Forest Veggie Tray!

This Instructable will show you how to turn your basic veggie tray into a simple, adorable forest scene great for entertaining! Not to mention a healthy snack.

You will need:
1 Large Veggie Tray (Or if you prefer to buy the veggies separately: Broccoli, Baby Carrots, Celery Sticks, Grape Tomatoes)
1 Large Loaf of Italian Bread. (Or any other type of bread you desire.)
3-4 Large Leaves from Romain Lettuce
Ranch Dressing

Tools:
Toothpicks
Knife
Cutting Board
Serving Tray

First, you will want to cut the top of whatever bread you choose off. You'll want to make the surface of the bread as flat as possible. It will make it easier to work with.

You may save the top of your bread for a sandwich or dispose of it however you like. You won't be needing it.

Next, you'll be cutting out what will be the river of dressing in your forest. You'll want to cut about 2/3 of the way down into the bread. Make whatever wavy line you would like.

Again, dispose of the pieces of bread you cut out how you would prefer. You won't be needing them either.

Take a few of the celery sticks and place them at the bottom of your river cut out. This will help keep the form and stop the bread from soaking up too much of the ranch dressing.

Now you may fill the river cut out with whatever dressing you prefer. I used ranch as you can see here.

After the river is made, it is time to lay the ground of the forest. Using the large Romain Lettuce leaves, tear and shape them around your river. This will give the appearance of grass, which is more realistic than having a bread floor. Don't worry about using anything to stick it to the bread. The toothpicks and broccoli will keep the lettuce pinned down. Which brings me to the next step...

Take the toothpicks and begin sticking them into the ends of the broccoli like so. Do this with all the broccoli, and you can even experiment and use cauliflower as well if the tray you got contains them.

After you have all the broccoli toothpicked, you may start making your forest by sticking them into the bread in whatever pattern you think looks best.

Take a grape tomato and cut each of the ends off. Then take a carrot and cut a sort of triangle out of the middle of it. Use a toothpick to combine the tomato (the house) and the carrot (the roof) and stick it wherever you desire in your forest. You can have fun making as many as you want. I was only really able to fit one into my design.

For a bridge or any paths you want to make, just slice carrots in half the long way and use those.

If you didn't already have your forest set up on a tray, now is the time to move it to one. Now I know you'll have plenty of extra veggies like I did. So I just use them to garnish the little forest center piece as you can see in the picture. Now you are ready to serve! Or cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you need it. And keep the extra ranch on hand so replenish your dressing river as needed!

Hope you enjoy!