I am planning my daughter's 6th birthday party for this month and need some food ideas. My other daughter has some severe food allergies and we are practicing total avoidance of those products, so many foods I typically make are out of the question. (We have to avoid peanuts, several tree nuts, eggs (which is in mayo, ranch dressings, etc.), zucchini, and mango. We do not eat fish/seafood, so not an option.
I want to prepare food that will be relatively quick and simple, but appealing. I do not have all of the time in the world because I have to make a My Little Pony birthday cake from scratch and decorate it and I also have a one year-old at home to attend to.
Typically, I like to do an appetizer and then a meal (lunch). I will only be serving about 10 adults and 5 kids, just family.
I mix rinsed black beans, whole kernel corn, drained, from a can, chopped green onion, a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies drained, and a liberal amount of Pace (yellow lid) Picante Sauce. Serve with Fritos Scoops or Tostito Scoops!
Yummy and my grandchildren like it too.
Sloppy Joes, a veggie platter, a fruit salad, chips. All can be made ahead of time while your one yr old naps.
We recently did a "taco bar" for my son's baptism party...We were going to be out of the house most of the day, so food prep was not likely and I didn't want hubby to have to stand in front of a grill all day while it was hot out.
We made the taco meat the night before, as well as spanish rice. We put them in two separate crock pots on warm the day of while we were at the service. All the other stuff (tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, etc) can be put in those silver/foil food things that you can leave in your fridge over night and bring out when ready. I also made up a taco salad (regular crushed doritos/meat/shred cheese/olives/lettuce) the night before and it was all set to go and made a good "side dish". Put out some taco sauce and both hard and soft shell tacos and you're all set. We also put out some nacho chips so folks could make themselves up nachos if they wanted to. Serioulsy, this was the simplest thing I've ever served and everyone was happy that it wasn't your standard BBQ party food.
one of my kids favorite is so easy.
take a flour tortilla spread cream cheese, layer lettuce, tomatoe, black olives and lunch meat of any kind and some shredded cheese. (it should all be flat at this point. the roll it into a spiralput it into the fridge and let it "set" then pull it out and slice and wala you have spirals the kids love them.
also good is cream cheese dips for both fruit and chips.
for fruit cream cheese and marshmallow fluff just whip it together and serve with fruit.
for veggies or chips
take a pie plate (or however big a dish you want to use)
layer cream cheese that has been mixed with dry taco mix, then a layer of refried bean dip, then layer of lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese and sliced black olives serve with tortilla chips and salsa on the side. its really good.
Our last party was make your own sandwiches, big fruit salad, chips and baby carrots and goldfish/pretzels for the kids. I spent extra on getting nice bread and deli meat and had lots of condiments and extras out. Adults were happy to not be eating pizza or hotdogs and kids ate what they wanted as well. Very easy to prepare - mostly just the shopping list and picking it all up and arranging on platters. If you want to pay extra the deli will make a fancy platter but I just made a simple one myself and saved the cash!
My daughter's birthday is this weekend... here is the simple lunch for 15 that we are doing at a park:
-- We are ordering a sub tray with the "wet ingredents" on the side (like butter, mayo and so on).
-- Assorted Chips
-- Assorted Fruit
-- Cheese, Meat & Cracker Tray
-- Lettuce Salad of some sort
-- Tinkerbell Cake/Cupcakes
-- Water, Iced Tea, Coffee (maybe iced coffee)
I agree with Danielle..do the Taco Bar! I had a party for myself..my 41st birthday combined with my Graduation from college (4.0 Gold Honors woot woot!). We did "walking tacos"..no soft shells..just the mini bags of chips. At the local Sams Club we got the regular nacho cheese flaor and also the blue "cool ranch" flavor for variety. Did the meat before hand and had it ready to go in the crock pot. Also did whole back beans from cans (another small crock pot)..shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, sour cream, onions, picante sauce etc. I even got a giant can of cheese sause for $6 and put that in a crock for nachos
We got everything at Sams Club and everyone loved it. We had some leftovers, but the meat we froze and the giant bag of cheese had a date till Novemeber..so I put it into a good large zip bag, wrote the expire date on the outside and we have used it for everything since then..eggs, salads, sandwiches, etc. The giant bag of shredded lettuce was $3, so tossing half of the second bag we had was not a major financial issue.
It was easy, inexpensive and just overall worked fantastic and everyone loved it better than the "norm:" of little blah sandwiches and chips and potato salad at these deals you always see.....
what about bite size sandwiches..offer multiple kinds. Make whole sandwich then cut into 4's..... options: (you can do different breads too)
cucumber and cream cheese
ham, cheese and mustard
ckn salad (make with yogurt, grapes and celery)
how about throwing a few things in crock pots
lil smokies/meatballs w/bbq sauce
cheese/salsa dip
do you have a melon baller....easy way to provide fruit that doesn't take a ton of time - watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew
is there anything your daugther really wants/favorite food?
