Christmas Appetizers that You Can Prepare in Advance

As we all know, Christmas is a very busy time of year! We don't always have the time to put aside for creating the perfect holiday banquet. Below are some ideas for Christmas appetizers that you can prepare in advance to alleviate the stress of doing all the cooking on the holiday. All of them will easily keep in the fridge overnight.

Bacon and Mushrooms with White Sauce:

With about 10 minutes preparation time and 20 minutes of cooking time, you can make this tasty and colorful appetizer.

Ingredients:

1 lb mushrooms, sliced. (canned or fresh)

6 slices of bacon (turkey for lower fat intake)

4 slices of toast (wheat for lowest carb intake)

1 tbsp butter

1 cup of white sauce

¼ tsp mixed aromatic herbs, such as thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, oregano, etc. (personal choice)

For the white sauce:

2 tbsp flour or cornstarch

1 ¼ whole milk

Salt

Sauté the mushrooms in the butter over low heat for 3 minutes. In another pan, fry the bacon until crisp, then drain on paper towels to remove excess oil. Crumble the bacon into pieces.

Now you can make the white sauce. Mix the flour or cornstarch with a few tablespoons taken from the 1 ¼ cups of cold milk. Blend to a smooth paste in a bowl and bring the remaining milk to a boil. Pour the hot milk over the paste and return the mixture to the pan. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. Simmer the sauce for 2-3 minutes until thick. Add a pat of butter and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes.

Now add the mixed herbs and season with salt and ground pepper. Gently fold the mushrooms and bacon into the sauce; heat through. Serve the mixture on buttered toast when ready to eat.

Baked Tomatoes:

Everyone has had stuffed peppers or stuffed mushrooms, but how often have you had stuffed tomatoes? This takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and the outcome is unique and delicious!

Ingredients:

12 large, firm tomatoes

1 finely chopped onion

1 ½ cups cooked minced meat

1 cup cooked rice

3-4 tbsp butter 2-3 tbsp stock

1 tbsp light cream

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp chopped parsley

½ cup grated pepper jack cheese (substitute American for less spice)

1 tbsp bread crumbs

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse tomatoes, thoroughly. Cut a thin slice off the top of each tomato and scoop out the pulp. Cook the onion in the butter until soft. Add the meat, rice, stock, cream, Worcestershire sauce and parsley. Season with a pinch of pepper and cook for 3 minutes.

Fill the tomatoes with the meat mixture and put them in a lightly buttered ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and bread crumbs, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Meat Roll-ups:

This is a very easy and tasty appetizer to create and requires no cooking. You can substitute the cold cuts listed below for whatever you wish, as long as they are able to "roll" up.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

6 slices of turkey

6 slices of salami

6 slices of ham

6 tsp of Ricotta cheese

Pepper

¼ cup hummus

Lay out the ham slices, then on top of them, lay out the turkey slices, followed by the slices of salami so that you have 6 piles of 3 layers of cold cuts. On each pile, add one teaspoon of ricotta cheese and smear it in the middle. Add just a tiny pinch of pepper to the middle of the cheese. Take the ends of the slices and roll them up. The end product should be tube shaped. Line a large plate with some leaves of lettuce and arrange the meat roll-ups on it. Put the hummus in a small bowl and set on plate.