Kids and adults alike are always excited for the celebration of Easter Sunday. There are picnic parties everywhere. Kids hunt for colorful eggs and play in noisy games; while adults enjoy the company of friends and family. Delicious picnic foods are brought in packed lunch boxes and picnic baskets. Picnic tables overflowed with plates filled with tasty goodies and delectable sweets.

Moms are not supposed to slave over the hot stoves anymore. With a bit of planning beforehand, picnic foods will still be abundant come picnic time. The freezer and the refrigerator will both play important roles to make picnic food preparation time easy and fun. There is no more need to wake up early and cook the picnic foods right before departure.

Most no-cook picnic food ideas can be bought at the supermarket or the small grocer store nearby. The list is endless but taking some effort of listing down the likes and preferences of everybody will save both time and money. No food wasted because everything you brought to your picnic outings will be eaten with gusto.

Picnic Ice Cream Cake

Predictably, the children often enjoy something cold and everything sweet. Yes, your guesses are right. Ice cream, softdrinks, cakes, gelatin, frozen fruits, and more. All you need for packing these sweet treats is a giant cooler with lots of ice packs.
Ice cream cakes are not quick to melt because the ice cream is inside the cake and icing. Buy the ice cream cake days before the picnic and store inside the freezer. To pack, place the ice cream cake inside a plastic container with air-tight cover. Make sure that it will remain horizontal during the travel to the picnic destination.

Picnic Fresh Fruit Basket

For the health conscious individuals, a large basket of assorted fruits will be a small piece of heaven. A slice of refreshing watermelon or pineapple will boost the energy level after an hour of hiking through the woods or the beach. Nothing will be more delicious than a juicy bite of peach or apple while soaking your lungs with fresh air. Bring several small paring knives for peeling and cutting fruits to bit sizes. A plastic bowl and forks will also come handy when serving the picnic fruit snack.

Cheese and Wine for Picnics

For sweethearts, a bottle of champagne and white or summer red wines will be perfect partners with different types of cheese. Couples will enjoy small talk with each other while sipping from wine glasses and sinking their teeth into luscious bits of assorted cheese.

Dads and Moms Love Easter Picnics

Dads can still bring their favorite picnic grilled meat foods even without bringing the picnic grill stand. While moms are shopping for the no-cook picnic foods ingredients, dads can buy a dozen of cooked meat kebabs sold in grilled meat food stalls that lined the aisles of most supermarkets these days. Pack the hot foods inside an insulated box to keep the food hot.

Sandwiches are the perfect picnic foods because they can be assembled anywhere. As guaranteed belly-fillers, mix canned tuna flakes with a small of salad dressing and spread the mixture on a slab of wheat bread. Stick in a slice of salad tomato and lettuce to make it crunchier and more refreshing to taste. Cold cut meats like ham, or even smoked salmon flakes, often taste better with cheese and mayo and some veggies. To make no-fuss sandwich meals, just squeeze all ingredients in between two breads.

Picnic drinks are as important as picnic foods. Along with the relaxing wines, stock up your picnic icepacks with cans of beer and softdrinks, bottles of iced tea and lemonade, and gallons of water. Nothing can beat water as the best thirst quenchers!

Easter picnics are bonding time for parents and children. Everyone should enjoy every moment they spent with one another. No one should be slaving over the grill to feed everybody. No-cook picnic foods are the best, especially when the climate is too hot for cooking. Easter Sunday is for hunting Easter eggs.

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Easy To Cook Picnic Chicken Recipes

Picnic Food Ideas For Potatoes

Preparing delicious snacks for a picnic need not be elaborate or expensive. With just a few simple and low-cost ingredients, a number of savory picnic snacks can be whipped out within just a short time. To serve the picnic snacks warm and inviting, pack them while hot inside insulated food containers. Bring along several thermos filled with hot and creamy mushroom soup or coffee. Ice-cold fruit juice drinks would also be a hit.

Chocolate  Oatmeal Cookies

Everybody is a chocolate lover, especially kids. These delicious cookies are oozing with chocolatey goodness. Each bite is packed with energy-boosting carbs and fibers from oatmeal. Chocolate oatmeal cookies can be baked beforehand and packed in containers with air-tight lids to preserve.

Ingredients:

2 sticks (or 1 cup) softened butter
1 and ½ cups sugar, granulated
1 cup sugar, light brown
2 pcs. medium eggs
2 tsps. vanilla extract
1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
½ cup chocolate powder (use dark chocolate if preferred)
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt, fine grained
3 cups rolled oats (or quick cooking oatmeal)
½ cup almond nuts or peanuts, coarsely chopped

How to: In a large-sized mixing bowl, blend butter and all sugar with an electric beater. Add eggs and vanilla, continue beating. Stir in flour, chocolate powder, salt, and baking soda. Using a big spoon, fold in the oats and nuts. The batter should be firm and not watery. Arrange cookie drops on baking sheets and bake in the preheated oven at temperature of 350 degree F. Do not overcook. Set the timer to 10 to 12 minutes only, depending on the thickness of the cookie drop. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool for 1 minute before transferring onto the wire rack.

Easiest Chicken Salad Pita Sandwich

There are about a thousand ways of preparing the most famous meal in the whole world—the sandwich. A sandwich can be made with one, two, or more slices of bread. An open sandwich is just a slice of bread with delicious toppings on top like pizza. A tastier and healthier sandwich can also be made from a simple chicken veggie salad and very thin bread like pita. These pita pocket sandwiches are perfect to bring as picnic food snacks.

Ingredients:

2 pcs. whole chicken skinless breast, boiled and shredded
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 cup mayonnaise, light
1 small can crushed pineapple, well-drained
½ cup roasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 small head lettuce, well-drained and shredded
2 pcs. large ripe tomato, sliced thinly
2 Tbsp. fine sugar ( or honey)
Salt and ground pepper, to taste
1 pack pita bread, warmed and halved

How to: Combine shredded chicken meat, crushed pineapple, yogurt, mayonnaise, and chopped walnuts. Mix well and set aside inside the refrigerator. Warm the pita pocket breads over direct heat of the stove. Arrange lettuce and tomato slices on both sides of the pita pocket. Fill with chicken mixture generously. Wrap it individually in foil or wax sheets, then arrange inside a plastic food container with cover.

Caramelized Whole Apple-on-Stick

Apples are popular picnic fruit snacks. The tanginess and the crunchiness of apples is refreshing especially when being eaten during picnic hikes. There are lots of ways to prepare apples to be a delicious snack. Chop them to combine with other fresh fruits as salad or to bake as pie, tart, or cake. Or coat the apples with caramel to make them taste like candies kids would surely love.

Ingredients:

10 small apples, well-washed and well-dried
1 pack caramels, melted
1 cup nuts, finely chopped (optional)
1 cup marshmallow, small bits (optional)
1 cup chocolate bits (optional)
10 popsicle sticks

How to: In a small semi-deep sauce pot, melt the caramel over low heat. Replace the stems from the apples with the popsicle sticks. Dip each apple into the pot to cover with melted caramel. When the whole apple is coated, place it on a lightly buttered tray. Put some space in between the apples to avoid sticking while drying. Optional: While caramel coating is still wet, roll the apple on any choice of toppings. The caramelized apple should be firm and ready after about 30 minutes inside the refrigerator.

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Vegetarian Picnic Side Items

Budget-Friendly Picnic Food Recipes for Kids

Kids are the easiest to please because they like picnic foods that are bite-sized, delicious—and sweet. Packing the picnic basket with goodies for kids is such a breeze and not so expensive. Just make sure that the kiddie foods are colorful and appetizing to look at.

Picnic food dishes for kids need not be expensive and elaborate to prepare. Just throw in lots of munchies in the picnic basket and cold drinks in the ice chest, the tykes should be chirpy and happy. Children love to play picnic games so don’t forget to bring along the frisbee or volleyball for the picnic.

Barbecues are all-time favorite picnic foods. Barbecued steaks and chicken legs are popular as picnic foods for adults; and hotdogs with roasted marshmallows for kids. Bring them raw and marinated so everyone will have fun cooking the food. It is more exciting to eat fresh-from-the-grill meat or hotdogs. You don’t have to buy a new grill for the picnic to save space for those big jugs of ice-cold drinks. Just don’t forget to bring a bagful of dry charcoal and matches along with the good ole iron grill. Light your charcoals at the center of several pieces of like-sized rocks to create a makeshift grill stove.

Picnic Hotdogs On-The-Go

Ingredients:

1 bag/kilogram jumbo-sized hotdogs, sweet and cheesy variety
Bamboo barbecue sticks

Ingredients for Basting Sauce:

1 medium red onion, peeled
1 cup ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ tsp Iodized Salt
1/8 tsp ground white pepper

How to: Skew one hotdog per stick. Make sure at least 3 inches length of stick is visible for easy handling. Using a sharp knife, make light diagonal lines on both sides of the hotdog. Set aside. (Optional: Hotdogs can be cut into bite-sized cubes before skewing.) In a blender or osterizer, combine all ingredients for basting sauce and blend for 3 minutes. Pour in a container and cover tightly. This baste mixture can also be used to meat barbecue recipes.

Simple Pork Barbecue

Pork is easier and quicker to cook over hot coals. Unlike beef, pork is juicier even when over-cooked—just don’t forget to baste the meat with sauce while grilling. Marinate pork cubes (or steaks or pork chops) in soy sauce, lemon, and seasonings overnight to make the meat more savory. To make kebabs, skew the pork cubes with your choice of vegetables or fruits in between (i.e., cherry tomatoes, pineapple chunks, onions, and peppers). For kiddie picnic barbecue, make it all-meat with shorter stick.

Ingredients:

2 pounds lean pork meat, cubed to 1/2-inch thick
1 cup soy sauce
1 piece lemon
5 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
½ tsp each of salt and ground pepper

How to: Thoroughly mix all ingredients, except the pork meat. Arrange the cubes in the marinade mixture and set aside in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or overnight. When placed in the freezer, the marinated meat can remain fresh up to 3 days.

Tasty-and-Delicious Chicken Nuggets

Chicken nuggets are so easy to make even kids can help prepare them. Or you can just buy ready-to-cook nuggets from the supermarket. But, hey,  homemade picnic foods are tastier and cheaper so get your aprons and head to the kitchen. Fried or baked, these nuggets are tender to eat.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour, sifted (alternative: cornflakes, roughly crushed)
½ tsp salt, fine
¼ tsp ground pepper, fine
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 cup grated cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 pounds chicken breasts, washed and well-drained and cut into desired-size rectangles

How to: Combine all dry ingredients and blend thoroughly to make breading mix. Dip each piece of nugget in beaten egg and roll in the breading. For frying, heat 2 cups of oil in an iron skillet until smoke appears on the oil’s surface. Lower the nuggets one by one into the hot oil. For baking, arrange the breaded nuggets on a greased baking pan and bake in the pre-heated oven until cooked. Serve with ketchup or mayonnaise or any kind of salad dressing, or even honey.

Icy Lemonade Drink

Picnic drinks are usually canned or bottled soft drinks and water. Why pump your kids with artificial sweeteners or tasteless liquid? Fruit juices are rich in Vitamin C, like the lemonade made from lemon juice. Place them in jugs full of ice or pour them into containers and keep cool in the picnic ice chest—to keep the kids asking for more of the revitalizing fruit juices.

Ingredients:

5 cups lemon juice, freshly squeezed
5 cups white sugar

How to: Blend all ingredients well and mix with water, according to taste. To preserve the tangy and fruity taste of lemonade, add only ice.

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How to: Prepare Delicious Snacks for Picnic

Three  Picnic Chicken Recipes