Hosting parties can get very expensive. I feel like we host a party at least once a month with well over 20 people each time. In the summer these parties get more frequent, because we have the outdoor space, live on the water and its what we love to do. One of my passions is coming up with creative appetizers and drinks for our friends and family. With my career change, we are really on a budget and can’t get as crazy with food as we used to. I like to think I make it work where our parties have creative food for affordable prices.
We are hosting Super Bowl this year and have about 20 people coming over (last minute these numbers always grow). I am preparing a bunch of appetizers and putting them out at different times of the party. Sometimes, I will have appetizers and make two bigger meals as a dinner but for super bowl our friends like to pick on food all night.
Mini Weenies
This is a basic appetizer that everyone loves. What I like about these are they are 100 percent grass-fed beef. I bought these at Costco for about $12.99. I put out a bunch of different condiments for people to dip their weenie in. Trader Joe’s has the best affordable unique condiments. They have a beer mustard, horshradish mustard, horseradish mayo, sweet ketchups, regular ketchup, Aoili’s and whatever else you can think of. You can get real cute and make mini hotdogs or mini chili dogs.
Party Wings
I did a separate blog post about my party wings. For super bowl, I will make different flavor wings. Last time, I made them plain and had a bunch of dipping sauces but this time I am going to bake them with the sauces. Click HERE for my recipe. I made about 50 wings for $25.
Easy 3 ingredients – Mini Crockpot Sweet BBQ Meatballs
I like this recipe because you can make it in the Crockpot and it is one less thing to worry about. There are only three ingredients. which is meatballs (frozen or you can make them yourself), grape jelly and Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. The thing I like about mini meatballs, is you can make them so many different ways by changing up the sauce. These are my plain meatballs in the crockpot before I added sauce. I also put onions in them to make them more savory. Maybe I will do a post about my meatballs in different sauces. You can buy chop meat for as little as $5.00 This will only cost maybe $10.00 to me to make for the party.
Football Deviled Eggs
Super easy and cheap. You can buy a carton of eggs for $3.00 and hard boil them. I like to mix the yolk with whatever I have in my fridge. My favorite combination is Mayo, Mustard, Relish and paprika. You can do spicy mustard, Horseradish Mayo, cheese, I’ve seen Ketchup (although I’ve never tried that). Disclaimer – this is not my photo – but I will be making my own version of this and posting it later on. Click Here for the recipe for this photo found on Pinterest.
Sloppy Joe Sliders
This is one of the cheapest and easies apps I’ve ever made. I cooked 3 pounds of chop meat in a large pot with McCormick sloppy Joe seasoning, tomato paste and a little bit of water. I slow cooked this in a pot for about an hour and served it on slider buns. This was a HUGE hit and only $12.00.
One Pan – Nacho Dip
I will be making this for the party as well. It looks pretty simple, you just need chop meat, taco seasoning, tomatoes, onions, cheese, beans, corn, and whatever else you like to put on your nachos and bake in the oven. Not my photo – click here for the recipe. I will be making my own version. I like nacho dip because you can get creative with it and it’s cheap!
Spinach Dip Apps
This is another basic item but Costco makes the best spinach dip. It is only about $10.00 and you can put these in mini peppers and make Spinach Dip poppers. You can also put this in a bread bowl or on cucumber slices.
