Lady Bug Cracker Appetizers

Here's a picture of Kelly and I at her shower

I know it's been a while since Kelly and I posted a new recipe.  Kelly's been preparing for her wedding and I've been helping along the way.  Frankly, I've been using the recipes all ready on the blog  instead of looking for new ones recently.  We held Kelly's bridal shower this weekend and so I did need to find a few more appetizers to post.  The theme of the shower was  "Love is in Bloom", so it was a flower theme.  The ladybug appetizers just seemed to fit.

The appetizers were good, but this recipe comes with two warnings:

1. Adding ladybug spots is a bit challenging, but they do make the look complete.
2. Plan to make these within 2 hours of eating them, otherwise the ritz crackers may get soggy.

Ingredients:

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons plain greek yogurt

1 tablespoon chives, chopped, but more for creating antennas

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

black paste food coloring

36 Ritz Crackers (I used whole wheat ones)

18 cherry tomatoes, quartered

36 small black olives

Mix cream cheese and yogurt together until smooth.  Reserve 1 large spoonful to be dyed black for lady bug spots.  Mix the chives, parsley, and garlic salt in the remaining mixture.

Spread mixture on each Ritz Cracker, place two pieces of quartered cherry tomato to form the back of the lady bug.  Add one olive for the head and take two 1 1/2 inch pieces of chives and place them in the olive to resemble antennas.   We did this first for all the crackers.

Mix the black paste food coloring with the reserved cream cheese/sour cream mixture.  Once the coloring is complete.  I used a tooth pick to put ladybug spots on the back of the cherry tomato quarters.  If the cherry tomato was a bit moist, I dabbed off the moisture with a paper towel to allow the spots to stick better.