Food for 5th birthday

[desperatehousewife2]

Hosting my daughter’s 5th birthday party in a couple of weeks and am unexpectedly anxious about the whole thing. From what I’ve seen from the few parties I’ve brought her to, mini sausages, chicken nuggets and chips feature quite a lot. The party will be at lunchtime so want to give them a substantial meal so might do similar. But, I do not have deep fat fryer or acti fryer. I have a double oven and grill (and microwave). Do I need to get a fryer? There will be approx 15 children (will provide sandwiches for any adults who hang around) . Any advice/tips greatly appreciated!

Why don't you do pizza and oven chips? Kids love it and both done in the oven. Or else you can even make it a little activity and give them all mini wraps, tomato purée cheese and toppings to make their own pizzas!

Sausages can also be oven cooked, if that's what you'd prefer?

Pizza, cold mini sausages, sandwiches, breadsticks, cucumber, carrot, tomatoes, dips

Fish fingers and oven-cooked potato wedges worked well for us at DD’s last bday party. We allowed 3 fingers per child and found that was about right.
She’s recently been to a birthday party where they had hot dogs (which she loved as we don’t usually have them at home).

Round here the drill is sandwiches (a choice of ham or cheese), plates of vegetable sticks and cherry tomatoes (for show, nibbled by the odd parent), a packet of pom bears or similar each, a box of juice/fruit shoot each, and then grapes (also for show) and biscuits/cupcakes. Then birthday cake.
Extra credit- mini sausages (usually cold), olives, hummus for the veg sticks, tangerines.
No fryer needed!

if You want hot I’d go for pizza or nuggets and chips with crudités on table. Pizza needs quite a lot of oven space though. Also easy to chuck in some veggie nuggets for veggies if needed.
Or do a buffet with hot bits so they can pick and choose. I’d do pizza fingers, mini sausages, nuggets and and a mix of garlic bread and baguette. Crudités, cheese and p8neapple on sticks, crisps.

i wouldn't be serving that sort of thing. i'd do veggie sticks, cheese and pineapple sticks (yum!!), little sandwiches, a few crisp type things, maybe cocktail sausages, quiches. can all be prepared in advance and perfectly acceptable round here.

Party food that has gone down well at my children’s birthday parties are:

Oven cooked sausages in hot dog rolls, crudités, hummus, crisps, and something sweet.
Make your own pizzas. Have bases with tomato purée spread on them then little dishes of various toppings.
Mini jacket potatoes again with lots of different toppings that children can choose.

I also do fruit skewers along with something sweet at the end of the meal.

No need to feel anxious. Cut down on your workload and stress by not cooking anything. Just make up platters of sandwiches, fruit, veggie sticks and then bowls of crisps. Kids love it.

Snacks:

• Crudités with hummus and/or cream cheese - you can even put the crudités in cardboard party cups
• Oven baked sweet potato crisps
• Puff pastry pizza tart cut up into bite sized slices
• Sandwich fingers

Lunch
Fish and chips/wedges - can be oven baked and can be accompanied with lemon/vinegar/tartar sauce

Jelly cups
Fruit cut out into stars and hearts. Can be on skewers or in mini party bowls
Birthday cake

Thanks all, some good ideas here. Should have said it’s only a 2 hour party although it is at around lunchtime but 50 mins of the party will be taken up by a magician.

Bowls of nibbly things and a few plates of sandwiches and mini sausage rolls would be a dream lunch to my nieces and nephews. That kind of "help yourself" autonomy is so exciting when food's normally handed to them already served up and plated. Cheese straws, breadsticks and, maybe surprisingly, olives are always massively popular with our lot and get hammered.