Many of these pastries are made of bread products that can cure that hunger without taking hours to make.

1. Pastel do Queijo (turnover with cheese filling)

Country of Origin: Brazil 

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All you need for this dish is mozzarella cheese, and although you can make the shell homeade, we want to speed this process, so you can buy the crust pre-made at any supermarket that has a Spanish section.

Simply put the mozzarella cheese in the midddle. You can put as much as you want to make it more or less cheesy, but don’t put too much to where you can’t close the shell. Then close the shell and use a fork to seal the ends by pressing down on it, like you would for a pie crust. Deep fry in vegatable, corn or olive oil. Be sure your oil is hot, but keep the fire on medium heat because it will burn the outside if it is too hot.

2. Pastel de Carne/Pastel de Frango (turnovers with beef or chicken)

Country of Origin: all over Central and Latin America (this is the Brazilian recipe)

This is made the same exact way, except with meat. Having some lactose intolerant guests? Fine! Make the turnovers with ground meat and chicken. Brown the ground meat and season it with sazon goya, which can be found in the Spansih section as well. Just add a little depending on how much taste you like, and mix it in until the meat is browned. Add cut up olives and onions if you please, and fill the pastries with about two to three table spoons full (depending on how big the crust is), and fry the same way as the cheese filled pastel.

3. Empanadas

Country of Origin: All Hispanic Countries

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Have a sweet tooth? Well then empanadas with guava paste and cream cheese is your thing! For this dish, you may want a heavier crust, like a corn one that is yellowish. You can use a flour kind, but just don’t put as much filling. Guava paste is from the guava fruit and the paste can be found anywhere, especially the Spanish section of your supermarket. Cut about half an inch thick of guava paste and a teaspoon full of cream cheese and place it on one side of the turnover, close it with the fork once again, and deep fry until golden brown.

4. Churrasco

Country of origin: Universal

Beef on a stick is easy to make. Churrasco means grilled, but you don’t have to grill it if it is freezing outside and you really want some meat on a stick. Simply grill or pan fry beef chuncks and put them on a stick, one of about 12-inches long, also sold in supermarkets. You can choose any meat you like.

5. Appetizer/Finger Food- Pickled Veggies on a stick

Country of Origin: Universal

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You will need to prepare this the night before. You will need carrots chopped in halves and small, green  seedless olives, chopped up pickles, chopped up boiled hot dogs. All of the items must be cuts to fit on toothpicks, oh.. and you need toothpicks of course! Put one hotdog, one pickle, one carrot and one olive on each toothpick and soak them in water, vinegar and salt overnight, refrigerate. Lay them out on a dish. These are finger foods so dig in everyone!!

Enjoy.