These delightfully cute snacks look like ladybugs - they are perfect for parties and social events! They are like mini caprese salads with tomato, mozzarella, and basil.

So first, what is a Caprese Salad? Traditionally this involves slices of tomato intermingled with slices of mozzarella cheese. Basil is added to this to make it truly tasty. Often there is also olive oil or balsamic vinegar.

So you make the salad extra cute when you go with the ladybug version!

Ingredients:
Mozzarella tube (I use about half a standard one)
container of grape tomatoes
olive oil
fresh basil plant
balsamic glaze

First, cut the mozzarella into base shapes. The size of them will depend on how big or small your tomatoes are. The mozzarella is going to be the base for those tomatoes.

Drizzle a little fresh olive oil onto each mozzarella shape. This holds the basil in place.

Place fresh basil leaves onto the mozzarella. I grow the basil in my kitchen window. It grows quite easily. I highly recommend giving that a try!

Now it's time for the fun part. Get grape or cherry tomatoes - whatever size you want. I find that medium-size oval shapes are best for giving a good mouth-ful without being too large. Cut each tomato in half. Then chop the "head" area off of each tomato half.

It's time for the olives. Cut each olive in half. Now cut a matching "head" area out of an olive. It'll take some trial and error to figure out which size olive matches up with which tomato.

When that is done, it's time for the balsamic glaze. Note this is NOT VINEGAR which is watery. It's GLAZE which is thick like ketchup. Even a bit thicker than ketchup. You want to use a toothpick to dot that onto the back of each ladybug in a lovely pattern.

And voila! You now have a beautiful appetizer which you can eat whenever you want something healthy! It's full of calcium, lycopene, and other good nutrients.

Ask with any questions! I bring these to parties all the time and people adore them :).


Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books