Blog for all health-conscious: Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Festive Holiday Fruit Tray

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Festive Holiday Fruit Tray

Link to Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 07:44 PM PST

Thank you for subscribing to Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy! Treat yourself this Christmas to sweet little healthy goodies. Click here now for your free copy of Healthy Holidays, Slightly Indulgent Sweet Treats!

I’m loving Pinterest this Christmas season! It’s given me some great ideas for Christmas presents, Christmas decorating, Christmas wrapping, Christmas baking, Christmas cooking… and Christmas celebrating.

Some of these ideas take a little more work, which makes me question if it’s a good thing or not. Or at any rate, it makes my DH question! Me? I love all the holiday craziness. Bring it on, people!

But if you’re really frazzled, and don’t have the wits or time to come up with a dish for the holiday party this weekend, I’ve got your back. This particular Pinterest-inspired fruit tray is dead easy and perfectly brainless. A little on the pricey side this time of year, but whatever. Totally worth it.

Christmas Fruit Tree

Ingredients

1 lb green grapes
2-3 Granny Smith (or other green) apples
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 Bosc pear

Instructions

Use an oblong tray for best results. Place a paper or towel in the middle of the tray, if desired, to drain fruit and help stabilize it. (You don’t want the edges of the paper towel to show.)
Core the apples, then cut them into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4 slices. Place in a bowl of lemon water (fill a bowl of water and splash in a TBSP or two of lemon juice).
Trim the sides of the Bosc pear so that it resembles a tree trunk (we’re not going for perfection here – just as close as you can get). Place it near the bottom of the tray, with the peel facing out.
Pile the grapes on the tray, above the pear. Shape them so that there are fewer on the top and more on the bottom, like a triangle.
Line the apple slices around the edges of the grape tree, forming the branches.
Place the blueberries and raspberries randomly among the grapes to form the ornaments.

For an extra touch, you can use a star cookie cutter to cut a star shape out of a pineapple wedge, or piece of cantaloupe. If you have a large enough pear or apple, and a metal cutter, you could use that as well. Place that at the top of the tree. (I just went without.)

This is so QUICK to put together. I washed all my fruit and sliced the apples at home, then brought it all to the function I was attending (my piano students’ Christmas recital). I formed the tree probably in 5 minutes or less.

Such an EASY, yet festive and creative, fruit tray to bring to any holiday function! Party-goers will love it, and you will have put very little effort into it (yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!).

It is NOT CHEAP this time of year! Unless maybe if you live in Florida or California. The apples aren’t expensive, but the grapes and berries. Oh my! I never pay that much for those fruits, since I usually only buy them in season. Oh well, totally worth it for a Christmas splurge.

It is very HEALTHY, though. Nothing but fruit!