This post is brought to you by Woolworths
When I was a kid my mum used to make a dinner that she called a ‘mouse plate’. It was basically little bites of yummy food served to me on my own plate. A mini individual cheese board, if you will. There might be a chicken wing, some cut up carrots, cheese, a few dips, a boiled egg and maybe some crackers. I freaking loved this type of dinner because it was a novelty – I had my own serve of dip and crackers and I didn’t have to fight my dad and my brother to get my fair share. The dip was probably the most important part. I love dips and sauces in an unholy way. My brother in law calls me the saucy minx because I won’t eat anything without sauce. This is why when Woolies was all ‘Hey Carly can you do an article about the Created With Jamie veggie dips range???’ I was like ‘Hell yes. Saucy minx at your service. Gonna make me a bad ass fancy pants mouse plate.’
However, as an adult I now realise that ‘mouse plates’ aren’t actually very fancy at all and were usually served up when my mum couldn’t be arsed going to the shops. Totally fair enough. One of the worst things about being a grown up is trying to make different types of food happen every night. It’s just such a burden to me every day. This is why when we had mates over on the weekend, we made an epic cheese plate instead of a proper dinner.
We take the creation of cheese boards very seriously in the Smaggle haus. We have three rules.
1. You must have good ratios
You need have a good cracker to stuff ratio. You don’t want too much stuff or too many crackers. You also need a good dry to wet stuff ratio. You need cheese AND dips. We bought the Created with Jamie Veggie Dips for this cheese board. There are four flavours – Gorgeous Green Garden Pea & Quinoa Dip (it’s like a minty little salad on a cracker), Dippin Sweat Roasted Vegetable Dip (goes beautifully with a chunk of blue cheese), Beautiful Beetroot Tahini and Pomegranate Dip (this one is sweet but super healthy tasting), Poppin Chipotle Red Pepper & Quinoa Dip (this one is chunky and grainy) – and all of them are bloody delicious. I’m actually quite stoked about these dips because they’re super healthy. I love having naughty treats every now and then but cheese boards and snacks like these can be a total calorie suck. Some dips are so high in calories and fat, you’ve eaten an hours worth of running on the treadmill on one cracker (slight exaggeration but you get my meaning). My favourite is the beetroot one because it’s a bit sweet but they’re all delicious. They’d be perfect for a healthy mid-week dinner or a cheeky afternoon of wine drinking with with some friends… helps you save a few calories so you can have an extra glass of save blanc!
2. You must include roughage of some description
I love cheese but you really need to eat it with caution and mix it up with some healthy vegetables. It’s always a bit more effort but cutting up some veggie sticks makes the biggest difference to a cheese board and prolongs the time it takes you to slip into a potent cheese coma. Never forget your safety vegetables. Tip: The Jamie dips totally count as veggies – check the ingredients, they’re basically blended salad.
3. You must have a good mix of sweet and savoury items
Always make fruit a thing on a cheese plate. Dried apricots, quince paste (probably the best invention ever right?) and some fresh grapes. It’s palette cleansing and delicious. Also cheese and fruit make excellent besties.
Here’s the cheese board we made on the weekend… I really wish I could re-eat this.
We were in the biggest food coma after eating all this… it was actually excellent.
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What are your cheese board essentials? Also are you a hard cheese or soft cheese person?
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P.P.S We’ve only got a few tickets for Little Blog Big left…
14 Comments
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Totally love a cheeseboard – I like pears or nectarines with cheese. Read somewhere recently that cheese is addictive – explains so much! Our local deli gets a wheel of French truffle Brie every Christmas (it’s the only time of year she can get it). It is soo yummy and due in this week – squeee! Xx
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I read that too! Not that I was surprised – cheese is amazing. I think I ate a whole block of Mersey Valley cheese with a mate of mine yesterday. So good. French truffle brie sounds AMAZING!!!
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Yum, this looks delish! I’m mad for Jamie Oliver’s smoked salmon so will def check out these dips. x
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I order his smoked salmon! All his seafood stuff is amazing!
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I have so much bloody respect for Jamie Oliver – he doesn’t sacrifice flavour but he also doesn’t make every things eleventy billion calories either. Your cheese board looks the business and if you wanted to come to my place with one, you would be welcome with very open arms (and lots of good wine!).
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Me too! That’s why I love his stuff – it’s not all fatty and gross and full of sugar. There’s no preservatives or anything in his stuff it’s the best. That sounds amazing – when are you free next? 🙂
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LOVE a cheese dinner and you’re so right about the ratios. I love the video at the end too!
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Hee hee! Thank you! I’ve had a few too many cheese board dinners this week… actually that’s a lie. You can never have too many cheeseboard dinners!
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Dying at “safety vegetables”. I love picking platters in the hot weather, I like to throw in dolmades, cured meat of some kind, dukkah and oil as well as some yummy cheese and dip action!
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I adore dolmades! I even like the canned ones. So good. Gotta have your safety vegetables otherwise you end up all salty and gross.
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Nice recipe here, looks so appetizing here. Love it
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That marble platter thing is just as drool worthy as the mouse plate *love hearts in eyes smiley*
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Add fresh figs & medjool dates (the best thing ever with a smoosh of blue cheese on top)!
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Yum! Everything looks so fresh and clean and tasty. I’ve never made a cheese board before but may give this a try. Thanks for posting the video at the end as well.
