Fruity Salads for Summer Picnics

Fruits are healthy, especially when eaten fresh. For picnic snacks and healthy picnic food ideas, chilled fruit bits and chunks are best packed in single containers for easy serving.  Mix with honey, cream, condensed milk, or yogurt—these crunchy fruit cuts will turn to delicious and refreshing picnic fruit desserts. Some picnic dessert recipes use mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, or spicy peanut and shrimp sauce.

Picnic fruit salad recipes are quick to prepare. These delightful and colorful bowls of goodies can be served as a picnic desserts or appetizers. Offer these picnic fruit cocktail appetizers before serving the spicy picnic foods to turn your picnic meal more enjoyable to eat and make other picnic dishes taste taste yummier.

Watermelon Fruit Salad (Credit given to flickrfanmk2007 from flickr.com)

Watermelon Picnic Fruit Salad Basket

Here’s something that kids would enjoy seeing on the picnic table—a creative fruit salad basket instead of the usual salad bowl. The basket is very easy to make. Just cut a quarter off the watermelon fruit and, using a small knife or metal baller, start carving out the fruit flesh from the rind. Watermelon balls in the picnic fruit salad will surely catch the kiddies’ interest and satisfy their playful appetites.

Ingredients:

1 medium whole watermelon, cut into cubes or shaped into balls (shape the fruit rind into a basket)
1 small whole cantaloupe, peeled and cut into cubes or shaped into balls
3 pieces kiwi fruit, peeled and cut into thin round slices
1 cup blueberries, washed and drained well (keep stems intact)
1 cup honey, as salad dressing

How to: In a large bowl, drizzle honey over fruit cuts and toss carefully to avoid bruising. Arrange inside the watermelon basket. Using a food plastic wrap, cover the whole fruit to prevent from wilting while inside the refrigerator. Chill for several hours or overnight. Bring extra honey and cream to put on top before serving.

Weight Watchers’ Picnic Yogurt Fruit Salad

Most people often think of picnics as happy occasions that always overflow with delicious picnic foods, irresistible sweet desserts, ice-cold softdrinks, and lots of laughter. Everybody enjoys going to picnics with family and friends. Eating under the trees and with fresh air turns every picnic food delectable and sumptuous. Diets are temporarily forgotten because everything that comes out of the giant picnic baskets is just mouth-watering and appetizing. For picnickers who don’t want to add inches to their waists while enjoying picnic goodies with the whole clan, a simple fruit salad with yogurt is the perfect dessert for diet watchers.

Ingredients:

1 cup young coconut meat, shredded into long strips
1 cup fresh strawberries, thinly sliced
1 cup whole green grapes, washed and drained well
1 cup whole blueberries, washed and drained well
1 whole peach, peeled and cut into cubes
3 thin slices of fresh lemon for garnishing (optional)
4 cups yogurt, unflavored and with live organisms

How to: Mix all fruits and toss in 3 cups of yogurt. Set aside 1 cup of yogurt for toppings on salad per serving. Chill inside the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours before packing inside the cooler filled with ice cubes.

Creamy Fruit Salad (Credit given to Simply Cakes from flickr.com)

Creamy Picnic Pineapple and Cherry Salad

Just looking at the pineapple chunks and cherry halves lusciously coated with sweet cream can make any mouth water with anticipation. This salad recipe can be readied in a jiffy. No skills needed but a working knowledge of operating a can opener.

Ingredients:

1 large can fruit cocktail in light syrup, drained well
1 small can cream
1 small can condensed milk
1 small jar halved cherries, drained well
½ cup shredded cheese, as garnishing (optional)

How to: In a large bowl, combine together all ingredients. Mix well. Cover. Chill overnight. Serve with shredded cheese on top.

Grapefruit and Gojiberry Salad (Credit given to Picks Over Peas from flickr.com)

No Dressing Citrus Fruit Salad for Picnic

Health-conscious individuals who like to stay immune from airborne cold virus can bring along picnic fruit salad naturally rich in vitamin C. No dressing added because the juice from the citrus fruits is enough. Just pack in plastic containers with cover and chill inside the picnic ice coolers. For people with sweet tooth, drizzle honey over citrus bits and enjoy the tangy goodness while lounging under the sun.

Ingredients:

2 whole grapefruit, peeled and sectioned
1 cup gojiberry
½ dry coconut shreds
½ cup honey

How to: Mix grapefruit and gojiberry. Scoop into small plastic container with cover. Arrange inside cold coolers to chill. To serve: drizzle 1 tsp honey and sprinkle 1 tsp coconut shreds on top.

Summer will soon be gone again. Enjoy the warmth of the sun and the great picnic foods with family and friends. Choose to buy the fruits that are in season so that picnic fruit salad desserts will not be too expensive to prepare.

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.