Food for card & board games night

[TheArmadillo]

we have a weekly game night. I am running out of ideas for food to do and we are only on week 3!

It needs to be something everyone can eat while playing.

So far I have done
week 1 - pizza
week 2 - koftas in pitta with salad/hot sauce
week 3 - samosas and mini pasties.

Any ideas?

Asian meatballs on sticks
Refried beans, sour cream & avocado on flatbreads
Macaroni cheese cupcakes
Sweet chilli sausage wraps

Thanks - I don't think the flatbreads will work as they will be too sloppy.

Am starting to think of maybe going with themes (countries maybe). This weeks was nice but too much pastry for people.

So one week US - mini cheeseburgers, onion rings (probably buy those), mini potato skins but not sure what else. Maybe brownies for pudding

Indian - chicken tikka bites, potato and pea samosas, dahl patties and um.... Maybe mango yoghurt smoothie type desserts for pudding?

Middle eastern one with kofte, gozleme, lamb meatballs stuffed with feta, falafels, and then I get stuck.

British - sausage rolls with red onion marmelade in, some kind of ham and mustard thing (maybe pastry wrap) but then I wouldn't want anything else in pastry?

Any more ideas welcome.

For the British you could do mini cones of fish and chips?

Huge cheeseboard: cheeses, crackers, chutney, bake a camembert and have some crusty bread. Grapes, olives, celery. Sliced naice hams.

Potato wedges with dips.

Quiche with salads.

Do people like fish? You could scampi or calamari. Those would be easy to eat.

Big one pot Goulash with park baked rolls

Yum

wouldn't support a theme necessarily, but hot pork sandwiches with apple sauce & stuffing are easy, and not messy. Coleslaw a nice accompaniment

Could you take turns at hosting so it's less onerous for you?

lilo.

You are so doing your pork sandwiches wrong if they're not much messy.

Oozy.

Thanks these ideas are good - am liking the idea of a meat/cheese platter plus bread (dh and SIL don't like cheese freaks so would need to be an alternative). Not everybody eats fish unfortunately. Quiche would be good for the british one.

I can do a dry pulled pork or chicken and leave out a selection of sauces - shouldn't be too messy then, I hadn't thought of that

We are the only ones with kids and own all the games and have no transport so much easier to hold it here (no one else minds).

No ideas but please may I come? I love board games and no one will play with me

Hope you have Articulate....if you dont....well....it will need o be purchased.

Watching with interest for watching-Olympics-on-TV dinner ideas

Fajitas are a big favourite here.

Two hundred years ago, Lord Sandwich called for "something" he could eat without needing to leave the gaming talble, it comes in many varieties, not to be overlooked imho.

It could well be cheaper to just do a big dish of something that can be eaten just with a fork like:

• big bowl of chilli with rice and toppings
• big bowl of veggie curry with chappatis
• big bowl of pasta and pesto
• lasagne or canneloni with a side salad
• tagine and cous cous

Lol at the sandwiches.

Yeah both me and dh are sandwich haters - once in a while if they are really good then maybe but not an entire meal!

The bowl of stuff is good but too much potential for spillage (and dh is very precious over his games).

Cheese and meat board this week as we have both been ill and don't have the energy for doing much.

Shoppingbags - are you anywhere near the bristol area? If not check out your local board game stockists as some run board game nights (mostly independants). Dh friend's one also has board games to rent which is a fantastic way to test them out.

We do have articulate somewhere I think. May suggest it to dh for another week (he is in charge of planning games as they are mostly his).

Maybe have some buffalo wings with a blue cheese dip or salsa for your cheese haters

For your british themed night how about some mini yorkshire puddings with roast beef and horseradish or mini toad in the holes using chiplota sausages

You could go asian such as chicken satay with peanut sauce, pad thai noodles or do some vietanamese rolls with a dipping sauce. You just have to finely chop a selection of vegetables and let people roll them up themselves. Bianh ma which are baguettes filled with pork, vegetables coriander etc are also delicious. Chinese dumplings with chilli sauce is another easy thing to do. If you have a local chinese supermarket they tend not to be too expensive for a big tray. Maybe even try making them yourself...the japanese gyoza type ones are the easiest type to make

I would make far less mess with a bowl of chilli than I would with koftas, salad and sauce in pitta!

You could do a mezze type thing - hoummus, baba ganoush, tsatziki, olives, pittas, maybe some stuffed peppers?

Or a couple of big Spanish omelettes, with olives, nice bread, other tapas type things?

Armadillo - bit off-thread here, but do you mind if I ask what the most enjoyed board games are amongst your group? Reason I ask is that I need a family gift (2 adults and 2 older teens) and I know they like games... so wondered what was generally enjoyed amongst your group (I know they've got Articulate cos have played it with them - brilliant game!)

Dh has suggested

carcassone - doesn't look or sound particularly appealling but never met anyone who hasn't enjoyed it once they start playing. Plus there are hundreds of expansion packs around. Simple rules but complex on the strategy side.

Elder sign (lovecraftian mythology) or pandemic (slightly easier to pick up rules) - cooperative games. Both really interesting. Pandemic has different levels and then an expansion, plus different characters to play. Elder sign has different characters to play plus different monsters to play against. So both have a long life for playability.

Am noting down these food ideas btw - thanks

lots of variety there.