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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Serve Crab Stuffed Shrimp as an appetizer or dinner!

One of the best things about cooking at home is realizing how possible it is to create a restaurant-quality dish without being a trained chef.

One of the best examples of this is a recipe like Stuffed Shrimp with Crab.

It’s nothing more than cutting open some shrimp and stuffing them with an easy-to-stir-up mixture of crab and seasonings, but it couldn’t be more impressive.

And even better – it only takes 10 minutes to bake, thanks to starting with a grocery store shortcut of pre-cooked shrimp.

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Ground Chicken Meatballs

Now that I’m my 40’s and ever-so-predictably watching my cholesterol, ground beef, pork and lamb recipes are happening in our house less and less (lamb bolognese is saved for a special occasion).

In red meat’s place, I’m definitely turning to ground turkey and chicken wherever possible. Meatballs are one recipe where I don’t feel like they NEED to be beef to be delicious.

In fact, these Greek chicken meatballs are not only one of my favorite New Year’s Eve snacks (along with ham and turkey sliders), but I make them just about every other week as a quick dinner by adding a few side dishes.

So grab a rosemary gin cocktail, and let’s chat about these delicious Mediterranean meatballs. They can be baked or air fried, and served with things like feta, orzo and tzatziki to make them extra special.

“I have made this recipe so many times in the last year, I don’t even need to look at it anymore. The meatballs are so tasty, and when I was trying to lose weight, these were one dish I could enjoy guilt free. The whole family enjoys them too; you can throw them in a marinara sauce and use them in a meatball sub, or with pasta, or even cold leftovers out of the fridge!”

—Sharon

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When I think of “party food,” it begins and ends with dip for me. Personally, I feel that no party is complete without chips and dip, veggies and dip, crackers and dip, bread and dip, buffalo chicken dip, or maybe all of the above.

And OK, maybe some charcuterie cups or shrimp deviled eggs, but those are in no way as important as the dip.

When I was a kid, I would look forward to my parents’ get-togethers with their friends only for the dip. I knew that a party meant that my mom would be buying potato chips and French onion dip, and I was probably going to eat half of it by myself.

Nowadays, I still love a good creamy dip with simple, delicious ingredients. This Roasted Garlic Dip recipe has a pretty short list of ingredients, but the roasting of the garlic imparts an incredible flavor into the cooling sour cream and creamy mayonnaise mixture.

Add the citrus zing of some lemon juice, and this dip is positively irresistible. 

Use this garlic dip for chips, crackers, toasted bread, or even as a dipping sauce for mini Hasselback potatoes or lamb lollipops.

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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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After Thanksgiving, is it possible that “the big game” (don’t you hate how everybody has to call it that due to copyright issues?) is the second biggest food “holiday” of the year? I know we take menu planning for it pretty seriously around here!

And somehow it’s turned into a whole day event, too. While “dinner” might be crock pot ribs or Sonoran hot dogs, you have to have snacks for the afternoon lead-up to the event, too!

If I’m attending a gathering, I might show up with individual charcuterie cups or Korean meatballs for nibbling before the game. If I’m hanging around home, I might make a little football charcuterie board for my fam, or maybe some shrimp deviled eggs and ham and turkey sliders for snacking.

But my all-time FAVORITE game day dish is this Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe. Let me tell you why it’s so good, and maybe you’ll want it to be a part of your game day celebration, too!

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DIY Charcuterie Cup Ideas

All the way from a Thanksgiving charcuterie board to a charcuterie chalet and many stops in between, there’s no denying that this time of year is perfect for as many fun charcuterie board ideas as you can dream up.

Whether you’re entertaining a crowd with a wine and cheese board or just having some snacks at home, this type of food is probably at its most popular during the holidays, so you can have a cranberry rosemary cocktail or grapefruit mule in one hand, and a snack in the other!

And sure, I’ve already done jarcuterie, and I know you’re thinking that this charcuterie in a cup really isn’t much different. And you’re right – it’s not! I’m just publishing these mini charcuterie cups to give you even more inspiration for single serving charcuterie this holiday season.

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Something about this time of year makes tiny sandwiches just feel oh so right. Whether it’s leftover maple bourbon turkey on a dinner roll with cranberry sauce, or a slice of pineapple ham on a small piece of crusty baguette with salted butter, it just tastes great.

But sliders don’t have to be just a way to use up leftovers. They can be their own special, dare I say elegant, dish.

These lamb sliders start with a succulent roasted boneless leg of lamb generously rubbed with warming spices. The meat is put on a slider bun and dressed up with pickled radishes and pesto mayo.

Bookmark this lamb slider recipe for a party this festive season! You can also use leftover lamb from a holiday dinner to make these sliders.

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Sometimes coming up with new charcuterie board ideas is about more than just the theme. Sure, I love everything from a Halloween themed charcuterie board to a football charcuterie board to a huge platter of Valentine’s snacks, but sometimes you don’t need any theme other than this food is delicious.

Grapes seem to be ubiquitous on a lot of cheese boards, and for good reason. Their sweet, juicy flavor profile pair well with salty cheese and charcuterie.

Just like a quick trip in a cast iron skillet turns ordinary tomatoes into truly wondrous blistered tomatoes that can be spread on bread, roasted grapes turn in a whole different thing than raw grapes.

Warm and so soft and jammy you can spread them onto a cracker with a knife, roasted grapes will elevate your next cheese board by approximately 200%. And they couldn’t be easier to make.

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I’m pretty uptight about food waste. I cringe every time I find a half full but expired condiment in the door of the fridge that needs to be thrown away.

I try to keep a list on my phone that lists the ingredients I have in the fridge, and the date that they will expire, so that when I am meal planning, I can be sure to incorporate them.

Right now, the two things staring at me begging to be used are miso and gochujang (Korean chili paste).

The miso I’m getting through pretty efficiently by making a fresh batch of miso ginger dressing almost every week.

And the gochujang I actually bought to make salad dressing for an Asian shrimp salad. But of course, the 1-1/2 tablespoons needed barely put a dent in the gocjujang tub.

One of my kitchen mottos seems to be “when in doubt, make meatballs.” I love everything from General Tso’s meatballs to Greek chicken meatballs, but the Korean meatballs I’m sharing today are my current favorite.

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