Cream Cheese Appetizer Recipes

These quesadillas have an irresistibly creamy filling. They also make great appetizers. Make it a meal: Serve with your favorite salsa on top and a cup of black bean soup topped with chopped avocado.

An interesting play of textures--the chewy bagel, the creamy cheese and the crunchy granola--make this low-fat treat highly satisfying.

Sweet and crunchy, this snack is low in carbohydrates and quick to prepare.

These bite-size pimiento cheese balls from Jamie and Bobby Deen are a huge hit with kids (of all ages). They're the perfect appetizer to bring to a summer picnic. Jamie and Bobby share a passion for great home-cooked food with a Southern flair with their celebrity-chef mom, Paula Deen. These brothers are following in their mom's footsteps with their own TV shows, books and website. Our favorite part of what they're up to: healthy makeovers of some of Paula's recipes! Recipe adapted from The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up, by Jamie & Bobby Deen and Melissa Clark (Ballantine Books, 2011).

Tangy horseradish flavors this smoked salmon cream cheese. Serve it spread on rice crackers for an impromptu cocktail party snack.

These bite-size tarts turn traditional holiday stuffing into a clever appetizer, with an easy homemade crust and a quick sausage-mushroom filling. Prep the crust and filling in advance, then bake just before serving.

Skip the standard onion-soup-mix dip and serve up this healthy caramelized onion and curry dip recipe along with your favorite chips or some crudités.

In this healthy bruschetta recipe, the big, bold, salty, tangy flavor of blue cheese makes an unexpected but utterly delicious match with sweet juicy strawberries. This bruschetta recipe makes a quick, easy appetizer and is so pretty topped with chopped green chives.

This yummy treat is chock-full of whole grains. Kids can help spread cream cheese and sprinkle cinnamon. If your child isn't a fan of cream cheese, swap it with natural peanut butter.

When your kids have friends over after school, whip up these healthy turkey and vegetable roll-ups. They'll be so impressed with the presentation, they may not realize they're so many different vegetables!

Chopped carrots, tomatoes, kalamata olives, basil, and lemon peel make a colorful cream cheese dip for crunchy celery sticks.

Make your own flavored cream cheese by stirring in fresh, in-season cherries. We like the flavor of black cherries, but any kind will work. Spread this on your morning bagel or sandwich it between graham crackers for a cherry cheesecake-inspired snack.

Fresh blackberries and light cream cheese make a pretty, sweet topping for a crispbread snack, especially with a little mint sprinkled on top. Besides being beautiful and delicious, blackberries are packed with antioxidants and vitamins.

For a healthier option, we use whole-grain bread and light cream cheese for this tomato bruschetta recipe.

This healthy flavored cream cheese spread recipe with dried apricots and pistachios is the perfect topping for your favorite bagel or paired with crackers for an easy appetizer.

Colorful pepper, carrot, and zucchini pieces add flavor and crunch to an easy, creamy spread for crackers or sliced veggies.

Strawberries pick up the slack to provide vitamin C in the summer when oranges are out of season. Just one cup of strawberries will provide 150 percent of your daily vitamin C needs.

Need a super-easy holiday-party hors d'oeuvre? These tasty little cream cheese and cherry pepper tartlets come together in a snap, thanks to premade pie dough, which is pressed into a mini muffin tin to make the tart shells--then all you have to do is fill the cups with cream cheese and chopped cherry peppers. Chopped herbs add a nice hit of color, but these are just as tasty as-is. Consider making a double batch--these bites are sure to go quickly.

Creamy smoked trout spread on thin whole-grain crackers is a delicious appetizer, but serve it with an array of artfully arranged nibbles--ripe tomatoes, crunchy cucumber slices and red onion--and you have an easy summer dinner. Pack it up and take it outdoors for a weeknight picnic. Serve with a baby arugula salad tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and a generous grinding of pepper.

All the fall spice flavor you crave but folded into creamy cheese and coated with cranberries. Serve with an array of crudités and crisp party crackers.

Serve this Mexican-spiced jalapeño cheese ball with tortilla chips or use it as a spread for your next burrito.

Stir cranberries and apricots into reduced-fat cream cheese for a touch of sweetness. Spread on whole-grain crackers for a quick snack.

Tubs of reduced-fat cream cheese come in a myriad of flavors. Chive and radish make for a particularly tasty combination atop crunchy crispbread.

Buttermilk and horseradish add tang to this simple dip that even the kids will love; serve it with an array of colorful crisp vegetables.