What Dish Should I Use?

➸ Need advice? Ask PrettyFood!

Beautiful dishes can look crummy if they aren’t paired well with the food served in/on them. My friend (and biz partner) Michele is hosting weekend guests for the Kentucky Derby and she asked for suggestions on what to serve on some cute platters she recently purchased.

Because of the lemons on this one, it would be nice to do something lemony. You have another factor to consider – you have a sauce/dip container on there.

With that in mind, here are some possibilities:

• You could make garlic parmesan chicken wings (VERY easy and really good) and serve them with a lemon garlic aoli (mayo, minced garlic, lemon juice). Yum. Wish I HAD SOME HERE RIGHT NOW.
• You could get some sugar-free marshmallow cream and mix it with: cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, and lemon extract, put in a little lemon zest, and serve that as a dip with fresh strawberries.
• You could make lemon cookies and fill the “dip” cup with fresh raspberries.
• You could grill shrimp and serve it with lemon garlic butter.
• You could create a beautiful antipasto display and put a hummus dip in the middle with breadsticks that you’’ve cut in half sticking out of it.

Virtually anything would look good on this. Remember not to fill it too full and try positioning the food either in the center or on diagonal corners or some way that is unexpected.

The Fun Bites would look good in this with the protea flower in the middle.

Sweet Stuffed Pepper Bites would look great on this because they have so much color.

Cucumber Sandwiches made with double stacked low carb tortillas (filling in between) would be good, with cherry tomato garnish.

You could take brie cheese and bake it with a jar of chutney and some Brown Sugar Diabetisweet on top (raisins, too, if you like). When it comes out, put it on the back rear part of this platter. Julienne some granny smith apple on top. Surround it with fresh strawberries and toast points. Choose a set of colorful spreaders – preferably something with a little black to tie in to the platter below. Add a flower or two for garnish.

Honeydew chunks on toothpicks with mozzarella and prosciutto. (I don’t think cantaloupe would look good with this color, but honeydew would.)

You will want to keep the right side, which has dimensionality, free.

You could do a big mound of edamame on the left side of this platter. Just steam a bag of it for 7 minutes and add kosher salt on top after you are done steaming it. It’s easy, but tasty, nutritious, and it won’t wreck anyone’s diet.

Do the stuffed cherry tomatoes. (Tomato Tizzies) If you make these, cut a tiny sliver off the bottom of the tomatoes before you stuff them so they will sit upright. Make the parsley very finely chopped before you put it on top. Give ample space around each one so people can easily pick one up.

Finger Sandwiches (buy some chicken salad or tuna salad or whatever, if you know of some that’s really good from a local store). Scatter fresh snow peas around the sandwiches for color.

Get precooked marinated chicken breasts. Cut them into little squares. Put them on toothpicks. Put a stuffed olive on the toothpick with some of them. Put half a cherry tomato on top with others, or roasted red pepper.