Shaped Thanksgiving Foods- Turkey Cheese Balls, Two Ways

No matter how we try to schedule our holidays, there are always a few certain family members that always show up at least half an hour late (you know who you are), and the rest of us try to wait as long as we can before we eat. That is why I always make a few appetizers to have on the table. My standards have always been deviled eggs and spinach dip, but this year I want to try something different. After looking at several recipes and ideas, I decided on this recipe, but as far as putting it together goes, I couldn't just do one. I found these cute little baby turkeys that I had to try, and then I found a veggie tray that looked colorful and fun.

I doubled the recipe so I could use it to make both at the same time, but I will list it here with the normal measurements. For the veggie tray, use assorted veggies of your choice, but varied colors are recommended.

Cheese ball mixture:

-8 oz cream cheese

-1 cup cheese, preferably cheddar

-Seasoning to taste

-12 oz bacon, cooked and finely chopped, or chopped nuts

For mini turkeys:

-Pretzel twists or ritz crackers. I used pretzel crisps

-Pomegranate seeds for eyes

-Sliced carrots for beak

-Sliced almonds for tail

For the veggie tray, I took the cheese mixture and placed it on a sheet of plastic wrap. Once fully wrapped, I pressed it into a pear shape, and placed it in the refrigerator to chill.

Remove from plastic wrap and coat with bacon, or chopped nuts if you'd prefer. Most of my family hates nuts so I usually try to find alternatives where I can. Also, I have to apologize for my christmas plate. For some reason I cannot find any decent sized Thanksgiving platters, like all of the stores just jump straight from Halloween to Christmas.

I used celery for the eyes and carrot for the beak. I then arranged my veggies around the cheese ball to make a tail. It pops a little more if you alternate colors. Once the cheese set, this only took me about 5-10 minutes to set up, which is pretty good considering how much else I usually have to do. This one might be a keeper.

For the mini turkeys, I used a cookie scoop to make about 16-18 cream cheese balls and chill. Once chilled, roll in bacon and place on top of pretzels. I put a pretzel under one of my cheese balls before chilling to see how it would hold up, and I am a little conflicted. The cheese stuck better before chilling, but the pretzel was a little softer than I would like, so I will leave it to your discretion.

I used pomegranate seeds for the eyes a piece of carrot for the beak, and some almond slices for the tail, and they are all super cute and ready to eat. I did have a hard time finding enough sliced almonds in good enough condition to use for the tails. That is probably my only complaint about these, and it's a tiny one. I could just as easily used some carrot sticks or pretzel sticks for the tail as well. And this one only took about 15-20 minutes to set up after the cheese chilled, so it's still totally worth it and absolutely adorable.

So, aside from my small issue with the almonds everything with these turkeys came out so cute and I'm getting so pumped for Thanksgiving. Check back on Friday for the last part of food week.