A hearty breakfast is always needed in the mornings, but some days, we simply don’t have the time and effort to prepare something before starting the day. A quick granola bar or piece of fruit may do the trick for some time, but it doesn’t take long before we start feeling peckish again. If many of your mornings start this way, ditch the traditional breakfast and make a snack plate.
Like Lunchables or a charcuterie board, snack plates provide you with a variety of foods that complement one another. Made for grazers or frequent “girl dinner” diners, it takes the pressure off of having to put together an actual meal. While there’s not much cooking involved, snack plates are cohesive and should be hearty enough to eat for breakfast. Filled with items like boiled eggs and smoked salmon, berries or sliced avocado, and nuts, crackers, and cheese, the trays are simple to arrange and snack on throughout the morning or in one go.
Best of all, it’s an easy meal-prepped breakfast you can assemble for the days you know you’ll need to rush straight out the door. The night before, you can slice up apples or rinse some grapes to add to the snack plate. In lieu of toast or waffles, add in taralli, which are nutty Italian crackers that look like mini bagels. Boiled eggs or slices of cured meat can provide the protein, while cucumber and cherry tomatoes perfectly round out the breakfast snack plate.
Try out these breakfast snack plate ideas
When putting together a snack plate, include different food groups to ensure the plate isn’t monotonous. You can look at recipes of your favorite breakfast dishes, like this pesto prosciutto breakfast sandwich, for inspiration. Salty prosciutto works well in a snack plate, especially when paired with cherry or sun-dried tomatoes. Add in some crackers and pesto as a dipping sauce, as well as arugula to pile on top. To bulk up the plate, add in olives and slices of mozzarella.
If you like your breakfast on the sweeter side, build your snack plate around a yogurt parfait. Putting Greek yogurt into a salad dressing cup allows you to dip all kinds of fruits and crackers into the creamy product. Add a mix of strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries to the snack plate, along with chocolate-covered almonds. Finish it off with pieces of brie, pretzels, and granola clusters for a delicious crunch.
Hard-boiled eggs are a quintessential breakfast snack plate ingredient, and they work well with virtually any kind of add-in you could put in the dish. You can double up on the protein with savory pieces of turkey or pepperoni, or bring out the buttery side of eggs with cubes of Gouda or camembert. To elevate the snack plate, throw in a sweet and salty mix of dried berries, cashews, pumpkin seeds, and banana chips.
