Cooking With Kids: Recipes for a Picnic

For this week's kids cooking activity, we decided that we would prepare some fun and kid friendly picnic recipes for the summer months. One of the easiest things to make for a picnic are sandwiches. We decided that giving the kids the chance to make their own mini sub sandwiches would give them ownership in making the sandwiches and ultimately they would want to eat them! My kids love to eat at Subway so they thought that making their own subs was super cool and fun!

I placed a plate of assorted lunch meats and cheeses on a plate. The nice thing about making your own sandwiches is that you can control the quality of meat and cheese that is used. I like to use meats that are nitrate and nitrite free (Applegate Farms is a great choice for this). I also set out lettuce, tomatoes, and other vegetables that the kids might want to put on their sandwiches. Then they went to work making their sandwiches. They finished off their sandwiches by putting their salad dressing or mayonnaise on the bread. They were very proud of their sandwiches.

Another great side for a picnic is a green bean salad. This salad is very easy and tasty. It is perfect for a picnic because if you choose to leave the blue cheese off, it doesn't have to be kept as cold. If you decide to use the blue cheese (and it's worth it), just be sure that you store the salad container inside a cooler with ice.

• 3 cups of fresh green beans
• 1/4 cup of halved cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1/8 cup of blue cheese
• Approximately 2-3 Tablespoons of Vinaigrette

1. Cut or snap the ends off of the washed green beans. This is a perfect task for kids to do!
2. Steam or blanch the beans until they turn bright green.
3. Remove them from the hot water and place them in an ice bath to stop the cooking.
4. Pat the beans dry and put in a serving dish.
5. Add the tomatoes, blue cheese, and dressing and toss together.

These fruit skewers are very easy to make and fun too! I simply cut up a variety of fruits (watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, etc.) and put them in a bowl. Each child took a Popsicle stick and chose the fruits that he or she wanted to eat. It was great fun for them to make their fruit sticks and watch them devour them!