Summer is quickly approaching and with summer comes A LOT of get-togethers including bbqs, pool parties, 4th of July parties, back to school parties, etc. and while you can serve a veggie tray or a fruit tray at your party, I’ve come up with the Ultimate Summer Party Platter and best of all, it’s a budget platter! I put this platter together on less than $50, BUT this isn’t even all of the food! I forgot the cherries and totally left off the kiwi and mango because I ran out of room! Plus, I could refill this platter TWO MORE TIMES with all of the food I had total! 
Let’s take a look at this bad boy up close: 
It is a veritable smorgasbord of fruits, veggies, dips, crackers, meats, and cheeses! Like I said, it is the ultimate summer party platter! Why have just a veggie platter or a fruit platter or a meat and cheese board when you can have all three combined? 
Can you believe this is only about a third of all the food I brought home from the store? I chopped up all the veggies and washed all the fruit and I had so much leftover that I could fill two more of these trays! 
Now, I will say that it does take a little bit of time to prep the food and assemble, but I’m breaking it down into steps and sharing my tips for prepping the Ultimate Summer Party Planner as quickly as possible.
First, when shopping, try to purchase anything that is precut. The broccoli and carrots were precut and they saved me a ton of time. I also went with the jarred artichoke hearts and mini pickles. Opening a jar is so much easier than slicing and dicing! Next, wash all the fruit and veggies when you get home and, if you have time, chop any other veggies you can that will remain fresh in the fridge overnight such as the bell peppers, cucumber, and radishes. 
On the day of your event, start by prepping your pineapple boat. Slice the pineapple in half, stem and all. Use a knife to carve a bowl shape into one half of the pineapple and then slice the “bowl” shape into cubes. Use an ice cream scoop to remove the pineapple cubes and hollow the bowl. The pineapple you remove isn’t very pretty, so set it aside in a container for you to eat (pineapple and cottage cheese snack?) and then slice the other half of the pinepple into cubes and fill the bowl. 
Next, prep your meat and cheese skewers. I found some sliced cheeses (cheddar, monterey jack, and provolone) along with a couple types of salami. Since the cheese was presliced, I made it pretty by simply folding it into quarters, stacking all three types together, and topping it with a few folded rounds of salami. I used skewers to hold it all together and make it easy for guests to simply just take a skewer and put it on their plate.
I liked that people could just take a skewer if they wanted a quick snack instead of filling up a plate, so I also made some fruit skewers with balls of watermelon, cantelope, and blueberries! 
And then once all of the skewers were prepped, I was ready to assemble everything. I started by placing my pineapple boat in a corner and then put down my three dips: spicy hummus, ranch, and chocolate hazelnut. 
I then simply assembled items that I thought went best with those dips, so bell pepper, artichokes, and cucumber around the hummus, radishes and crackers around the ranch dressing, and fruit around the chocolate hazelnut. I added the skewers in the corners so they could hang off the edges a bit if needed and then piled everything really high! 
Just in case you’d like a shopping list, I’ve listed everything that I included on the platter below as well as the actual serving tray I used:
- pineapple
- strawberries
- blueberries
- grapes
- watermelon
- cantelope
- mango
- kiwi
- cherries
- plantain chips
- yellow tomatoes
- cucumber
- bell peppers
- carrots
- broccoli florets
- artichoke hearts
- radishes
- mini pickles
- crackers
- cheddar cheese
- monterey jack cheese
- provolone cheese
- salami
- spicy hummus dip
- ranch dressing
- chocolate hazelnut spread
- pistachios
- bamboo skewers
- serving tray
And you can add anything you want to your platter! I would just stay away from apples and bananas because they brown too quickly. Instead of bananas, I found some plantain chips and they were a great substitution!
What else would you add to your Ultimate Summer Party Planner? Let me know in a comment!