· ·

Quick Meal: Fruit, Meat, Cheese, and Chocolate Tray with Wine

wine and cheese platterHey, guess what?

I’ve got a secret for y’all.

I don’t always feel like cooking.

I know. Shocker, right?

In all seriousness it’s true. There are some days I just want to curl up on the couch and just collapse into a big ball and absorb whatever nonsense is on the television.

There are also some days where we actually get to have dinner at a normal hour and later in the evening we want a little snack.

bowl of fruit yumeatingWhatever the reason, a simple meat and cheese tray can be a great meal in a pinch. It can also be a healthy option and fairly inexpensive if you catch things on sale and stay away from the fancy deli section of the supermarket. But, you can also make it fancy if you’re going for something special.

Making a meat and cheese tray is one of my favorite meals. I start with a few simple pieces of fruit. Usually I end up tossing on the tray when I have on hand. Same goes for the meat and cheese. I tend to keep a variety in the fridge. For these two particular trays it had been a while since we had been able to sit down and relax due to schedules so I did purchase some fancy meats.

This meal is one I look forward to sharing with my husband because I know it’s a night off from cooking, there is usually going to be some good conversation and we’ll find a good movie to watch.  This past weeks mindless entertainment was We’re the Millers. We snacked on this round tray. Nom. Nom.

round cheese meat platter

 

We don’t buy expensive wines. I’ve only been consuming wine for a few years now and honestly, while I enjoy a glass here and there, I’m not on the up-and-up of the expensive stuff and honestly don’t care. Some people get really hoity toity about their wine and that’s just not me.  I think the most I ever paid for a bottle of wine was $12. On sale.

wine and cheese platter whole

Having only been back in Michigan since 2007 (I spent 99% of my life in Oklahoma) I get homesick. But I have come to appreciate Michigan for the ‘Made in Michigan’ products and being able to enjoy all four seasons. Michigan is home to some beautiful wine country, one place being Traverse City. And trust me, if we could live there, we would. Which brings me to my wine.

My wine, based in the TC area is Leelanau Cellars Autumn Harvest. It was on sale for about $7.  The husband and I were able to go on a wine tour up there for our anniversary last year. It was such a wonderful experience. Their Winter White is fantastic. I bought a bottle for my MIL last year on our trip and gave it to her for Christmas.

The husband prefers his wine to be fu-fu. He is not a drinker so when he does drink it cannot taste like alcohol. We stick to fruity flavors when purchasing for him. His wine in this photo is Manischewitz Blackberry. I really enjoy this wine as well, but I prefer a dryer wine when eating dark chocolate and sweet fruits. When we have trays with less fruit I will opt for the sweeter wines.  I believe this wine was about $5.

There have been times when we did not have fruit on hand so we had carrots with vegi dip or hummus, celery with cream cheese, and sometimes I serve with crackers.

Tray items include:

  • Red seedless grapes
  • Michigan apples – Mackintosh, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious
  • D’anjou pears
  • Beef summer sausage
  • Old World hard salami
  • Old World prosciutto
  • Cheddar cheese
  • Colby-jack cheese
  • German dark chocolate

Do you serve tray meals in your home and if so, what items do they include?

 

Similar Posts

27 Comments

  1. I would literally eat that for all three meals a day if I could. I am not kidding. That is so up my alley.

  2. I love super easy dinners (or lunches) like this. A pretty plate and just load it up with meats, cheeses, slices of fruit and sit back and relax. Cooking definitely doesn’t need to be time consuming all the time!

  3. I love to eat snack trays like that for dinner. We go to my fathers house for Christmas and they always know we like snack stuff like that.

  4. I haven’t served tray meals in my home before, but it looks like a really good idea. I’m sure my daughter would love it, not so sure aboyt my husband. When I’m home alone tray meals are my best friend.

  5. I love making a snack tray. I include French bread, cheese and mini pepperoni sticks, Fancy molasses for dipping the cheese and bread in and some grapes and crackers. Sometimes i will add cream cheese and red pepper jelly .

  6. My son eats a version of this almost every night. He calls it his finger foods platter. It’s usually cheese, turkey pepperoni, black olives, carrots and grapes. Yours is way prettier than the one I serve up on a kid’s sectioned Christmas plate though (regardless of the time of the year, lol).

    1. I love cooking but doing it for family along with trying to run a food blog, sometimes I just need a break. I do enjoy going out to eat, but I am so picky about my food sometimes, especially now that I have to be careful about what I eat. I like these quick and simple foods. Hubs and I use this for our ‘date night in’

  7. I’m always going after trays like these at parties. I am usually the one to bring these to parties too. At church pot lucks I also bring meat fruit and cheese trays around. I really love to do it more at home though. I really never thought about it for a meal but we have to many in my house to feed to make this a entire meal but it’s a good starter or a great tray to leave for people wanting a little snack. I have teenagers and a 7 year old and a husband if this would be gone in a heartbeat.

    1. If we had a large family this would just be a snack, or a adult only meal for a quite night alone (or a snack when kids go to bed) but kiddo is only with us on weekends so it works out ok. I am a huge fan of meat, cheese, vegi and fruit trays. We make a vegi tray a few times a week because hubs and kiddo love them so much.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.