a guest at your own party?

The secret is taking the stress out of it by getting the food done well ahead of time with dishes you can cook and freeze, like my delicious chicken phyllo pies, Asian shrimp cakes with three ingredients, avocado-wasabi sauce, and chipotle black bean dip served with a platter of not-your-everyday crudites.

It's my party, and you're invited, here at Ellie's Real Good Food.

(cheerful guitar music) - [Voiceover] Funding for this series has been provided by: - [Woman] We said goodbye to the day and to the city and drifted off into the twilight, and when we woke, we found that the whole world had reinvented itself.

- [Voiceover] The wonders of Europe await you.

Princess Cruises: come back new.

- [Voiceover] Luvo, full servings of fruits and veggies, nutritious whole grains, and lean proteins, seasoned with bold herbs and spices.

Chef-created meals ready-made for you, in your grocer's freezer.

Luvo, the next generation of frozen food.

(mellow instrumental music) - [Voiceover] Grapes from California, grown by families, for families.

- [Voiceover] And by the Natural Gourmet Institute, for health and culinary arts.

Additional funding provided by the generous support of our Kickstarter donors.

A complete list is available at ElliesRealGoodFood.com.

- Hi, I'm Ellie Krieger, and welcome to Ellie's Real Good Food.

We've all been there, frantically racing around the kitchen at the last minute while our guests calmly sip on drinks out in the living room and enjoy the party.

Well, those days are over.

I've got crowd-pleasers you can make, freeze, and reheat, so you can enjoy the party, too.

And it's starting here with my amazing chicken phyllo pies.

I just love these.

These are so special to serve for a party.

You can make them ahead.

They're incredibly delicious, and good for you, too.

So I'm starting off here just cooking up some chicken.

This is ground chicken, and you can use turkey as well.

I'm just gonna transfer this to a plate and cook up this wonderful, onion-y, garlicky spice mixture.

So right in the same pan as the chicken was cooked, I'm gonna put a tablespoon of olive oil.

Another tablespoon goes in there.

Just a large onion, get that softening.

It's nice, because as the onion cooks, it kind of brings up any crispy bits that were formed when the chicken was cooking, and that just brings the flavor of that chicken right into the recipe.

When they get to be this beautiful golden color, you know they're ready, takes about five to eight minutes.

I'm just gonna add some garlic.

Just watch all these great flavors, great, healthy flavors: garlic, two teaspoons of cinnamon.

All the flavors I'm gonna be adding to this are all really kind of Middle Eastern flavors, so you won't normally perhaps think of adding cinnamon to a savory dish, but it works so beautifully here.

It just is a warmth that it adds, more than a sweetness.

A teaspoon of cumin, so that brings in that real earthiness.

And all these spice have health properties of their own, which is so neat.

And an eighth of a teaspoon each of cardamom, oh, which I just love, love the smell of that.

It kind of has this warmth, slightly peppery-ness, but also slightly sweet smell as well, and flavor.

And and eighth of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

So we have a little heat, too, but not gonna be spicy, just has a little warmth to it in that way.

And a teaspoon of salt.

So using lots of spices helps you not rely on salt for flavor.

The minute you warm these spices through, you just get that fabulous aroma; it's intoxicating.

Some black pepper in there.

I'm kind of in love with black pepper, so I like to use about a half teaspoon, but you can do it to taste.

(spoon scraping against pan) Have all those great seasoned onions, just gonna put the chicken back in, get that married.

(sizzling) And a tablespoon of honey, just to bring a lovely sweetness to the whole thing.

(sizzling) Bring that together, but take it off the heat now, 'cause this needs to cool down.

I'm gonna add some eggs in there in a bit to bind it together, and I don't want the eggs to cook.

So we'll let this cool down for about 10 minutes.

All right, I have my phyllo dough, get to that in a minute.

But this is nice and cool, and ready for some other textures and flavors.

Some toasted almonds, which I've chopped finely, about a half cup, and that gives it, of course, a wonderful crunch.

Some cilantro, fresh cilantro, and to kind of hold it together once it's baking in the phyllo pockets, two egg whites and one whole egg, which I've beaten lightly here.

Stir that all up to combine it, and it's ready to get made into these most adorable and luscious phyllo pies.

And I love working with phyllo dough, because it's these very, very thin sheet of dough, and it's great, especially for parties, because you might normally think, "Oh, pastry dough, puff pastry," and that has loads of butter in it.

Actually, if you buy it, very often, it's not even real butter; it's margarine or shortening, which has a lot of trans fat in it.

But here, with phyllo dough, you can get that kind of pastry-like, flaky effect in a healthier way, because you just brush it yourself with olive oil.

So it comes, usually frozen, sometimes in the refrigerated section, but usually frozen, and so remember to thaw it before you wanna make it, just takes about 24 hours thawing in the fridge.

The other thing is, as you're working with it, you wanna cover it with a damp towel in between, because it will dry out quickly.

Gonna move it over here, and I'm gonna get a couple of...

I work with two layers at a time for this recipe.

And here's the thing: if it tears a little or it's not perfect, it doesn't matter.

(laughs) So just a little bit of olive oil on this sheet.

It's like thinner than a regular piece of paper.

It's just incredible.

So delicate and lovely.

Just stack two on top of each other here.

So for this recipe, I'm gonna use these two and slice them lengthwise.

You can do this with a pizza cutter like I am, or you can just use a sharp knife, that's fine, to make two long pieces.

I'm just gonna put, oh, a scant half cup, about, of filling, about two inches from one end.

I think the biggest mistake that a person makes here is just getting a little overzealous in the amount that they put in.

So, when in doubt, use a little bit less.

Then I'm gonna fold it over like a triangle.

See, a little bit tore there, and it doesn't matter at all, 'cause watch: I'm just gonna fold it kind of like a flag, like that.

It kind of corrects itself.

And then you just repeat with the rest of them, two sheets at a time.

(jazzy instrumental music) Aren't they beautiful already?

Okay, I'm just gonna oil the tops.

Just lightly.

You could also use an olive oil spray to do this.

That makes it easy, too.

Then just score the tops a little bit, just with a couple little holes, let some steam out.

We all need to let some steam out, right?

Then you can freeze them like this before baking them, or you can bake them and then freeze them, so it's completely your choice.

But I'm gonna bake them off and then freeze them, so they're all ready to go.

350 for about 30 minutes.

These smell amazing, oh my goodness.

They're so crispy and brown.

See how great the phyllo is?

Just love it.

Some I'm just gonna let these cool, and then I'm gonna wrap each individually in foil and put them in a plastic bag, sealable plastic bag, and freeze them, and they'll stay in the freezer for three months, so this can be made well ahead of time for a party, and then the other great thing is they can be reheated without even thawing.

You just pull them straight from the freezer, open up the foil, an heat 'em right in a 350-degree oven until they're warm.

It's about 30 minutes.

But let's have one now.

I mean, these are ready for the party, but you have to try your party food before you serve it, right?

(dough crackling) That's my excuse, anyway.

Mmm, that looks so good!

All those spices are so fragrant, and it's meaty with chicken and crunchy with almonds.

(crunching) Now that is ready to party.

(laughs) (upbeat jazzy music) I have the perfect special dip to go with my special vegetable crudites: chipotle black bean dip; it is so good.

So I'm just sauteing some onion in a tablespoon of olive oil there, some onion.

I always like to cook the onion and garlic before I put it in my dip, just 'cause it mellows it out a little, intensifies the flavor, takes that sharp bite out of it.

So that just needs to soften for about three minutes, and I'll put the garlic and spices in.

While that's going, I'm gonna chop up a chipotle pepper.

Just grab a fork here to pry one out.

So this is what a can of chipotle peppers looks like, in case you haven't used this before.

It's in Adobo sauce.

A chipotle pepper is basically a smoked jalapeno, so it is spicy, so a little bit goes a long way.

And it's also smoky, and it's really, really flavorful.

Okay, I'm just going to seed this and chop it finely.

And I want these onions to soften but not brown, so these are ready; get the garlic in, one clove of garlic.

Some cumin and coriander, quarter teaspoon of cumin, ground cumin, which is really classic, Southwestern, Mexican spices.

Eighth of a teaspoon coriander, and just get the heat through that, because it really brings the spices to life, releases their flavor.

We'll let this cool a bit, just slightly.

And get the rest of the dip ingredients into the food processor.

So one can of black beans, low sodium beans, and then I drain and rinse them.

And I'll add some salt to the dip, so it will taste beautifully balanced.

I'm gonna put in some fresh cilantro.

Get about two teaspoons of that chipotle pepper in there.

A tablespoon of lime juice, quarter teaspoon of salt, and some pepper.

(grinder crunching) Get my onions, garlic, and spices back in there.

Lots of flavor in here right now.

It's gonna get all pureed together, make a gorgeous dip.

Now I just put a little water in to start, and add more depending on how it's coming along.

Tablespoon to start.

(processor whirring) So this dip will keep in the refrigerator for five to seven days, so you can absolutely make it ahead.

It's really nice with chips, actually, too.

Let's get it into a bowl.

The thing I love about dips at parties is that it kind of brings everyone together.

It's a little bit of an icebreaker.

Everyone kind of has to rub elbows to get some.

So always serve a dip at a party, and ideally, a healthy one like this.

Give me a little cilantro.

Dip is ready!

(mellow guitar music) A basic veggie platter, carrots and celery, can be kind of boring, but you can amp up the whole thing by heading to your local farmer's market or your local farm, and it's amazing the variety of vegetables they have there.

They can turn a vegetable platter into something totally spectacular.

In my hand here, I have purple peas that I know I would snap them up in two seconds.

And also these lovely, multicolored carrots.

Wouldn't these look so beautiful for dipping?

There's also orange cauliflower and purple green beans.

They're out there, and they're beautiful, and they're wonderful on a vegetable platter.

(mellow guitar music) All right, I have great, three-ingredient party recipe for you: avocado-wasabi sauce.

Ingredient number one: and all the ingredients are green, by the way, an avocado, of course.

Look at that beautiful avocado.

Can't have a avocado dip without an avocado, can ya?

Get the pit out.

Just scoop that into a bowl.

Now, I usually buy my avocados a couple days before I'm gonna actually use them.

I almost never find them at the perfect ripeness.

So I buy them a little bit firm, and then put them in a paper bag and just put them on your counter top for a couple days, and then they'll be perfectly ready.

And if they're ready before you're ready to use them, you can just put them in the fridge at that point.

Some wasabi paste: so you just buy it in a tube like this, and I'm just gonna use half a teaspoon.

So, of course, you use wasabi also with sushi, right?

So that's nice to have on hand in case you do take-out and they don't give you enough, or you make your own sushi.

But it's also really good in coleslaw, for example.

I like to put it in peas, so I cook some peas, and make my own kind of wasabi peas, just with a regular warm pea dish.

And then a tablespoon of lime.

See how juicy it is, maybe I need both halves here.

And a quarter teaspoon of salt.

And just mash it all up, and you have your lovely wasabi-avocado dip.

Really delicious with shrimp cocktail.

It's creamy and cool, but it has that unexpected zing from the wasabi.

It's really delicious as a sandwich spread or a spread for a wrap.

It also makes a good base for an avocado toast.

So you can make this ahead, too.

Just cover the top with plastic wrap so soon as possible, and stick it in the fridge.

So there you have it: three-ingredient (upbeat electronic music) These Asian shrimp cakes are so delicious, and they're perfect with that avocado-wasabi sauce.

So I have in there some shrimp, peeled, de-veined shrimp, that I've chopped finely.

So you make these cakes with uncooked shrimp, and cook them all in the pan together.

So chopped finely is really important, so you make sure it cooks all the way through.

Whole grain panko bread crumbs: always good to get those whole grains when you can.

And the panko is a Japanese bread crumb that just has an extra crispiness to it, so it makes everything super crispy.

Finely chopped red pepper.

Finely chopped scallion.

Cilantro.

Toasted sesame seeds: you can buy them toasted, or just toast them yourself in a pan for one minute until they start to pop and turn golden-brown.

Fresh grated ginger.

Lime juice.

And one egg.

Get this all mixed up.

You get that brightness you can see.

It's all these Asian flavors here, but there's one that really brings it together and adds a rich, toasty flavor that's unmistakably Asian.

It's toasted sesame oil, one teaspoon.

Half a teaspoon of salt and pepper.

(grinder crunching) Then I form this into really small... And this is very key, 'cause if you don't make them small, about two-and-half inches wide, which is perfect for a party, kind of one to two bites.

If you make them too big, they won't cook all the way through, so it's important to make them this size.

And then just coat them with some extra panko.

And then what I do is I let them cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that they really set, and they really form, so they won't fall apart when you cook them.

Nice to be able to make all this party food in such a relaxed way, know that it's all gonna be ready when my guests arrive.

They're kind of like crab cakes, except with Asian seasonings and shrimp, of course.

Okay, now I just put the shrimp cakes in the fridge for 30 minutes, where they'll firm up and be ready to get beautifully brown and cook through.

My shrimp cakes are all firmed up and chilled through.

And I have a quarter cup of oil, canola oil, heating in my nonstick pan here.

So I'm basically gonna sear these and cook them through.

I'm cooking them on a medium heat.

You wanna make sure your oil is already well heated through before you start, otherwise they'll get greasy, but if you have you oil already hot, they won't absorb the oil.

Do them in two batches here.

Once these are all done, I'll let them cool, then just wrap them up in plastic wrap, and then put them in a plastic bag, a freezer bag, and freeze them, and then when I'm ready to have them, don't even need to thaw.

Just put them on a baking sheet, 350 for about 20 minutes.

Give a peek; that looks pretty good, don't you think?

Okay, next, ready to turn; that one's good.

Flippin'!

(sizzling) Okay, these are ready; first batch is ready.

Just put them on some paper towel to let them cool.

Don't they look beautiful, golden?

You can see the fleck of sesame seeds and red pepper, and I smell the sesame oil.

See the scallion in there.

And, of course, those chunks of shrimp, yummy!

Before I get the second batch on and cook those, and then put them all in the freezer, I wanna show you how it comes together, and besides, I want to try one.

(laughs) So here's this gorgeous avocado-wasabi sauce, just put a little dollop on top.

This is how I'll serve them.

Ooh, it's hot!

It's gonna be a great party.

(guests laughing) (guests chattering) Now this is the kind of party that hits the sweet spot where delicious and healthy meet.

Use it anywhere where you might use horseradish, okay?

So it's really lovely in, um... With gefilte fish!

(laughs) Sorry!

- [Film Crew] Quiet, please!

Picking up pants, on television.

You know, we all have our thing.

These are so good;.

Maybe I won't invite anyone over!

(laughs) - [Voiceover] For these recipes and much more, go to ElliesRealGoodFood.com.

Also, connect with Ellie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Funding for this series has been provided by: - [Voiceover] Luvo, full servings of fruits and veggies, nutritious whole grains and lean proteins, seasoned with bold herbs and spices.

Chef-created meals ready-made for you, in your grocer's freezer.

Luvo: the next generation of frozen food.

- [Woman] Hi, you've reached Emma.

I'm out of the office right now.

But we'll get back to you just as soon as I possibly can.

- [Voiceover] For Discovery at Sea experiences, Princess Cruises: come back new.

(mellow instrumental music) - [Voiceover] Grapes from California, grown by families, for families.

- [Voiceover] And by the Natural Gourmet Institute, for health and culinary arts.

Additional funding provided by the generous support of our Kickstarter donors.

A complete list is available at ElliesRealGoodFood.com.

Ellie's kitchen is provided by Clarke, New England's Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.