Easy Finger Food Ideas and Tips for Your Next Get Together

Are you having a party, bridal shower, reception, or any other event soon and want to provide your guests with finger foods but don't want to take forever and a day to make them? Here are some easy finger food ideas and tips that are sure to be a hit.

The most popular finger foods these days are finger sandwiches with meat, chicken fingers, deli meat trays, cheese and crackers, chips and dip/salsa, pasta/chicken/shrimp salad, veggies and dip, pigs-in-a-blanket, shrimp cocktails, and cut up fruits and cheeses.

At Costco or Sam's Club you can get good finger food in bulk for a low price. Look for teriyaki chicken skewers, coconut shrimp, veggie/fruit/cheese trays, buffalo wings, mini quiches, and spinach and artichoke dip. All you have to do is take them out of the box and toss them in the oven. You can also find TGI Friday dips and finger foods, or buy pre-made platters that are ready to go.

Fruit trays will always be a favorite, and it'll be cheaper if you make them yourself. You can put different colored grapes for an aesthetically pleasing platter, along with cantaloupe and strawberries. If you want a dip for the fruit, there are plenty of recipes you can find at places like allrecipes.com. You could also a vegetable tray with baby carrots or carrot sticks, plum tomatoes, broccoli florets, celery, and cauliflower. Or try a cold cut tray: just garnish it with some greenery and you're good to go. Or a crackers and cheese tray with several types of cheeses.

Here are even more favorites: take some cocktail sausages, wrap some dough (like Pillsbury crescent rolls cut into strips) around it and bake them in the oven. Forget the bread and just spear cocktail sausages with toothpicks and place on a platter. Defrost cold shrimp and put it on a tray with a bowl of cocktail sauce in the middle. Provide chicken fingers with celery and blue cheese dip. Provide meatballs with sauce speared with toothpicks. Put small candies in little bowls and place them in different areas around the house: provide small candies like mints and m&m's.

For a little more work, you can provide sandwich trays. Cut up the sandwiches into triangles and squares to make them true finger food. You can use crescent rolls, rye bread, or any other type of bread to make it look a bit more "fancy".

And if you don't want to do any of the cooking/preparation, you can also: call a local deli or submarine sandwich shop and have them cater finger sandwiches and buy other prepared finger foods, like cookies.