comfortable. When going through your appetizer recipes, however, it can seem daunting. Many of them require a lot of preparation. If you are just having an informal cocktail party, you might want to splurge on some of these fancier appetizer recipes. But if you want a simple and relaxing event, the easy appetizer is the way to go.

Some of these appetizers have such wonderful presentation, people might think that you went to a LOT of trouble. That just makes it all the better! There is some preparation work, but it can be done ahead of time leaving you to enjoy your party and your guests. Just make sure to keep things as fresh as you can. So get dressed first, put on an apron and go!

A very easy appetizer recipe is to take small crackers and use them as your base. There are brands of crackers that have generally the same size but a variety of shapes in the pack. This makes for nice presentation for your food. You can take a cracker and put cucumber, salmon, cream cheese and sprinkle with fresh dill. Done! Arrange several of these on a platter using the various crackers. Or you can put just a piece of fruit and a piece of cheese on top of the cracker. Using the cracker as your base, put a piece of lunch meat on the cracker and top with cheese and fresh dill. If you serve a variety like this, not only does it make a nice presentation, but these are really good!

You can also use a small baguette or other piece of small bread as your base. With bread you can get a little more creative. Drizzle on a little olive oil and add cheese and cucumber to this. Then, since you have a little more room, add a piece of fruit. Some fruits that can be considered are apple, cantaloupe, and grapes. Really, there is a lot of room to be creative here. You could even top it with some jam if you didn't have any fresh fruit.

If you and your friends are calorie conscious, you could skip the bread and crackers and use a slice of cucumber as your base. Use a cucumber slice and then put some smoked salmon on top. Use low-fat cream cheese and top with some fresh dill. That is low in calories but still looks festive! Starting with a vegetable as your base really makes your appetizer recipes nutritious and figure friendly!

You can always go the traditional route for your appetizer recipes. That would include cheese spreads, meatballs, and a shrimp tray. The shrimp tray would be the lowest calorie dish in this fare. You can buy these at the store and then add fresh herbs to dress them up and make them your own. Whatever you choose for your appetizer recipes, they should be easy to make and good to eat. If they look pretty, well that's just the cherry on top of the canapé!