Blog for all health-conscious: Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Another Christmas Tree Tray

Thursday, 22 December 2011

Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Another Christmas Tree Tray – Veggies This Time!

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Another Christmas Tree Tray – Veggies This Time!

Posted: 21 Dec 2011 06:06 AM PST

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Here’s yet another last-minute Christmas tray to bring to any festivities this weekend. Yesterday, I brought you a Christmas tree fruit tray. Today, it’s a Christmas tree veggie tray! Same concept, different produce.

Easy peasy.

This one I also found on Pinterest (naturally), originally from the Betty Crocker website. Here’s another Christmas tree veggie tray, also from Betty Crocker, if you’d like something a bit different, or if you have different tastes in veggies. And if you’re looking for yet another creative Christmas-tree-shaped appetizer tray, try this cheese cube Christmas tree from Cabot.
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Veggie Christmas Tree

Ingredients

1 bunch broccoli
1/4 head of cauliflower
1/2 10oz pkg grape tomatoes
handful of pretzel sticks
1/2 yellow pepper, optional OR chunk/slice of cheese

Instructions

Wash all produce thoroughly. Trim broccoli and cauliflower so you have only the florets, with very little stem (just enough to hold on to).
Using an oval or rectangular tray, place a line of cauliflower along the bottom narrow edge to form the “snow”.
Place a handful of pretzel sticks, centered above the cauliflower, oriented lengthwise to form the “trunk”.
Place a line of broccoli across the tray, above the pretzel trunk, trying not to leave any white space.
Above the broccoli, and forming a slightly shorter line, place a row of grape tomatoes, touching edge to edge.
Continue alternating broccoli and tomatoes, creating shorter lines as you go, until you get near the top of your tray.
Form a star but cutting a yellow pepper into strips OR use a star-shaped cookie cutter to form a star from a slice or chunk of cheese. Or just go without, like I did!

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Serve your Christmas tree with a bowl of homemade dip on the side. Unfortunately, I have no specific dip recipe for you (I was in too much of a hurry to take measurements), but I can tell you how I made my Ranch-like version of dip: I dumped equal parts cream/yogurt cheese (homemade from yogurt) and plain yogurt in a bowl and mashed it together well until it was creamy. Then I stirred in garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper, dill, parsley, chives, and a bit of salt until it tasted right. Then I refrigerated it for a couple of hours before serving.

Just as QUICK as any other vegetable tray!

And just as EASY, but with so much more presentation!

It’s CHEAPer than the fruit tray, because these veggies are cheaper than those fruits.

And it’s very HEALTHY, too, nothing but veggies! (Well, except the pretzel sticks, which I don’t normally buy, but didn’t have time to come up with anything more creative. Carrot sticks? Celery sticks? Right shape, wrong color. Let me know if you come up with something!)

Sharing with Real Food Wednesday, and…