It’s picnic season!
For us, picnic season is baseball season. With two boys each playing two evening games every week for almost two months, we could drop a lot of cash on fast food. (And gain a lot of weight!)
Picnics require more planning than burgers-in-a-bag, but the family loves them and the effort is totally worth it to us!
Here are some of our favorite portable meals:
Sub sandwiches on loaves of French bread.
Pizza Snowballs – Pizza Pockets Kids Can Make
Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches (My personal Fave!!!)
Chicken and Black Bean Burritos
Pizza Pockets (You can make all sorts of variations of these!)
I’m excited to add more to this page over the next month!
Here’s our menu for this week:
Monday – Sub Sandwich
Tuesday – Frito pie (suggested by Sussette in the comments last week)
Wednesday – Eat at church
Thursday – BBQ chicken sandwiches
Friday – (We will grab something before the game on this night!)
Saturday – Grilled Chicken and veggies
Sunday – ??? It’s Mother’s Day, both boys are getting baptized, and I’m having family over for lunch. I need something good for a crowd that can be prepared ahead or in the crockpot since I’ll be leaving the house at 7:15 a.m.! Any suggestions?
I’ll be linking this up to Menu Plan Monday over at Orgjunkie.com.
Ive been reading for a while, but this is my first comment, hi! (: Have you ever tried French dip sandwiches? I think it would be perfect for your Sunday dinner. I’ve never had anyone not like this recipe. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-slow-cooker-french-dip/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=french%20dip&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page
French Dips are good. Or pork sand.. You could go as simple as roast pork from the deli with canned pork gravy, all heated thru in a pot or crock pot, or throw a pork roast in your crock pot, with some seasonings and water (I have an awesome recipe, easy too) and cook it yourself, shred it, throw it on a roll with some good provolone cheese, horseradish, and broccoli rabe (or not). UMMMM! Thinkin I’m gonna have to have pork sandwiches sometime this week :). Thanks for the picnic suggestions. We have 4 kids on 3 teams and snack bar hot dogs are getting to me.
I don’t know how you feel about ham but I cooked one in the crock pot for Easter and it was the best ham I’ve ever had. My husband who could take ham or leave it really like it too. It fell off the bone. I barely had to cut it.
I just mixed together some o.j., honey, brown sugar and lite soy sauce and poured it on top and cooked it low for 8-10 hours.
i usually do ziti and warm up in oven or crock pot. A good friend does mac and cheese and keeps it warm in crock pot – that’s always a hit with a deli platter. you could do a roast or other meat you can shred and serve with rolls.
love your picnic ideas. ones we do – cheese/crackers/pepperoni to go, pasta salads, stir fry thrown into a paper bowl on the run, quesidillas in foil with salsa on the side. a lot of time i make them bigger snacks after school to hold them until after a game (pretzels, paninis) and then when we get home they’ll have a quesidilla or bowl of cereal.
Nony, you can always make some good roast in the crock pot! There’s a mac & cheese recipe from Taste of Home that’s good in the crock as well, I’ve been making it for years and my kids love it – we even stirred in Little Smokies for the homeless shelter last fall & everyone said it was quite good. Lasanga, spaghetti, or goulash is good because it’s just in there to warm up… Are the other folks bringing dishes? Is it a potluck? If the weather’s good you could grill – there are lots of “packet” recipes that you could prep ahead & just toss on while everyone changes clothes… Good luck and happy Mother’s Day!
P.S. – That recipe for beef from All Recipes is great, seriously! We love it, too!
Uhh, how about, it’s Mother’s Day honey, what will you be grilling for us? 🙂
You don’t mind pinning…right right? That’s how I organize all my recipes lately! And these I gotta try.
I LOVE pinning! Pin away!
One of my favorite ‘company’ meals is washed/peeled/sliced potatoes mixed with homemade cheese sauce (butter, cornstarch, milk, and plenty of cheddar cheese), and sliced smoked sausage. I usually cut each sausage down the center before slicing. I’d give amounts, but it just depends on how many people you’re serving. I usually do 10 pounds of potatoes, a fairly big pot of cheese sauce (not super thick), and a couple of pounds of smoked sausage. Mix well in a baking pan, cover with foil, bake at 350 degrees for an hour, or until potatoes are tender. Remove foil, broil for a couple of minutes…until the top starts to brown…but watch it closely because it can turn to charcoal if you don’t. 🙂
My favorite go to meal in the crockpot – chicken tacos. 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 1 can of chicken broth and one packet (or 4 Tbsp) taco seasoning. Place chicken in crockpot. Add taco seasoning. Pour broth on top. Cook on low all day (6-8 hours) and shred with 2 forks. Serve with tortillas and taco toppings. Can easily be doubled or tripled and frozen. Broth can be used to make an awesome taco soup too. Yummy!