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As both a homebody and romance geek, I am very excited to share this date night cheese plate with you. And, as the title implies, it only cost $20 to create! Consider this a submission to the ~~ridiculous~~ infamous $200 date debate. If a cozy night at home with romantic nosh and good wine sounds like your vibe, keep scrolling to take all the details then go ahead and schedule your next at-home date night, sis. Valentine's Day is fast approaching but the ease of this date night cheese plate makes it perfect for year-round romance. You can throw together this cheese board for two on any regular ol' Friday night in with bae.

How to Build a Cheese Plate for Two

You only need six ingredients to make this romantic cheese board: cheese (of course), berries, crackers, nuts, preserves or honey, and (also of course) chocolate. Below are the quantities and typical cost for each. And for the lovers out there, I've denoted which date night cheese plate ingredients are considered aphrodisiacs with asterisks. You're welcome. 🙂

Date Night Cheese Plate Ingredients

½ pound of cheese ($8)
½ pint of berries* ($2)
1 box of crackers or crisps ($2)
¼ pound of almonds* ($1.50)
1 small jar of fig preserves* or honey* ($4)
1 bar of chocolate* ($3)

These ingredients came in at exactly $20.50. Note that you won't use all of the cheese, berries or crackers, which technically brings the price down but let's stick with the concept of building a date night cheese board for $20.

Instructions

For the base of your date night cheese plate, you can either use a small cheese board or a large dinner plate. The cheese board is a little fancier but both work wonderfully so go with whatever you have on hand. If you're in the market for a cute cheese board, I recommend any of these:

1. Start by placing your almonds in a ramekin (aka, a small sauce container). You can spoon some of your preserves or honey into a ramekin, too, or leave it in the jar, as I did. Once the ramekins are placed, I typically just fill in the remaining ingredients around them. Here are some cute ramekin options you can order online and pick up in store.

2. Slice up your cheese and add it to the board next. To keep things interesting (Because it's date night, right?), I recommend including one cheese you both already like and another neither of you has tried before. For this date night cheese plate, I used an aged manchego, which has a buttery/salty flavor and a port wine derby cheese which has a slightly fruity flavor from the pretty purple marbles of port wine you can see infused in it.

3. Grab a short stack of crackers and fan them out on the plate. When building cheese boards, I tend to place complementary flavors near each other to guide my guests' experience but since this is a small board, there's no need to get too scientific with it. Everything is close together here!

4. Add the berries and drizzle them with a little honey, if you like. If you want to get even fancier, make some chocolate covered strawberries right quick! Then break up your chocolate bar(s) and place the pieces on the board. Pop a bottle of wine, cue the Marvin Gaye, and you're good.

5. Lastly, don't feel confined to the ingredients I used. The beauty of a good cheese plate is that you can put whatever you want on it--as long as there's cheese, of course. Here are my Trader Joe's picks for more cheese board for two ideas.

I hope this date night cheese plate upgrades your next night in. For something a little larger scale, check out this Valentine's Day dessert board. Also, sharing is caring so be sure to pin this recipe on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!