Bagels are always a crowd favorite – filling, flavorful, and easy to make. However, if you’re hosting a cocktail party, serving full sized bagels as an appetizer can be a lot of work for little success. For a fun and yummy alternative, consider these delicious food combinations to put on bite sized bagels for your party to enjoy. Simply cut the bagel half into 6-8 little pieces (12-16 pieces total with one bagel), and add these yummy flavor combinations on each piece. Serve and enjoy!

Savory (Using any savory flavored bagel (Onion, Everything, Asiago Cheese, Egg, Garlic) or Plain)

• Herbed goat cheese with an olive tapenade – sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and green olives (stuffed or not stuffed).
• Brie cheese with sliced red seedless grapes on top.
• Hummus (any flavor) with a vegetable medley (I would recommend a Greek Salad mixture with chopped red onion, red tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumber, and crumbled feta.)
• Jalapeño cream cheese spread with heirloom tomato and avocado pieces on top. (You could melt cheddar cheese on top to keep the ingredients together on the small pieces, or put all the ingredients on the bagel half and toast it – although keep in mind that cutting this into smaller pieces will be more difficult.)
• Garlic pesto sauce with tomato slices and melted cheese on top (Any kind of cheddar goes great with pesto, but you can really use any cheese you’d like.)

Sweet (Using any sweet flavored bagel (Cinnamon Raisin, Strawberry, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip) or Plain)

• Strawberry cream cheese spread with sliced strawberries on top.
• Blueberry cream cheese spread with pineapple slices and walnuts, almonds, or any nut of your choice.
• Cinnamon raisin bagel honey almond cream cheese spread and any slices of fruit on top. (I would recommend strawberries, peaches, or apple slices that have been tossed in a cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and granulated sugar mix and have been baked in the oven for a quick 15 minutes at 350°F.)
• Chocolate chip bagel with creamy or crunch peanut butter (or Nutella, or both!), with banana slices on top

These are just a few of the several different combinations you can create for your bagel hors d’oeuvres. That’s the beauty of bagels, you can really put whatever you want on them and they’ll still be delicious. Regardless, your visitors will be left with the memory of these delicious treats. But be careful, you may end up hosting more parties than you anticipate!

Debbie Lawrence is a content editor for an online schooling blog at OnlineSchools.com and a culinary school master site Chef2Chef.net. When she unwinds from work, you can find her cooking or baking in the kitchen, debating the various culinary schools in Florida that she has been wanting to attend. You can reach her at dlawrence2[@]quinstreet.com or chat with her on Twitter here.