With 99% of the family dealing with various illnesses this New Year’s Eve, no one was in the mood to spend hours in the kitchen making fancy party food, despite how enticing the fun recipes looked on Pinterest. Luckily, our only plans were sleeping all day, and then meeting up with the extended family at my sister-in-law’s house for dinner. I ended up finding 3 simple recipes that were fast, easy, and delicious (bonus points for not creating any nausea-inducing smells, either!) that were great additions to our little gathering last night.
1. Chocolate Covered Strawberries
This one doesn’t need much explanation, and everyone loves chocolate and strawberries. Also, I was told some people that would be there had just started a diet so this was naturally the most healthy thing I could think of (it’s 50% fruit, ok!). Mine turned out pretty unattractive due to a microwave wavering on its last legs of life, but I’m sure they still tasted just as good! The only ingredients needed are a few packages of strawberries and some melting chocolate. I was going to prove my level of fancy by adding a white chocolate drizzle at the end, but ended up burning that in the microwave so we’ll just chalk it up to pregnancy brain.
2. Bruschetta
Bruschetta is one of the easiest “fancy” appetizers to make for any occasion. I am obsessed with tomatoes so bruschetta is one of my absolute favorite appetizers. I probably doubled the amount of tomatoes and added some extra basil, but otherwise stuck to the recipe I found online. We also picked up some amazing balsamic glaze at Safeway that tasted amazing drizzled on top! Not pictured – a sliced baguette and some sourdough toast crackers.
3. Chocolate-dipped Oreos
Although Safeway was a madhouse the day before NYE, it was our lucky day because they were running a BOGO deal on all Oreos! I normally just use regular Oreos for this recipe, but this time I picked up an extra box of the cinnamon bun flavor (they are so good if you haven’t tried them yet). Other than cookies, all I used was a pack of white chocolate candy melts and some multi-colored sprinkles. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, dip the cookies, add some sprinkles, and let them cool on wax paper. My husband and son are huge fans of this concoction…although my husband is onto my secret now of how easy this recipe is.
I hope everyone had an amazing New Year’s Eve, however you chose to celebrate! Mine was possibly the most low-key ever, because I’m both pregnant and dealing with the pregnancy from hell so I couldn’t actually eat much until around 10pm when we got home (yes, we celebrated New York New Years because of the 6-year-old and 4-year-old…and let’s face it, we’re old). Our family tends to get together for every occasion so feel free to leave a comment below with your own favorite easy party foods!
