These homemade cheeseballs are easy to make and are the perfect appetizer recipe. They are made without nuts in the coating making them safe for nut allergies.
In a mixing bowl add the cream cheese, shredded cheese, spinach (whole leaves are ok), sour cream, bell peppers, ranch seasoning, salt, minced garlic and scallion.
8 ounces cream cheese, 1 cup shredded cheese, 1 cup spinach, ½ cup sour cream, ⅓ cup bell peppers, 1½ Tablespoons Homemade Ranch Seasoning, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 garlic clove, 1 scallion
Mix with a hand mixer on low until the ingredients are just blended, turn to a medium high setting and continue mixing until it is completely combined and there are no whole leaves of spinach.
Refrigerate the filling for at least one hour. Do not coat them until close to serving.
Crush the crackers to your desired texture. I like to have some finely crushed and some larger pieces personally. Add in the bacon pieces if using and mix well.
16 Ritz crackers, 3 Tablespoons Real bacon pieces
Place about half of the coating mixture on a small plate or in a small bowl. Divide the filling in half.
Take half of the filling and try to gently shape it into a ball with a spoon. You can shape it as your coating it too. Roll it around in the coating mix, keep turning it over and over until all of the coating in on the cheeseball.Repeat with remaining filling and coating mixture.
Serve immediately or refrigerate.
Notes
Nutritional values and serving sizes are estimated.For cheese - We use shredded 4 cheese Mexican but you can use your favorite. For the spinach - I use a large handful which equals out to about a cup of spinach. Fresh spinach is a bit hard to measure in a cup. We use baby spinach but you can use regular. Do not use frozen spinach, it adds too much moisture.I like to smash my garlic first before mincing, but that is optional.For bacon ranch cheeseballs:Use 3-4 Tablespoons bacon in place of the spinach. There is no other change, mix as directed above.