With everything on your to-do list during this time of year, don't let the need to produce a festive snack add to your stress level. What you need are some incredibly easy appetizer recipes.
None of these involve complicated techniques _ we're talking a little slicing, spreading, stirring and pouring. Seriously, you could probably just throw all the ingredients off the side of a mountain and they would come together at the bottom as finished hors d'oeuvres.
Some of these recipes may take a little more time to prepare than others. For example, the spicy maple bacon takes about 20 minutes, but during much of that time you can attend to something else, like finalizing your travel plans to Florida.
In addition, these recipes have five ingredients or less, and one has only two ingredients. Fewer ingredients means less time and money spent at the grocery store, so you'll have more cash and hours to shop for those gifts that aren't going to buy themselves. There's just a teensy bit of cheating in that some ingredients are prepared foods, like pesto. But I'm not going to pile on more stress by being a stickler about homemade everything, and neither should you.
I'm sure no one will judge you if you show up to your office get-together with a supermarket veggie platter or a bucket of chicken wings. Everyone loves to eat those. But with these simple, short recipes you can offer a homemade taste while maintaining your holiday sanity.
