Bits and Pieces
Welcome to Bits and Pieces, when I give you my best tips on living a frugal lifestyle using items that you have on hand. Today we talk about making quick, stylish, and easy hors d'oeuvres.
We have some friends stopping by tomorrow afternoon. I wanted to give them a little something to eat while we were chatting. I needed to come up with something quick, inexpensive, and easy! So, I took a look at items I had in the house and created one sweet and one sweet and one savory dish.
Grasshoppers
I named these grasshoppers - like the chocolate covered mint cookies. I had some frosting left over from my son's 14th birthday cupcakes last week. It was a basic homemade buttercream frosting flavored with a couple of drops of Young Living peppermint oil. It tasted fantastic!
What do you do with leftover frosting? You put it between crackers! I used unsalted saltines. Then I melted some of the leftover Enjoy Life chocolate chips that I got on clearance at Krogers a few weeks ago.
I set the crackers on waxed paper and then spooned some of the chocolate
over the top of the frosting filled crackers. Let them sit until the
chocolate topping and frosting are both firm.
Don't put them in the refrigerator. The crackers will get soggy. Just leave them covered on the counter until you serve them.
Bruschetta
Bruschetta is a super easy and inexpensive Italian appetizer. I got two huge bags of sliced Italian bread "croutons" at Walmart tonight. Really they are just dried slices of Italian bread. Each 21 ounce bag was marked down to just $.41! That's a serious amount of bread for a really cheap price.
I rubbed slices of the bread with cloves of freshly peeled garlic. You don't have to rub hard or long. It infuses the bread pretty quickly with the garlic flavor. It will shred little bits of the garlic while you rub. No worries. That's fine.
On one tray I spread each piece of bread with homemade hummus and then topped half of the slices with shredded mozarella cheese and the other half with slices of cucumber. Although cucumbers are not traditional bruschetta fare, I had a lot of cucumbers in the house. So, I used them. Garnish with fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper if you wish.
On the second tray, I added diced tomatoes which had marinated in a splash of balsamic vinegar and dried basil. Place diced tomatoes on top of each slice of bread. Drizzle with olive oil if you wish. The oil does soften the bread a little bit.
Voila!
Quick, yummy, economical appetizers.
Products to use:
(This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I will be compensated.)
With holiday baking coming up, you may want to get this 12 pack of chips.
Don't want that many bags of chips? No problem! Here's another option:
This is a variety pack of 6 bags of Enjoy Life chips.
I seriously love cruets! This one is elegant and functional. Use it for olive oil or your favorite dressing.
That's it! Two appetizers made for just pennies from "bits and pieces" that I had around the house. What are your favorite "bits and pieces" recipes, ones that you make when you have a small portion of items around the house? Leave your favorite "bits and pieces" tips in the comments section.
Don't Miss Any of Our Posts!
Follow us:
On Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/underthemedian/
Receive posts via e-mail by filling in the "follow by e-mail" link on the main page.
On Youtube at:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCalhGzHdjoEn18XraUxsFHg
On Twitter at: https://twitter.com/Underthemedian
On Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/underthemedian/
Do all to the glory of God,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.