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Short on time or making a meal for 1? These Snack Plate Ideas make lunch or dinner a breeze with your own personal charcuterie!
Snack Plate Ideas
Ingredients
Add At Least 1 From Each of the Following Categories:
- Grain: crackers or pita bread see instructions for toasted pita bread
- Cheese: sticks, rounds, or sections
- Meat: deli meat or salami
- Fruit: grapes, apples, oranges, etc…
- Veggies: carrots, cucumbers, bell pepper, etc…
- Dip: hummus, guacamole, tzatziki, or other dip
- Extras: olives, avocado, dried fruit, nuts, etc…
Instructions
- If using toasted pita, broil in oven for 2 minutes until browned. Then drizzle olive oil and add Italian seasoning and sea salt
- Chop cheese if necessary and roll meats if desired. Wash and chop fruits and vegetables if desired
- Add dips and extras to plate and enjoy!
What is a Snack Plate?
A “snack plate” is a combination of several elements put together to make a fun, finger food meal for 1 or snack for a couple people! You can think of it as your own personal charcuterie board. Including foods like meat, cheese, crackers, bread, fruits, veggies, dips, olives, etc…, the sky is the limit here with the amount of different combos you could make. That’s why we have several snack plate ideas here in this post!
The name can be deceiving, labeling the meal as a “snack plate”, but the idea is that it can work as a meal using easy, convenient snack foods.
Snack Plate Ideas vs “Girl Dinner”
You may have heard of the trend “girl dinner” circulating around social media in the past couple of months. The trend shows a meal for 1 that’s been thrown together with some usually non-cooked items like cheese, bread, fruit, etc… though it could also include other items.
The Problem with “Girl Dinner”
So far “girl dinner” and “snack plate” sound really similar, except the problem with “girl dinner” is that it’s often promoting disordered and undereating with the amount shown on the social media trend. This sends the idea of “dinner that a girl chooses to eat should be smaller than dinner for someone else” or “a snack sized amount of food is fine for dinner” which is untrue and harmful messaging.
The Difference with Snack Plate Ideas
The snack plate ideas we have here differ from “girl dinner”, though in that they have some structure for what to include. We are doing it personal charcuterie style, but we have the low down for the 6-7 elements to include to make sure this can in fact work as an easy meal.
Components of a Snack Plate
Grains: Sourdough bread, crackers, bread roll, or one of my favorites, toasted pita bread. You can add toppings to the grains, or save that for the dip that you’ll add to the plate. Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to 1!
Cheese: String cheese, chopped cubes of cheese, Babybel, brie, or other specialty snack cheeses work well here
Meat: Deli meat and salami work best IMO, but you could also do chopped chicken
Fruit: Apples, grapes, berries, melon, I don’t think there’s a fruit that wouldn’t work well here!
Veggies: Choose veggies that you like raw with dips like carrots, bell pepper, snap peas, cucumber, broccoli or cauliflower florets, etc…
Dip: Hummus, guacamole, Tzatziki, spinach artichoke, onion, there’s not a wrong choice!
Extras: This category is for literally anything else that you’d like to add. Some ideas are different varieties of olives, avocado, artichoke hearts, tapenades, oil and vinegar,
Snack Plate Ideas: Examples
As you can see there are so many combos you can make! We’ll give you a few sample plates to get you started, but of course adjust it to what you have access to and your preferences.
The Classic
- Crackers
- Cubed Colby jack cheese or Babybel
- Deli turkey and/or ham
- Apples
- Carrots + cucumber
- Hummus
- Avocado
The Mediterranean
- Toasted pita bread (with olive oil and sea salt)
- Feta cheese
- Salami and/or chickpeas
- Grapes
- Cucumber + tomato
- Tzatziki sauce
- Marinated olives
The Taco Plate
- Tortilla Chips
- Cheddar cheese or queso
- Cubed chicken or steak strips
- Mango slices
- Bell pepper slices
- Guacamole
- Queso fresca
