Dinner Menu for a Fairy-Themed Birthday Party?

T.,

When I had a princess party for my daughter.......almost 15 years ago I did the cookie cutter heart and star PBJ sandwiches and tiny cut up fruit with a dash of whipped cream in small plastic cups, heart shaped cookies with pink sugar sprinkles! Make them ahead of time. You make the sandwiches with any lunch meat also. The Adults I would keep simple also, I make Italian calzones! with a salad! No mess! All can be done ahead of time so you can enjoy the party! I also made a party punch for a extra fun touch, the girls loved it. So simple and cheap! Have fun!

D.

These books may have some menus in them and other fairy things to do! You can probably get them form your library.

Have fun!!

How to Host a Flower Fairy Tea Party by Cicely Mary Barker

How to be a Flower Fairy (reissue) (Flower Fairies) by Cicely Mary Barker

The Flower Fairies Activity Book by Cicely Mary Barker

Flower Fairies Masks & Wings by Cicely Mary Barker

Sweetpea's Garden: Special Things to Make and Do (Flower Fairies Friends) by Cicely Mary Barker

For an easy recipe (crockpot or even microwave), take the tiny meatballs from the supermarket or BJs, and top them with a sweet & sour sauce. Some people use grape jelly and chili sauce (or ketchup) but kids and grape worry me! I use currant jelly and chili sauce (or ketchup!), and some people use canned jellied cranberries instead of the jelly. You mix the 2 items and microwave them, stir to blend, then pour over the frozen meatballs. The meatballs are usually cooked so they just need to heat through, but a crockpot makes a good serving bowl for adults. Use very little sauce for the kids - you can serve extra sauce in a side dish for the adults. Kids can use toothpicks instead of forks - the frilled ones look party-ish and there are also plastic ones in the party stores that make it easier to "stab" the meatballs without the fork tines breaking - but take meatballs out of the crockpot for the kids to serve themselves.

Use paper or plastic plates with sections so the meatballs don't roll all over. If you have time and are REALLY industrious, you could stick party-themed stickers on the plates. I recycle vigilantly all year long so once in a while when there's a party, I just use disposables. There are also biodegradable plates if you want to go that way - they actually can be composted.

Bowtie pasta looks like fairy wings, as someone else noted, so you could name the dish something fairly-like. You could make fairy-wand appetizers or side items - cut carrots or cucumber disks with a small star-shaped cookie cutter and put on a toothpick or skewer, and so on - there are so many possibilities! I think the less you have children using forks, the better off you will be!

The public library is a much-overlooked resource for party books especially "old fashioned" ones from the 50s and 60s. Nobody has seen those recipes or "tricks" so why not re-introduce them to another generation??

I think one of the biggest challenges is finding a super kid friendly dish...it is her party after all...and something that adults will like, too. I've done pizza because the toppings can be different. I bet you can find a way to make it "fairy-like". My favorite kid-pleaser crock pot recipe is an awesome mac and cheese. Like another post, you could use any shape pasta, so bowties as "fairy wings" would work great. This recipe is really cheesy and has hidden veggies.

Someone else already asked for the recipe, so I'll type it in below. It is modified from the original to use less butter and cheese and add sneaky veggies. I've had many, many compliments on it, even from people who have eaten the original version.

Crock Pot Mac and Cheese

2 boxes of Ronzoni Smart Taste (high calcium, high fiber) elbow macaroni, or whatever you like
1/2 c (1 stick) margarine or butter, melted
Cook according to package, drain, put in slow cooker. Add margarine.

3 eggs, beaten
2 (12-oz can) evaporated skim milk
5 c (20 oz) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
2 (10 3/4-oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 c butternut squash, puree (frozen box of butternut squash...nuke 4 min...already pureed...scoop out 1 c)
2 c skim milk
1 c chick peas, pureed
1/4 t paprika
In a bowl, combine eggs, evap. milk, soup, squash and 4 c cheese. In blender, combine chick peas and milk and make into puree. Add to bowl. Pour all that over mac in crock pot and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. Sprinkle with remaining 1 c cheese. Cook 15 min longer. Sprinkle with paprika. Serves many, many, many happy children (and adults).

HALF this recipe if you have a smaller crock pot…as written, it barely fits in a big one. Leftovers freeze well.

I'd love to get a taste of that fairy-punch! Sounds great.

The dinners that have been successful at our birthday parties are not very fairy-like. But here's one idea: pasta in a nice shape. here i can buy star shaped pasta (including shooting stars) and sea shells, both have been loved by our children and visitors. Pasta is boring to adults (at least to me), but children usually like it a lot. It is easy to make. And you could have three choices for sauce: pesto genovese, butter & parmesan, and bolognese. The bolognese can easily be made a day before. Green salad with all of that and there you go. Almost no work. Instead of paper plates i work with reusable plastic plates and cups from IKEA -- colourful and good value. Adults get real plates -- we have a dish washer. Everyone gets real cuttlery -- has never been a problem, kids were always really civilised. I think there is nothing worse than balancing a paper plate and handling a plastic fork. But i can understand of course if ysomeone uses these.

Good luck and a joyful party!
D.
(i can send you notes on how to make bolognese if you want)

Dear T.:

For a birthday party meal I pick something that the honoree really likes but I don't have to spend time tending to. For example I can put a roast with potatoes, carrots, seasonings etc in my oven on low (250) for 3 hours and just check it for water. I am free to chat with guests or do other prep.

Crock pot cut up boneless chicken breast put it in the crock with baby carrots, cut up potatoes, chicken broth, other seasonings and vegtables put the crock on low in the morning and let it simmer all day. We like it as a soup so we put crackers in it. Another option is to omit the potatoes and cook rice to serve it over.

Hope it helps.

Jenn

I find that a baked ziti type of thing usually works in those situations for us. Most kids love pasta, and it's something you can prepare ahead of time and heat up in the oven shortly before you want to serve. Another idea we did actually yesterday for my 4 year old was to have each one make their own pizzas. It's a little more of a messy project, but fun for the kids. They made happy faces on their pizzas with pepperoni and olives.

What if you served bow-tie pasta with a white cheese sauce (could be made before hand and baked) and called it fairy wings? Then grated parm cheese could be fairy dust on top? Have fun!

Okay if this is for the parents I would recomend a dish that just went over really well at my son's potluck for Cub scouts. You can do it in either the microwave or a crock pot. It is called Taco soup. This recipe feeds our family of five with leftovers we have 3 small children for your event and for the potluck I made a double batch It has very simple easy ingredients here is the recipe.

2 cans of crushed tomoatoes the 28oz size
1 15-16oz can of kidney beans (do not drain)
1 15-16oz can of corn
1-2 pounds of ground beef or ground turkey (already cooked)
1-2 packs of Taco seasoning (depending on how spicy you want it).
Haet in microwave safe bowl on high for 10-15 minutes. It is all cooked so it just needs to be reheated. If putting in a crock pot just add the ingredients and put on high about an hour sbeofre the party. You can turn down to low once it has all blended together and reached a hot temperature.

I usually leave a bag of the scoups or Fritos for the guests to top with and sometimes having some shredded cheese or sour cream to top it with is nice.

My five year old and 7 year old love to eat it...my three year old will sometimes eat it. So I thnk some kids wouldlike it but I would recoommend the little bagel hotdogs for the kids to eat or PB and J just in cas eI bought some uncrustables for my daughters b-day and those were a hit with the children who like more simple foods. This is not too messy it actually is more like a chili than soup so it would be easy for the parents to hold the bowl and eat with a spoon. :)

why not just do tea sandwiches and cut them in shapes of stars or some other cute cookie cutter. you can do a whole variety of sandwiches.

Hi T.!
How about meatballs and sausages in the crock and serve them with either fresh rolls for sandwiches or calzone, and for veggies make a big ceasar salad....not too messy-better then the sphegetti mess. This is somewhat of a staple at our bithday parties and everyone loves it! Kids love meatballs also...if you need meatball recipe let me know!

Have fun,
Korey