Swag Bag Archives | Sarah Out And About

Easy appetizers and drinks I served at my holiday swag bag party.

Cheers Sarah, Christine, Rachel and Ann Santa define nice

I was in search of some easy appetizers and drinks to make for my holiday swag bag party. I called my go-to foodie friend Christine to discuss options. I knew she’d be a big help, because she knows I don’t have time to spend hours in the kitchen cooking, but still want to wow my guests with a fun snacks and drinks.

The primary goal for my menu was to serve appetizers I could assemble quickly, that would require three or fewer ingredients. I decided to showcase a mix of sweet and savory apps that were served cold and hot.

Here’s what I chose:

filo cups

Spinach Filo Cups.

Filo cups
Your favorite dip (spinach artichoke works great!)

This is my “go-to” appetizer for all my parties, and are a huge hit. They look really fancy, but they’re the easiest tasty bites to assemble. Dierbergs carries already-baked filo cups. While you’re there grab some of their fresh spinach artichoke dip. All you do is spoon the dip into the filo cups, and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. You can also order them at pre-assembled, and take them home to bake.

Anne and Sarah Jessica

Crockpot Meatballs

1 package of meatballs
1 bottle of BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays’ Honey Chipotle is really good).
1 jar of apricot jelly

The crockpot can be your best friend when hosting a party. Just throw the ingredients into the crock, and it takes care of the rest. The apricot jelly adds a different twist to this classic appetizer. My guests raved about this one, and requested the recipe.

cream cheese stars

Red Pepper Stars

1 brick of cream cheese
1 bottle of red pepper jelly

Divide and cut the cream cheese into a creative shape using a cookie cutter. To prevent the cream cheese from sticking, spray the cookie cutter with Pam. Then just top your shapes with the red pepper jelly, and enjoy with toast bites or crackers. These are a simple way to make the holidays special. For Valentine’s Day do hearts, shamrocks for St Patrick’s Day, and pumpkins for Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Baked goat cheese and marinara

1 jar of your favorite marinara
1 log of goat cheese
Fresh basil for garnish

This appetizer was inspired by my favorite tapas restaurant in St. Louis: Barcelona. It’s so simple and looks so festive. All you have to do is pour the marinara sauce into small baking dish. Next slice the goat cheese and bake at 375 for 15 minutes, or until toasted and sauce is bubbling. Serve with toast bites.

Cinnamon Chip Breadbowl

Cinnamon chip bread bowl

Cinnamon Chip bread bowl from @Great Harvest Bread Co
Cheesecake fruit dip
Apple slices

I love making this Cinnamon Chip bread bowl into an amazing party treat. This bread tastes like heaven! Just core out the top and put in the smooth and tasty cheesecake fruit dip from Dierbergs’ deli department. I also like to serve it with fresh apple slices. If you’re looking for a show-stopper; this is it!

chocolate dipped clementines

Chocolate covered clementines

Clementines
Dark chocolate or chocolate chips
Sea Salt

First, peel and divide the clementines. Next, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, and dip half of the clementine into the chocolate. Sprinkle with sea salt before the chocolate hardens. Finally, place them on parchment paper and let cool in the refrigerator.

Veggie Platter

Veggies and Dip from Dierbergs

I like having veggies as a healthy option for my guests. I ordered a veggie platter from Dierberg’s because they’re always fresh and beautiful. Just throw them onto your own platter and it looks like you did all the preparation.

Buntini's

Bundtinis from “Nothing Bundt Cakes”

These delicious miniature bundt cakes, may be small, but pack a punch for any sweet tooth. Nothing Bundt Cakes has two locations in Chesterfield and Brentwood. They have a compact variety of flavors in six types of products (i.e. bundt cakes and bundt towers). I went with chocolate chocolate chip (yep, that’s twice the chocolate) and red velvet for this party, and they all disappeared quick.

What we drank:

Very peary cocktail

Very Peary Breeze

1 part pear vodka
1 part cranberry juice
1 part apple juice
Frozen cranberries
Rosemary

Just like the name indicates, this drink is like a fresh breeze. Once mixing the three drink ingredients, throw in some frozen cranberries. These make for festive ice cubes, a nice pop of color, and keeps your drink cold without watering it down. Finally, garnish with rosemary.

Wine decisions red or white? Heather C

I also had a variety of red and white wines and water on hand. You can jazz it up the water by putting a large ice cube with frozen oranges and cranberries inside the container.

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So that covers what we ate and drank at the Swag Bag Party. If you missed all the fun swag items you will want to check that out here. The recipe for the Peary Beary Cocktail here and other party ideas here.

Next I’ll be showing you how I turned my office wall into a photo back drop. Here’s a sneek peek.

XOXO Sarah

Party Pic photos by the talented @verajeanaephotography

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How to throw a swag bag party and all my tips.

This is the hottest girls night out idea and perfect for the holidays. You don’t need to be a celebrity or a blogger to get a great swag bag. You just need to host a FUN filled holiday swag bag party and I’ll tell you how.

Invite your friends. The swag bag party is a modern twist on the favorite things party. The same premise applies. Set a budget, mine was $5. I let my friends decide how much they wanted to spend but if you bring 4 items (spend $20) you take home 4 new items in your swag bag. If you bring 6 items (spend $30) you take home six new swag bag items.

2. When the girls arrived I had them put the swag on my dining room table and asked each of them to write their name on a piece of paper for each item they brought. So if they brought 4 items they wrote their name down 4 times.

3. After eating, drinking and taking lots of FUN photos (blog posts on all those details to come) we started the swag bag game. Here’s how it works: Each person talks about their swag, why they love it, where they use it, etc. Then they tell everyone where they can get it and depending on how many items they brought they draw names and those people get to take home the swag.

I also handed out a swag bag to each guest to put all of their goodies in.

Holiday wrapping tip: My friend Jessica gave me this idea. She gets the Erin Condren labels personalized and buys the brown or white paper bags then coordinates the label with the tissue. This makes a custom and super affordable gift bag for the holidays.

It is such a fun party and getting to hear what your friends are loving and hearing about new items you may not know about. I had a friend write down each item so that if you didn’t get swag you were interested in you can check it out later.