The vision of a Perfect Picnic generally includes an unpopulated meadow filled with (pollen-free) flowers, a red-and-white-checked tablecloth and . . . no bugs.

At all.

The whole family sits comfortably on the ground.  No one steps on his sister’s sandwich.

I’ve never been to that kind of picnic.

For us, picnic season is baseball season and this Mama’s motivation is to not eat fast food or ballpark nachos four nights a week for a month-and-a-half.  Thankfully, my family seems to enjoy our version of picnics as much as the kids in my vision of the bug-free meadow.

Because our real-life version of a Perfect Picnic involves us sitting side-by-side in folding chairs while yelling for our team with a mouthful of food, I do everything I can to make our portable dinners as practical as possible.

Last week we never used a picnic basket or even my beloved rolling soft-sided ice-chest.  Various re-usable shopping bags and one leftover Christmas gift bag carried our picnic suppers to the baseball fields.

It was just that kind of week.

Because our picnic meals are often hot (cooked just before we leave for the ball-fields) I generally use some kind of re-usable container(s) to tote our dinner for the evening.  I then pass out napkins (and whatever else is needed) and divvy up the deliciousness as only an experienced mama can.

But last Thursday, I had to send my family off to the games without me.  It was my night to reveal my Slob Secret to my church family as I spoke at a ladies’ event.  Since the much-beloved-by-my-kids (and highly-pinned-on-Pinterest) Pizza Snowballs were on the menu for that night, I knew that without me there to police the food distribution, there could be hurt feelings and a hungry brother-who-had-to-play-in-the-first-game-while-the-rest-of-the-family-was-eating.

I didn’t want to use plastic bags on the still-very-hot pizza snowballs, so I divided them into paper sacks.  I felt this would keep them from getting soggy from steam.  The individual-serving bags went into the big Christmas gift bag, and according to Hubby . . . it all went well.

Of course, labeling one sack “Daddy” helped ensure that he got the bag with a few extra snowballs.

This week . . . is even crazier than last week.

Our menu:

Monday – Chicken and black bean burritos

Tuesday – Pizza pockets (I have some canned pizza dough that should make this easy)

Wednesday – Mexican casserole

Thursday – Chicken and The World’s Best Zucchini Casserole (even if you don’t like zucchini, you’ll probably like this)

Friday – Out to Eat

What’s on your menu this week?  Any picnics in your plans?

Check out my other picnic ideas:

I’ll be linking this up to Menu Plan Monday.

Oh, and that link to the ice-chest? It’s my Amazon affiliate link.
 

I loved your suggestions for picnic meals, and last Monday tried a version of the Tacos in a Bag or Frito Pie that were suggested.

We . . . loved these.

Here’s how I made Tacos/Taco Salads for our Baseball Night Picnic:

(If you’re a kid and think any meal with the word “salad” in it is likely to be gross, call them Tacos in a Bag.  If you’re over the age of 15, add extra lettuce, call them Taco Salads, and tell yourself you’re eating a little more healthfully.)

First, I defrosted  some pre-cooked ground beef and seasoned it with taco seasoning.

Then, I packed the beef into a container and filled quart sized bags with individual ingredients.

We brought salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream, shredded lettuce and tortilla chips.

I chose to put just what we needed into the bags instead of bringing entire containers of ingredients.  (I generally don’t think to empty the ice-chest until the next time we need to use it . . . so I didn’t want leftovers!)

I also packed up forks, napkins, and one quart sized bag per person.

At the game, I let people choose what they wanted in their tacos/taco-salads, and for the sake of messiness and Mama Sanity, I loaded up each bag.

I instructed that they crunch up their chips and smush around their bags until they achieved the consistency they liked.

Then, I loaded my own and declared that no one could have seconds until I had a moment of peace to enjoy mine!

And I DID enjoy it.  As my husband declared, “These are REALLY good.”

Taco salad is simple, but . . . having this as a real meal at the ballpark instead or nachos and popcorn just tasted so good.

Eating out of a plastic bag isn’t EASY easy . . . but I do believe it was simpler and more kid-proof than balancing plates on our knees.

Have you seen my other picnic ideas?

And here’s our menu for this week:

Monday – Sub Sandwiches (Last week’s game with this picnic was rained out.)

Tuesday – Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Wednesday- Eat at church

Thursday – Pizza Snowballs

Friday – Out to eat

Saturday – Grill out

I’ll be linking this up over at Menu Plan Monday.