Grape Tomato Salad & Goat Cheese for Bruschetta

I think this will become my new stand-by. It was simple, fast, portable and delish!

The busy weekend ended with a bang. We met up with a couple friends for a late afternoon get together at the beach. We brought sandwiches for the kiddos, wine, drink and appetizers for the older set.

I wanted something yummy, relatively healthy and portable. So I made tomato bruschetta of sorts. I cut up (about 2 cups) of grape tomatoes -- sliced them as thinly as possible, and marinated them in about 2 tbs. of olive oil, sea salt, 2 tbs, of minced basil and thyme. I let it all marinate in a plastic container for a couple of hours. (Same plastic container I brought to the beach to cut down on dishes!)

From the bakery we picked up a fresh Baguette that they sliced for us.

In a ramekin I put some herbed goat cheese.

On our picnic table I set everything out and people could make their own Bruschetta!

Had we not been at the beach, I would have toasted up the bread to make crostini... and had I used a plain goat cheese I would have added 1 or 2 cloves of minced garlic to the tomatoes.

I also brought along some of the fresh strawberries we picked the other day and the Ricotta Creme to dip the strawberries into. Yum-Yum!