Picnic foods...

[LizabethSwan]

What are some of your favorite foods that you take on a picnic?
I am always looking for something other than sandwiches to take on boating trips. Any ideas appreciated.

 

[Deffenm]

My kids love the meat and cheese trays that have pepperoni, summer sausage, cheese and crackers. We also do some type of dip with veggies or chips, and fruit. We like small finger type foods.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

My Mom's baked fried chicken. It is baked but tastes like fried chicken. She used to make it the night before and then refrigerate it. When we were kids we used to go to the Bronx Zoo and she would make a cooler full of stuff for us to eat and this was always in it. Once we went as adults (and we could afford to eat at the zoo) and we refused to go unless she made this. It simply wasn't a zoo trip without it.

 

[Justsyd2]

We love a green salad, olives, bread, meat and cheese, and pasta salad.

 

[pixiewings71]

For boating? We usually take sandwiches, but I always take veggies & dip, cut up fruit, chips, cheese sticks and we've taken sushi a couple times too.

 

[3boymthr]

I second pp cold chicken. Sometimes I cook it sometimes I pick up a cooked one at the grocery store or some fried at KFC (really bad for you I know but we only get it as a treat ).

We also take macaroni or potato salad. Deviled Eggs or just plain hard boiled with salt and pepper.

Cold pizza squares. Buy the dough and make yourself the night before on a cookie sheet adding different toppings for each person. You can make individual pizzas or one giant one marking out the sections for each person before you bake. If it's baked in a square shape it's easier to pack.

 

[branv]

I second the cold chicken -- to be slightly healthier, it's as easy as stopping at the store the day before to get a rotisserie and refrigerating it overnight. I also love couscous salad -- cook couscous, chill, then mix with some feta, chopped olives, greek dressing (or just lemon juice and olive oil), green onions, diced tomatoes, fresh mint or basil, whatever really floats your boat.

I also like a curried chicken salad over lettuce: mix together FF yogurt with lemon juice, curry powder, salt/pepper to taste, add in some halved red grapes or raisins, cashews if you like, then add in chopped rotisserie chicken, serve over chopped lettuce. Even DH likes this and he is really not a chicken salad guy (achem, or really a salad-in-general guy, to be honest )

Another good thing is to season some (shell-free) shrimp with cumin, salt and pepper, grill, then chill. Dice some avocado and some roma tomato, mix together with lime juice, salt, pepper, (add cilantro, even jalapeno or garlic if you like). Take along some flour tortillas, serve the shrimp in the tacos with the avocado topping.

 

[LizabethSwan]

Thanks everyone. Lots of great ideas. Especially all the different salad ideas. I had not thought about taking salad. Cold chicken sounds good too.

Thanks!

 

[LizabethSwan]

For boating?

We usually take sandwiches, but I always take veggies & dip, cut up fruit, chips, cheese sticks and we've taken sushi a couple times too.

Yes, we usually take our small boat out on the lake for the day. We swim, sun and have lunch. Its really a lot of fun.

 

[cbmstephanie]

Sort of like sandwiches, but we do wraps. We're usually at our cabin so they're made of whatever we have available. Meat, Cheese, Lettuce, Tomatoes, just Veggies, shrimp...whatever.