Cold Plate

Some days you may not feel like cooking, it may be too hot to think about cooking, you may have a bunch of leftovers or random ingredients you would like to use up, or you really aren't sure what you are in the mood for. That's where a cold plate comes in. 

A cold plate does not have a specific recipe or even a description of components it must contain. A cold plate is simply a plateful of cold foods, or foods that have not been cooked or reheated. It often contains salad ingredients and the likes, but really it can be any mismatch of things you would like. You could pull a leftover piece of pizza from the refrigerator, consume it cold, and technically consider it to be a cold plate, but typically a cold plate consists of several different items - cold pizza is simply cold pizza. Here is the most recent cold plate I made up.
It consisted of: salad with greens, diced tomato, soft boiled egg, and cheddar cheese sticks; whole grain crackers, hummus, roasted chickpeas, hazelnuts, fresh dates, frozen pineapple, and of course, a few chocolates to round out the meal. This was a cold plate, well actually there are a few dishes there as it did not all fit on one plate, for two. Cold plates can definitely be nutritious, light, and well-rounded meals. This one has vegetables, a little fruit, cheese for dairy, egg, hummus, and nuts for protein, and crackers as a whole grain, with a touch of dessert.