Quick Meal: Fruit, Meat, Cheese, and Chocolate Tray with Wine
Hey, 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.
Whatever 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.
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.
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?
That looks great! I need to remember this for a lazy night dinner. My daughter is a total carnivore so this would be a ht with her.
This is my favorite dinner. So simple and since its low carb I don’t get a stomach ache like I do when I eat so many other things.
I would literally eat that for all three meals a day if I could. I am not kidding. That is so up my alley.
Ummm, this sounds so good right now. I would eat this for an entire meal if it were in front of me!
We normally serve simple trays of vegetables and fruit when we have a lot of company. These trays look great.
That’s actually a perfect meal in so many ways! I’d rather eat like that than one big meal.
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!
Your platter looks delicious. I love the items you chose to add to it. Next time my husband makes one for us I’ll have to get him to add prosciutto.
It’s the best! A little goes a long way.
Wow! That is incredible I make something like it (yours is way better) sometimes in the summer. But yum! This looks way better!
I so agree with you about nights when you don’t want to cook. These are meat, cheese and chocolate trays are just want the doctor ordered. Thanks for this.
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.
This is my kind of meal. I love cheese and crackers. Yum yum
I have not served any trays at my home. Though it seems like a good time to start considering our growing wine collection 😛
Add wine and I’m in! This looks so good!
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.
Oh, that looks good! My husband wouldn’t know what to do with this, but he might do it as a snack LOL (He’s a real meat and potatoes kinda guy LOL) But I would be all set, for sure!
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 .
I always like to set out a little tray like this for guests. Not only is it tasty, it looks pretty on the table too!
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).
Sounds just as good to me! I have one of those plates and use it when I am having dinner alone.
The only time I get away with not cooking is when we go out to eat. Oh how I love when we go out to eat, lol. This looks good to me!
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’
Wine and cheese definitely go super well together! You’re making me want to pour a glass right now and watch a movie with a tray of snacks.
I wish I could do this every night.
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.
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.