Easy Meals for Holiday Entertaining

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I am the Queen of last minute holiday entertaining. Go ahead… ask my husband. I can’t tell you the number of times we decided on having people over at the last minute and I stood like a deer in the headlights and said, “What? I have nothing to serve.” The funny thing is, however, I always have something I can serve. I’m not quite sure how I do it, but I can whip up a spread and create some easy meals in a flash. It’s like my favorite movie of all time… Sabrina, with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Audrey plays a chef who whips up a souffle with some eggs and crackers. That’s me… give me some basic things and I’ll feed you good.

I wanted to share some of my ideas for when you get a knock on the door and find out you have last minute guests. Seriously… these easy meals are fast, inexpensive, and will make a fantastic impression. Your guests will think you’ve been planning this for weeks.

The last time I was at Walmart (because I am always at Walmart), I picked up a few things that I always like to have on hand. I picked up some veggies and sour cream and chips.. you know, the basics of any get-together. I also picked up some CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN® Crispy Thin Crust Frozen Pizza - the BBQ Chicken kind. Our absolute favorite. We eat a LOT of pizza in our house and we love that we can get gourmet pizza in the freezer aisle. I always have some of these around because they are unique and delicious with vine-ripened tomatoes, Fontina cheese, and extra virgin olive oil. You know… they taste like you are eating inside the restaurant. Walmart is always my first choice for shopping because I hate having to go to a ton of different stores to get what I want and Walmart always has it all, especially when I only want to make that one trip.

So when that knock on the door happens and you start stressing, take a deep breath and look in your kitchen for some staples you can put together into a simple, easy meal.

I always have eggs on hand, and apples and some kind of vegetables. I had picked up the chips and pizza… and I usually keep sour cream and some kind of dessert in the freezer. Why? Because you just never know!

So what are my go-to easy meals when company is coming?

DEVILED EGGS

We eat a ton of eggs in our house so I always have enough on hand. Deviled eggs are one of those things that always seem a little decadent, but are so easy to make.

Ingredients:
Hardboiled eggs
Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (I use Miracle Whip because it has a sweeter taste to it)
Dijon Mustard
Salt
Garlic Powder
Paprika

Cut the hardboiled eggs in half and scoop out the yolks. In a bowl, mash them together with the Mayo or Miracle Whip, Dijon Mustard and salt and garlic powder. When they are creamy, scoop a small amount back into the half of egg. Dust with paprika.

SPINACH DIP

Who doesn’t love spinach dip? It’s another go-to party food when you need to quickly throw something awesome together. I always have a bag of frozen spinach in my freezer and I usually have sour cream, or can pick some up quickly. Add some dried onion or vegetable soup mix and you have an instant appetizer, good with chips or veggies.

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN® Crispy Thin Crust Frozen Pizza - BBQ Chicken

This isn’t your normal frozen pizza. With great ingredients and the same great taste you get in the CPK restaurant, these are great to have on hand in case of unexpected guests or if you need to bring something to a pot-luck. Keep a bunch in the freezer and you’ll always be prepared.

Mini Apple Tarts

It is definitely NOT a party without dessert. Desserts that are easy to throw together are ice cream sundaes, brownies, and these mini tarts. I always try and have something to make for dessert and I had recently bought some frozen pastry cups. If I don’t have these, I sometimes have filo dough that can easily be made into little apple tarts. I always have apples in the house because my kids eat them every single day.

Ingredients:
Apples, peeled and chopped up small
Butter
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar
Pastry Cups or Filo Dough

Mix the apples, butter, cinnamon and sugar into a saucepan and cook until the apples are soft. Use your judgement when it comes to amounts of the ingredients. Some people like more sugar, some don’t like any. I add a little butter just to make the apples creamier, but you can certainly leave it out if you like. Add the apple filling to the pastry cups and bake for about 10 minutes.

Festive Drinks

This is the easiest part. You always want something fun to drink. I had these cute little sparkling cider bottles, but you can also throw together a punch with soda and fruit juice, red wine and fresh fruit together will make a nice sangria, or you can set up a little bar area for the adults and make fruit juice cocktails for the kids.

The food is simple and easy to prepare with ingredients you most likely either have in your home already, or can get easily if you have a few moments to pop over to Walmart. But the real fun comes in looking around your home for fun decorations you can use to jazz up your tablescape. When you don’t have much time (or much money) you need to get creative. I started looking around my house to see what holiday inspired things I could use for my holiday spread.

I had a table runner, tiered plates, fun green bowls and little red custard dishes, candles and mason jars. You can always find something festive hanging around the house.

See? You don’t need to get all worked up about preparing some last minute, super easy meals during the holidays. Entertaining doesn’t have to be stressful. The point is to use what you have on hand, make it simple, and have a great time with your guests!

Unexpected guests? No worries! You can put a holiday spread together with easy recipes and things you have around your house. #ad #holidaymadesimple #collectivebias #cbias #easymeals #holidays #flipagram made with @flipagram. See full video at flipagram.com/CarolynRWest

A video posted by Carolyn West (@carolynrwest) on Dec 12, 2014 at 6:20pm PST