Get festive with these New Year’s Eve Food ideas

Recently, I was talking with a neighbor about a dilemma she was having for New Year’s Eve: her and her friends need some sort of dinner, but nobody wants to cook and their group is too big for a restaurant reservation.

I’m guessing this could be quite a common issue, so I figured I would put together a board of New Year’s Eve appetizers that eats more like a light dinner, with cheese AND charcuterie AND seafood AND sweet treats AND even a simple homemade appetizer, if you want. 

While this board of New Year’s Eve finger food looks pretty epic, it actually consists of one item I made, a few things I heated up in the oven, and 98% stuff I bought at the store.

This post will give you a ton of ideas to put together the New Year’s appetizers spread of your dreams. The board pictured here is for a big crowd, but if your gathering is a little smaller, just cut it down to a few of your favorite things.

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Green Bean Casserole Crockpot Recipe

If you’ve been underwhelmed by classic green bean casserole made with canned soup, I really don’t blame you. It’s not my favorite, either.

So I set out to not only give it a fresh and flavorful upgrade, but also do it in a crockpot, so your casserole doesn’t have to take up valuable oven space on Thanksgiving or Christmas. What can I say, I enjoy a challenge.

I ended up testing this recipe five times to get it just right for you. It uses fresh green beans and fresh mushrooms (no gloppy canned cream of mushroom soup).

It’s the perfect balance of cooked but not mushy, saucy but not too liquidy, and it’s the epitome of comfort food with the convenience of slow cooking.

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This Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup Recipe will become a weeknight favorite!

My daughter has turned into a certified soup kid. She loves any and all soup. Which means that I’m planning on lots of soup for dinners this winter. Because you know what? I’m a soup kid, too.

One of our all-time favorites is this Chicken Tortellini Soup. When I say it’s the most flavorful soup you’ll find on the internet, I mean it.

Ingredient choices like chicken thighs and a hint of nutmeg might be a little unconventional, but you’ll understand after just one spoonful!

“This was brought to a soup bar at school on a parent night to serve teachers. It is still, 3 years later, discussed as the best soup we’ve eaten. We actually hunted down the parent who made the soup and got the recipe to pass around. It is still common in the halls to hear, “I made the chicken tortellini soup last night!” Yup, that good.”

—Melissa

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These Egg Muffin Cups are the best make-ahead morning meal!

When it comes to weekday breakfast, prepping ahead is key for my family. We love anything that’s grab-and-go to get some nourishment on groggy mornings.

We turn to these Breakfast Muffins several times a month. They can be made in advance, kept in the freezer for a month, and reheated in a flash.

They’re delicious and nutritious, because they can be packed with all kinds of vegetables!

“This was a positively delicious recipe.  It is so healthy and worth every minute of putting it together.”

—Donna

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The BEST Veggie Lasagna Recipe

We’ve all had bad banquet food. In my experience, it involves a choice of overcooked chicken or bad vegetable lasagna. The lasagna is mushy and overcooked. And unlike it’s meatier cousins like Greek lasagna, it’s usually runny and watery.

One of the few banquets I’ve been to that has had great food? My culinary school graduation, of course. My instructors knew what they were doing when it came to banquets. Not only did they offer up lamb lollipops and the best vegetarian quiche, but they knew that vegetable lasagna can be great if it’s made well.

And it turns out that making it well involves a secret ingredient. An ordinary item you can find at any grocery store, but it has a magical purpose when it comes to veggie lasagna.

Read on to find out what this item is, and why it guarantees that you’ll soon be enjoying the most flavorful, cheesiest, well cooked, NOT WATERY vegetable lasagna you’ve ever had.

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This Vegetarian Quiche Recipe makes brunch dreams come true!

When my husband asks me for brunch menu ideas to celebrate Mother’s Day, I have lot of opinions, of course.

At the top of my list is lemon pancakes with just some good, classic bacon in the oven (cooked to the softer side of crispy, the way I like it). And a big mug of caramel coffee or a huge bloody with epic bloody mary skewers.

But where’s the eggs? Well, I eat enough scrambled eggs any ol’ day of the week, so I want something fancier for Mother’s Day! And this veggie quiche recipe fits the bill of fancy eggs, but it’s still very easy, which is such a sweet spot.

Not only is this Easy Vegetarian Quiche Recipe perfect for Mother’s Day, Easter (don’t forget the lamb lollipops!), or any other time you want a special yet simple brunch, it also makes a great light lunch or dinner, especially when served alongside something fresh like Spring salad.

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A cheap and delicious Savory Oatmeal Recipe for dinner

Did you know that risotto isn’t just a dish, but it’s actually a method of cooking? While risotto is usually associated with rice, lots of different ingredients can be cooked risotto-style.

Savory oatmeal is a high-fiber alternative to risotto made with white rice. But if you’re thinking savory oatmeal sounds bland, think again.

Making savory steel cut oats with lots of umami-packed mushrooms turn this dish into something upscale and elegant enough to enjoy for dinner with a glass of wine.

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Am I the only one that considers ordering pizza to be the weirdest, most awkward social experiment? By nature, it’s designed to be shared with a group. But that also means that you and your friends all have to agree on toppings.

I don’t know about your group of friends, but mine have pretty varied tastes. One person wants mushrooms, somebody else stand them (too bad, because they’ll miss out on chicken stroganoff!).

Somebody else wants olives, but another person would rather have anything but olives. Oh, and then somebody wants a chicken pizza and the pepperoni lovers give them the side eye.

This usually results in ordering ALL of the pizzas and having leftovers for days (and spending way too much money).

With game day coming up, I came up with a fun option where everybody can get their way. It’s not quite the same as a regular pizza, but this crostini pizza bar is a fun appetizer to pair with other game day food like healthy buffalo chicken dip and my football themed charcuterie board.

By the time you load your plate up with snacks, you pretty much have a meal, right?

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This is the BEST Chicken Stroganoff Recipe

Is there anything more cliche than having a doctor’s checkup just before you turn 40 and being told that maybe it’s time you start watching your cholesterol?

Probably not, but here we are. This website certainly isn’t going to be come health food central, but it may be time to cut back on testing new creme brulee flavors quite as frequently.

And a big source of cholesterol in many diets is red meat. Now, truthfully, we don’t eat a ton of red meat, but there are still a few ways we could cut back further.

So I’ve been looking at some of our favorite dishes made with beef and figuring out some easy swaps to reduce cholesterol.

Luckily, I enjoy chicken sloppy joes just as much as the beef ones. Black bean meatballs and mushroom tacos can stand in for their meatier counterparts once in awhile.

And while I love crock pot beef stroganoff so much (and it’s one of the most popular recipes on this site!), I’ve recently discovered that chicken stroganoff can be every bit as delicious. In fact, I find myself liking it even more than the original!

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The irony of being a food blogger who makes a VERY small real-life Thanksgiving dinner has always amused me.

But for the holiday, I’m usually cooking for just four adults and one kid. It makes Thanksgiving dinner a very low-stress meal to host, because cooking for five doesn’t require shuffling dozens of pans and casserole dishes into the oven (or multiple ovens, which we don’t have!).

On the the other hand, it also makes it impractical to prepare a HUGE feast – there’d just be way too many leftovers to deal with (even after making my leftover mashed potatoes recipe and cranberry sauce muffins the next day), and food waste bums me out.

So, in real life, I stick to just the basics, which is usually a small Cajun turkey or turkey with maple bourbon glaze, mashed potatoes with homemade gravy, cranberry sauce, my husband’s grandma’s old fashioned dressing, and green beans or maple glazed Brussels sprouts.

But this blog is where I kind of live out my Thanksgiving FEAST fantasies (and test and eat them in the weeks BEFORE the holiday).

In my dreams, I envision a table loaded with a dozen side dishes, like Thanksgiving salad and roasted acorn squash slices and every other vegetable imaginable. Oh, and Thanksgiving Rice! Let’s talk about this Thanksgiving Rice recipe.

“Made this for Thanksgiving this year. Absolutely delicious. So easy to bake in the oven. Was perfect at 50 minutes.”

—Cindy

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