Picnic food

When the weather turns warm and sunny you want to be outside with the kids as much as possible and it’s easy entertainment to take them for a picnic. Snacking, outside, whilst playing football or something, what isn’t there to love from a kids point of view? And it doesn’t have to be unhealthy, stressful or expensive. With all the convenience food in supermarkets today, ideal for eating outdoors, we forget that making a picnic can be just as fun and probably much cheaper. Here are some of our best picnic food ideas.

Traditional cold finger foods

• Cold cocktails sausages cooked in honey and mustard
• Chicken drumsticks/wings
• Hard boiled eggs
• Prawns
• Scotch eggs, pork pies cornish pasties….
• Samosas – meat or vegetarian

Wraps/filled pitta with some of the following fillings (toddlers will love making these):

• Avocado (mashable)
• Sliced cucumber and tomato
• Grated cheese
• Grated carrot
• Shredded chicken/ham/beef/cold sausage
• Tinned tuna/poached salmon
• Slices of red/yellow pepper
• Lemon/lite mayo/creme fraich/tzatziki for seasoning

“Finger food salad” – Fill a tupperware box with the following for picking at:

• Chopped hard boiled egg (if no allergy/tested)
• Small chunks cheese, carrot, apple and cucumber
• Chopped peppers
• Sliced cold sausage (mini frankfurters?)
• Sweetcorn
• Cherry tomato quarters
• Cooked French beans/sugar snap peas
• Cooked Asparagus tips
• Pasta shapes (fusilli or penne)

Dips and sticks

• Houmous, creme fraish and pesto, tzatziki
• Carrot and cucumber sticks, breadsticks and pitta strips.

Pudding

• Fruit – bananas, papaya (good mashing, great for digestion), berries, nectarines, watermelon (either all whole or prepare in tupperware as fruit salad)
• Yogurt and stewed fruit – good sized tupperware box with plain yogurt and fruit puree – delicious for the whole family to tuck in. Don’t forget the spoons!
• Banana bread (see recipe)