GET OFF THOSE NARKY THREADS and come and give me your fun, healthy and gorgeous food ideas for DS's party - please :-)

[FrannyandZooey]

I am doing the food myself, for about 15 to 20 children (aged 0 to 6) and maybe 30 adults?

So far I have thought of:

-strawberries half dipped in chocolate
-tiny pinwheel sandwiches - with cream cheese? any other fillings?
-grapes
-olives
-vegetable bits to dip in hummus and sour cream

I am a bit stuck for easy foods for the adults. My intention is that this will be the children's main meal, with enough things for the adults to nibble, so that they only need a snack later on, type of thing. We don't eat meat or fish. Come and tell me what was a hit at your party, please

forgot the pasta salad!

& basket of bread!

Yum to all of those except the meaty ones

Waitrose do sort of sheets of mozerella and I put basil leaves and sunblush tomatoes inside, then roll it into a sausage then slice it.

Cheese straws go down well, bought or made.

I could well be laughed off Mumsnet for this next suggestion and I wouldn't dream of making it on anyone else's thread but yours Franny so here goes ...

I made jelly for a kids party by melting agar agar into fruit juice. There wasn't a massive take up, but about half of the kids ate it.

I have to admit when my dh made ordinary jelly from the nasty boxes they all snaffled the lot in the blink of an eye.

we had melon today, it was fine. Favourites with the kids were grapes (cut of course!) and bananas though. They also ate lots of sliced peppers that went with the dip, but not so much of the dip itself. Lots of kids loved the brie too - should have bought two!

spider, real juice jelly is lovely mmmmmm

but for DDs 2nd birthday last summer I did layered jelly (nasty coloured, not real juice) in clear cups which were such a hit. The jelly boats in the oranges someone mentioned look fab, but may be a bit lost on under twos?

MINI STUFFING ROASTIES = Par-boiled potatoes, eggwash, rolled in dry stuffing & roasted. Crunchy & delicious hot or cold.
Could add orange/lemon zest if you wanted to for extra zing !!

at Waitrose, we have none

The jelly would have to be homemade, for sure - we are veggie and ds doesn't like those little pot ones, which is a bummer, as they are veggie and not too many additives

wtf is eggwash????

oh yes, brie - check - ds is a TRUE ponce

Egg wash is just whisked egg which the par boiled spuds are dipped into, or coated with before being rolled in the dry stuffing then roasted. Egg wash just makes the stuffing stick better.

banana ice cream....put peeled bananas into bag & freeze for at least 4 hrs.
put frozen bananas into blender & whizz for a few seconds until pureed.
serve immediately with raspberries

yum!

banana ice cream....put peeled bananas into bag & freeze for at least 4 hrs.
put frozen bananas into blender & whizz for a few seconds until pureed.
serve immediately with raspberries

yum!

squares of vegetable tortilla or mini quiches?

Pizza toast - homemade bread, toasted with egg cheese & liquidised tomatoes on top - cooked under a grill until set & cut into fingers

Crumpets with tomato pasta sauce, pineapple & ham covered in cheese and grilled

both can be eaten cold along with cold HM chicken nuggets & tomato salsa

If it helps any, for dd's 3rd birthday (we're veggie too, btw), we had cold sausages (and I am so idle as to go to H&B and buy the precooked ones), different types of mini babybel cheese and laughing cow triangles, breadsticks, rice cakes, cherry tomatoes, chunks of cucumber and celery, plain (unsalted) crisps, Skips (which were on offer), popcorn, sandwiches of marmite, cream cheese and jam (adults mainly had the jam ones), and a big bowl of bananas, clementines and small apples, which was surprisingly popular. Once that lot was dealt with we handed round the tiny cakes (petit four size, iced with a choccy button on), and iced shortbread biscuits in no.3 shape. Oh, and chocolate crispy cakes, and the birthday cake. Had flapjacks on standby but didn't use them. Drinks were apple juice, orange or blackcurrant squash.

Decided to cater for the kids and the adults could have the scraps if they wanted. It was the kids who were invited anyway, the adults were just hangers-on

Cold sausies - check (will also buy the precooked )

Tortilla wedges - check - anyone got a good recipe?

re the ice cream - it has to be room temp stuff I can transport from home

and re the meaty stuff - we are veggie

thanks all for taking time to give your ideas, I really appreciate it

have been thinking the jellies are probably a no because of transporting them - I don't fancy trying to carry 15+ jellies in orange halves, across town. am a bit sad about this.

Oh popcorn - check

sweet potato tortilla
***
150g sweet potato,peeled & roughly chopped
50g spinach,washed & de stalked
2bsp olive oil
half an onion finely chopped
4 organic eggs

boil sweet potato for 10/15 mins till tender
drain & whizz to a puree

cook spinach in a little water till wilted & roughly chop

saute onion till soft

whisk eggs in large bowl & add onions,potato & spinach,stir without totally blending.

heat oil in small pan,turn heat down & pour in egg mixture.Cook without stirring for about 5 mins till almost set.

place under grill untill golden brown

cool & slice into wedges
place

cheese and pineapple on sticks.
or slight variations for those that don't like pineapple - apple maybe.

well speaking as an adult I like to see plenty of crisps and peanuts. Not fussed about cheese, pineapple, sausages and things like that.

variation on pinwheel sandwiches - puff pastry (ready rolled if you are pushed for time) - spread with (1 of):

• pesto & parmesan
• cheese & mayonnaise (it works, honest)
• anything else you can think of

roll it up into a sausage, wrap and chill. Then slice it and bake it. They are yummy and always get eaten by children and adults alike at our parties.

Are you just after savoury ideas? Cos all the mothers who said "oooh no I couldn't" to all the other food at DS's party scoffed the Mars Bar Crispy cake

cheese muffins
gingerbread star shaped lollies
orange sponge fingers with lemon icing

I make pinwheel sandwiches with the wraps you use for fahjitas (sp?).

Gingerbread men

Veggie nuggets

Root veg crisps

Roasted chickpeas (sim. to peanuts)

Fruit kebabs (on thin straws for littlies)

Fresh fruit platter - kiwi, strawbs, pineapple, star fruit, kumquats, grapes, figs...

Garlic bread

Jelly made with less water in clear disp. cups will be ok out of fridge for a while. Could add a few bits of fruit.

Mars Bar Crispy cake - just rice crispies & melted Mars bars?

Roasted chickpeas - recipe pls?

No nuts, due to guests' allergies

Puff pastry interesting....

Sweet potato tortilla - you blend them, really?

The pinwheels made with wraps are very nice, I agree

Popcorn

Nothing on it, just popcorn.

I did this instead of crisps at dd's party and it all went.

Not sure if it's actively healthy, but I don't think it's unhealthy...