Cold vegetable salads are always a hit when served with any kind of hot picnic foods. Crunchy vegetable bits and chunks tossed in rich cream or tangy vinaigrette are delicious and healthy. Vegetable salads are also perfect as food garnishing to almost all types of picnic food dishes.

Make your food presentation look appetizing and mouth-watering with colorful vegetable salads. It’s simple and easy. For example, arrange broiled or grilled pork chops over a bed of thinly-sliced cucumber and tomato salad. Serve a bowl of rich and creamy green bean salad as savory and tasty dip for crispy fried chicken. Roasted vegetable salad is a perfect partner for roasted beef or barbecued seafood.

Picnic vegetable salad recipes are so quick to prepare. Most ingredients are often available in the kitchen: just a bit of ground pepper and fine salt, a dash of sugar, some vinegar, a pinch of different herbs and spices, and a large dollop of mayonnaise, yogurt or cream—and voila!—you can concoct a tasteful salad dressing for any picnic vegetable recipes anytime. The secret to delectable salads is in the vegetable ingredients. Choose and buy only the freshest and the crispiest veggies in the supermarket.

Beet & Green Bean Goat Cheese Salad (Credit given to msconnections from flickr.com)

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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.

Hotdogs on the Grill (Credits given to TheBusyBrain from flickr.com)

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.

Pork Barbecue (Credits given to Ced from flickr.com)

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.

Honey-Dipped Chicken Nuggets (Credits given to my_amii from flickr.com)

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.

Fruit Juices: Watermelon, Lemonade, and Strawberry (Credits given to charmednblum from flickr.com)

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.