Party Dishes: Fruit and Veggie Trays

One or two things every party has to have (and eventually be ignored in favor of the other foods) is a fruit tray and/or a veggie tray. I usually munch off of them at events, so I decided to pick a pair up for ours. My goal in mind, I headed to the grocery store deli counter, found their catering menu, took one look at the prices for the two trays and quietly put it back. There is no way anyone was going to get me to pay $30 per tray. "I can make my own for half that!" I told myself. And after a quick trip around the produce section, I was right. I managed to pick up all of the ingredients and serving trays we needed, plus extra, for the price of one store-made tray. That brought me home with the below ingredients, 2 extra apples, a bunch of extra grapes and strawberries for snacking on, extra celery, broccoli, and baby carrots, and 2 extra serving trays for the other foods. If I had gotten exactly how much I needed, I probably would have been closer to $25-27 to make both trays.

How to make a fruit tray:
3 apples (I went with 2 red delicious and 1 green granny smith)
grapes
pineapple (peeled and cored, fresh)
strawberries
serving tray
small bowl
chocolate sauce
lemon juice

Wash all the fruits thoroughly. Core and cut the apples into 8 slices. Use a little lemon juice to help the apples stay fresh-looking longer. Cut the strawberries in half (tops optional). Cut the pineapple into manageable pieces. Place the bowl in the center of the serving tray and arrange the cut and washed fruits around it, 1/4 of the tray per fruit. Fill the bowl with chocolate sauce and serve.

How to make a veggie tray:
1 head of celery / 3-4 stalks
1 head of broccoli
baby carrots
cherry tomatoes
serving tray
small bowl
ranch dressing

Wash all the vegetables thoroughly. Cut 3 to 4 celery stalks into 4 pieces each (~3 inches per piece). Cut florets from head of broccoli. Place the bowl in the center of the serving tray and arrange the cut and washed veggies around it, 1/4 of the tray per veggie. Separate the colors in the layout (ex: celery / carrots / broccoli / tomatoes). Fill the bowl with ranch dressing and serve.

At the end of the day, we were left with just a few of the veggies (mainly the tomatoes were left) and fruits (mainly grapes) on the trays. I guess people prefer pre-cut fruits and veggies over ones that come whole. If I had cut the tomatoes in half, I wonder if there'd be less of them left? In any case, it was an interesting, relatively easy experience making them, and I'll highly encourage anyone else looking to get either of these to make their own for future events.