Easter Menu Tag: Appetizers!

I was invited by cajunliscious to participate in an Easter Tag Menu. I really appreciate the invite and hope all of you check out her amazing blog. Here was the invite:

It would involve for each person that is tagged, to come up with 5-10 suggested MENU ITEMS for EASTER. You have to upload these entrees, appetizers, desserts, from your previous posts with the photos, and link them back for the recipe.

Our Easter celebration is usually more of a potluck than a sit down dinner so in keeping with that theme, I decided to focus on recipes for appetizers.  

For some of my recipes, I decided to just paste in the recipe as the blog entry included more information than needed (apparently I have the tendency to ramble).  Some may not be as traditional, but all are delicious. Enjoy!

Thai Spring Roll Cups

Balsamic Beets

1 cooked beet sliced

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Crumbled Goat Cheese

Salt

Pepper

Goat Cheese Empanadas

Ingredients:

Refridgerated Pie Crust 

Goat cheese 2 oz per pie crust

Spread out the pie crust. Cut small circles (approx. 3 inch diameter). I used a glass to do this. Put a LITTLE bit of goat cheese in center. Wet the outer edge of the circle and fold over. Then use a fork to press it together and give the edges a nice crimped look.

*You really only need a little goat cheese. I had a terrible experience making ricotta and jam pockets (shudder, cringe) and I put in too much filling. It was a mess! And it was disgusting so it was a lose-lose.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

Mushroom Cheese Bread



Ingredients:

1 round loaf bread (preferably day old ot make it easier to cut but doesn't have to be)
8 oz. shredded Swiss cheese
8 oz. shredded Mozzzarella cheese
approx. 1/2 cup chopped sundried tomatoes
1 pear- cut into matchsticks and then cut those in half
6 oz. baby bella mushrooms, coarsely chopped

Sauce:

3/4 cup butter

2 parts poppyseeds (1-1 1/2 Tbsp)

1 part ground mustard

1 part season salt

2 parts lemon juice

3 green onions, finely chopped

Mix together cheeses, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and pear in a bowl.

Cut the bread in diagnol rows and then cross hatch to you have 1 to 1 1/2 inch cubes. Go almost to the bottom but make sure it is still attached. guests will need to pull apart the bread.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Place bread on foil. Stuff ingredients into the bread. Fill in all crevices.

Melt sauce ingredients in a saucepan. As soon as butter is melted, remove from stove and pour over bread.

Wrap bread with foil. At this point, really work to get the bread back into a round shape by pulling the foil tight across it.

Put bread on cookie sheet and bake 40 minutes at 350.

Remove, Unwrap and Enjoy!

Caramelized Onion Dip

2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 8 oz bar reduced fat cream cheese
1 cup fat free sour cream
2 Tbsp of chopped fresh chives


Melt butter in large skillet over medium-low heat.
Add onions and 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper.
Cook until deep golden brown- the recipe says 30-35 minutes but that's a vicious lie. I cooked the onions for well over an hour.
Remove onions from heat and let cool.
Mix sour cream and cream cheese together.
Add cooled onions and mix well.
Fold in chives.

Serve with thick cut vegetable chips and veggies.