Family Friendly Charcuterie Boards

Have you ever made your own charcuterie board?

What do you put on yours??

I love a good meat and cheese board.  I used to think that they'd be so expensive to put together, but I've realized that there are affordable ways to do them thanks to Aldi and using lots of ingredients you already have on hand. 

These boards are so easy to put together and can be customized to any preferences, food allergies and likes very easily.  It's also a great way to clean out your fridge/pantry when you have a little bit of lots of different foods.  This makes them all seem fresh and fun again.

I picked up a couple of new cutting boards just for charcuterie for under $20 at TJ Maxx within the past couple of weeks.  Merry Christmas to me :)  TJ Maxx always has a ton of board options.  I like to go with a pretty board that isn't too heavy.  I've seen some really pretty marble ones or really thick wood, but they all seem so bulky.  Keep in mind that it's nice for your charcuterie board to be portable.

I surprised my family with a really fun snack board dinner for New Years Eve.

We had the best time snacking on all the yummy foods and playing games.  Olive said it was the best meal I've ever made and we've since done board style dinners a couple of times.  They're so easy to assemble.  Just add anything your family loves and make it all finger food style.  No plates required.  I did give everyone napkins so that they could put down anything they didn't love.

Everything was washed, peeled and ready to eat. 

My Charcuterie Tips:
1. Try to do a couple different meat options and at least 4 different cheeses.  This will give you lots of snacking varieties.  Aldi has amazing prices on cheese.  They come in manageable sizes for somewhere between $2-4.
2. Include as many colorful fruits and veggies as you can.
3. Nuts, sweet pickles, olives, goldfish crackers, etc are interesting and add in some fun.
4. Add in something new like Naan dippers or a new kind of meat/cheese for everyone to try.
5. Do a good mix of sweet, salt, soft and crunchy for variety.

Board favorites: berries, salami, pistachios, pita crackers, hummus and white cheddar cheese.

 We did a picnic style snack board for New Year's Eve and it was so fun!

The aftermath... I wasn't kidding you when I said my family LOVED doing dinner this way.

Happy New Year (several hours before midnight :) in our pjs.

Charcuterie Board #2.

I added in grilled cheese and my family went nuts!  Olive doesn't normally love grilled cheese, but she ate some when I offered it to her in this fun format. #momwin  I made two grilled cheese sandwiches and that was enough for our family with all of the other things going on here.  Everyone got some and no one left hungry.

Kevin loves smokey cheeses.  No one else does.  haha
So this time we put his cheese in a bowl so that no one else would accidentally eat it.

We also added in some prosciutto, string cheese and peanut butter pretzels.  I liked grouping all the cheeses on one side of the board this time and the meats on the other side.

Gosh, I love this way of doing dinner!!  It's been so fun to have friends and readers messaging me pictures of their own charcuterie boards.  Keep them coming! 

I'm excited to bring you lots of different ideas for family friendly charcuterie this year.  I've got visions of dessert boards, snack boards, mom and dad boards, kid boards and lots more!  Can't wait to share them with you in the coming year.