Easy Low Carb and Keto Cheddar Bacon Ranch Mini Cheese Balls

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Is cream cheese keto friendly? You bet it is – and cream cheese recipes like this make the perfect keto friendly party food. 

That’s exactly why these festive cream cheese balls are a must at your next holiday party. And while they make the perfect appetizer for game day – why reserve this amazing keto cheese ball recipe only for get togethers? 🤔

I love keeping this savory fat bomb at the top of my keto snack recipe list I make year round. It’s an easy cheese ball recipe with simple ingredients that provides a delicious dose of healthy fats for a keto diet. Plus there’s only 2 net carbs per ball!

Want to hear the best part of turning a typical cream cheese ball recipe into little cheese balls? There’s no need to waste extra carbs (or cash) on keto crackers for dipping since you can pop these mini cheese balls right into your mouth!

You’ll need soft cream cheese to form the mini cheese balls, so allow the cream cheese to come to room temperature before you get started with this easy recipe. Then you’ll want to whip together the cream cheese and cheddar cheese with a hand mixer in a large mixing bowl.

At this point you have a choice: You can keep this on your basic 5 ingredient keto recipes list that uses softened cream cheese, shredded cheese, crispy bacon, chopped pecans, and green onions, or you can choose to give it a little more flavor with the following ingredients.

You can change this bacon cheese ball recipe up by making bacon ranch cheese balls. Give it a little kick by replacing the cheddar cheese with pepper jack cheese instead. There’s no best way to enjoy this easy appetizer. I make minor adjustments to simple appetizer recipes all of the time to make my own new recipes. My whole family enjoys the recipe variations, even those not following a low carb diet 😉

If you want to turn this into a bacon ranch cheese ball recipe, add ranch seasoning to the cheese mixture while you’re whipping it together. I prefer to combine garlic powder with other fresh herbs to come up with my own homemade ranch mix. Fresh ingredients give it a great flavor. If you don’t have the time or inclination to make ranch from scratch, it’s still a good recipe when you mix store bought ranch into this low carb cheese ball recipe.

Next, you’ll want to form the the cheese mixture into 16 mini balls. Place them in one single layer onto a baking sheet or serving tray. While you don’t need to use exact measurements when forming these into a ball shape, each cheese ball will be around 1 and 1/2 tablespoons.

Feel free to use a cookie scoop to form the cheese balls. I personally prefer to use my hands. While this does get messy, it’s the best way I’ve found to make these – just have a paper towel handy. Once formed, these need to be refrigerated for 1- 2 hours, or until firm.

While you’re oh-so-patiently waiting, you can chop up crispy bacon, pecans and green onions into small pieces. Mix them in a small bowl and set aside. Be sure to combine the toppings well … and don’t nibble too much on the toppings mixture while waiting for the cream cheese balls to harden 🧐

I suppose you could use a food processor for this part, but I’ve always preferred to do the chopping by hand. Mostly because I don’t own a food processor since it seems like one more contraption to clean.

If you don’t have any bacon crumbles on hand it is not OK, I repeat NOT OK, to just throw in some store bought Bacos and call it a day. If keto is a new diet for you, please understand keto is a health program. You’ll get better results when you use real, high quality food. Highly processed versions that can be stored at room temperature for months at a time won’t clear up health issues or get weight loss results on a low-carb diet. Plus, Bacos are gross.

When it comes to bacon, I find it best to meal prep a lot of bacon over the weekend. I store it in the fridge for recipes throughout the week. If you don’t happen to have any real bacon bits on hand, throw a few pieces into a frying pan over medium-high heat. Make a note about this meal prep tip for next time. OK – that’s enough bacon tangents for today.

Once the cream cheese balls are firm, roll them through the bacon mixture and serve. If there are leftovers, be sure to store them in an airtight container. While you may be tempted to store them on a small plate with a piece of plastic wrap over it, these could pick up any lingering smells you’ve got going on in that fridge. I’d definitely go with the container.

Be sure to save these to your favorite crunchy keto snack recipes Pinterest board. These are creamy enough to satisfy a savory craving, while the bacon adds a nice crunch to help you out with crunchy keto cravings.

Keep scrolling for the full nutritional information, including fat content and the printable recipe card. And just a FYI – I am an Amazon associate so this blog may contain affiliate links which could lead to a small commission. (We’re talking minuscule here 😂) 

I also do my best to provide my best keto tips and tricks via resource links throughout my posts. These are filled with the same helpful info that helped me lose 100 pounds. Hopefully you click through, and the blogs and videos help you too! If you find something you love, share the healthy fat love on social media to help others.

 If you are new to keto, or you’re starting over, check out our online program. The Ready, Set, Keto! Method shows you how to boost metabolism on keto or how to start keto again. It includes recipes, cooking demos, macro calculations, how to carb cycle on keto, the differences between lazy keto vs strict keto, and more. Learn more with this free Keto MasterClass that’s helped hundreds of women bust through long standing keto plateaus. Plus, they finally figure out how to keep the weight off for good.

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