The Organized Mom Life

Simple solutions to help calm the chaos of motherhood

My new hobby: Food boards

I don’t really know how to describe this new hobby of mine… but here goes:

My new favorite thing to do is serve my family food that I’ve arranged on a big, wooden board.

I know, it sounds so weird! But for some reason- I’m not quite sure why- serving food like this makes dinner way more exciting!

Maybe I’ll just have to show you the pictures so that you’ll understand what I mean.

But fair warning: These aren’t the greatest photos in the world. I wasn’t actually taking these pictures with a blog post in mind. The lighting isn’t great. In fact, I took most of them with my phone, standing on a chair above the table, while simultaneously trying to keep hungry kids from grabbing food!

This is real life, you guys. Enjoy! 😉

Related: 9 amazing snack boards for kids

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Christmas snack board

This was the first board we tried. We saw a picture in a magazine, and it looked fun. So we tried to recreate it.

And the addiction began!

On the Christmas snack board:

  • Cubed cheddar cheese
  • Sliced bologna
  • Pepperoni
  • Green olives
  • Mozzarella balls
  • Rosemary sprigs
  • Various crackers

Pancake board

A few months later, when I couldn’t stop looking at food boards on Instagram, my husband cut a board for me. Then he made me one of my favorite dinners- pancakes!

On the pancake board:

  • Pancakes
  • Butter
  • Syrup
  • Hashbrowns
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries
  • Avocado
  • Scrambled eggs

BLT board

I think these summer-y boards are my favorites. This BLT board was as delicious as it looked.

On the BLT board:

  • Rolls
  • Bread
  • Bacon
  • Lettuce
  • Tomatoes
  • Mayonaise
  • Sliced cheddar
  • Sliced fresh mozzarella
  • Basil
  • Sliced avocado
  • Sprouts
  • Fresh fruit

Another breakfast board

Just think of all the serving dishes I avoided washing by putting all of this food directly on a board. Haha!

On the breakfast board:

  • Scrambled eggs
  • Over easy eggs
  • French toast sticks
  • Sausage
  • Potatoes
  • Onions and peppers

Baked potato board

Baked potatoes and all the toppings!

On the baked potato board:

  • Baked potatoes
  • Cornbread
  • Butter
  • Sour cream
  • Shredded cheddar cheese
  • Cottage cheese
  • Bacon

Hamburger board

We made this board for burgers and every possible topping you could imagine. Mmmm!

On the hamburger board:

  • Burgers
  • Rolls
  • Bacon
  • Lettuce
  • Tomatoes
  • Potato chips
  • Pickles
  • Cooked and raw onions
  • Cooked mushrooms

Ballpark board

Even though we couldn’t celebrate Andrew’s first birthday with a big party, we still decided to go big with a fun theme and lots of food!

On the ballpark board:

  • Hotdogs
  • Hamburgers
  • Chili
  • Packets of ketchup and mustard
  • Nachos
  • Soft pretzels
  • Extra nacho cheese
  • Lettuce
  • Tomato
  • Mozzarella sticks
  • Marinara
  • Peanuts
  • Chips

Baguette board

This is the board my kids ask for over and over. We had this for dinner at least once a week during the last half of summer. For this particular board, we included 5 different types of homegrown tomatoes from my dad’s garden. We easily ate this entire thing!

On the baguette board:

Fruit board

My daughter recently turned 6, and requested lots of fruit for her birthday dinner. This was so fun to make. (We also had a chocolate fountain, which you can’t see in the picture.)

On the fruit board:

  • Strawberries
  • In the cut-out pineapple: Pineapple, blackberries, kiwi, raspberries
  • Clementines
  • Grapefruit
  • Fruit dip (marshmallow creme mixed with cream cheese)
  • Raspberries
  • Apples
  • Caramel dip
  • Mango
  • Kiwi
  • Blueberries
  • Grapes
  • In the cut-out watermelon: Watermelon, kiwi, mango
  • In the cut-out cantaloupe: Cantaloupe, strawberries, kiwi, mango
  • We also had a pomegranate that was mostly just for decoration. 😉 We did cut it up and taste it later, which was fun since we had never had one!

Inspiration

I first found out about food boards from The Baker Mama, on Instagram. I asked for her book for my birthday, and loved it!

Since then, I’ve also started following Reluctant Entertainer, and I love the boards she creates, too!

How to make your own board

My husband kindly wrote down the steps that he used to create my giant board:

Materials List:

Where to get the wood for your board:

  • Select a scrap piece from a cut down tree, former project, or piece around the garage.
  • Purchase a piece at a local home improvement store.  Most home improvement stores will also cut the wood for you which will save you from cutting it at home. 
  • Purchase a piece at a lumber yard.

Directions:

  1. Identify the size of the board you are going to make.  I measured our dining room table with plates, cups, and silverware already placed on it.  I then measured the space on the inside and that is what size I made the board.
  2. Select a piece of wood to use.  Based on my research, the best kind of wood to use is a hardwood.  Woods such as American maple, teak, American Cherry, walnut, and olive are considered hardwoods. There is a lot of information on the internet about woods to use.  Take time to do some research on it. 
  3. Sand down the piece of wood using a sander.  I used a Dewalt Random Orbital Sander.  I started with a low grit sandpaper (60 grit) and went to (120 grit).  My piece of wood was actually pretty smooth so I didn’t have to sand a lot. 
  4. Clean off the piece of wood with a cloth. 
  5. Apply the Food Safe Mineral Oil.  It was super easy to apply.  I allowed it several hours to dry. 

Boards to buy

If you’re not interested in making your own board, check out these options:

Thanks for reading!

I hope that you enjoyed reading about my newest little hobby. Happy boarding!

-Laura

Love it? Pin it!

Weekly meal planner template

This free PDF download is a weekly meal planner template based on daily dinner categories, and includes over 100 real dinner ideas broken into the following categories: Soup salad and sandwich Sunday, Pasta Monday, Taco Tuesday, Breakfast for Dinner Wednesday, Throw it in the oven Thursday, Fun Friday, and Slow cooker Saturday. Download the weekly…

Continue Reading Weekly meal planner template

Pin
Share
51 Shares

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Home        Contact me        Privacy Policy