Interesting sandwich/picnic ideas

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Dh and I and our two children have membership to a local family attraction and we go most weekends and I often go midweek with the children as well. The idea is it's a free day out, so we try to take sandwiches/a picnic to avoid buying food there. But I am so bored of eating crappy ham sandwiches every week.

So, any ideas for more interesting picnic items would be amazing and also your favourite homemade sandwiches. I feel like I'm in such a rut and we keep buying packet sandwiches or chips on site as they always taste better than whatever crap I've thrown together

Puff pastry is your friend. Pinwheels, scrolls, palmiers, cheese straws etc.

We also keep a stash of finger food in the freezer- cheese and broccoli bites, courgette and feta nuggets, chicken meatballs. Then they just get defrosted and put in the lunch box.

Sometimes we don't have sandwiches and things though. We've had pesto pasta with root vegetables ('rainbow' pesto pasta), we have little lunchboxes that have tiny cutlery sets with them.

Oh, also fritters! I am a firm believer that you can turn ANYTHING in to a fritter. Whatever leftovers you've got in the fridge, whatever vegetables you need using up, whatever cheese or cold meats you've got. Chop it all up and mix it with an egg and some flour/breadcrumbs and fry it and it will be delicious. I've used leftover roast dinners, leftover stir fry, anything really. Last bits of sour cream or yoghurt that's just sitting in the fridge. It all goes in a fritter! DS eats way more vegetables in a fritter than he would otherwise.

How about a theme for each picnic?

Greek style: spanakopita (or spinach and feta sausage rolls…), olives, tzatziki, pita bread.
French style: baguette, brie or chèvre, tapenade, grapes, madeleines.
Spanish style: tortilla, cherry tomatoes, manchego, jamon, bread sticks, almond cake.
Middle Eastern style: grilled chicken skewers, flatbread, hummus, boiled eggs, crudites, baklava.

As a Pp said, puff pastry is your friend! Quiches, jambons, pizza pinwheels...

We quite often take cold cocktail sausages, or cold chicken goujons too.

Mixing up your breads and fillings would be a good place to start.
Baguettes, pitta, wraps, bagels.

Try looking up sandwich fillings from sandwich shops with menus online for inspiration.
Egg mayo with bacon and tomato
Chicken tikka fillets with spinach, red onion, cucumber, mango chutney and mint yoghurt.
Wensleydale with celery and grape.
Brie with bacon and cranberry sauce.
Cream cheese, smoked salmon and cucumber.
Roast beef, rocket and horseradish mayo
Tuna with peppers and sweetcorn
Sweet chilli prawns with lettuce, red pepper
Falafel with hummus, red pepper and grated carrot

Or take a baguette and selection of cheeses, jar of chutney, grapes, celery, pickles etc.

Fritata or quiche
Sausage rolls/ cocktail sausages

Tuna pasta salad
Roasted veg and chickpea salad

I really like savoury muffins. Maybe a bit of chutney . They freeze super well so you can take one out the night before.

Soup on a flask in the winter with crackers and cheese.

If you’re a bit organised a pressed picnic sandwich is lovely. Easy to carry around and doesn’t turn into a warm, soggy, disappointing mess!

Oh wow, thanks for so many responses and great suggestions! Clearly I'm very unimaginative when it comes to picnics so will definitely be taking these suggestions on board. I love the idea of themed picnics too!

Cheesy apple slaw! Sounds weird but it's an awesome sandwich filling:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/fab-sandwich-fillers

Bacon and egg pie always goes down well when I bring it to picnics:
www.langbein.com/recipes/bacon-and-egg-pie

Spanish tortilla

Homemade sausage rolls / sausage plait

Savoury muffins

While the weather remains cooler, also consider a hot picnic.

Hotdogs keep warm in a flask of boiling water - just pack hotdog buns, cheese, crispy onions and condiments (ketchups/chilli jam, mustard etc). Pulled pork or brisket also keeps warm, in an appropriate sauce and in a thermos - just pack burger buns, slaw, and something like truffle mayo for the brisket or apple sauce for the pork.

Cheese scones with cherry tomatoes, grapes, cucumber batons etc.

Sausage rolls. You could take a flask of baked beans if you like them (personally I think they're orange blobs from Satan)

Cobs of kings:
soft bread cobs - spread with mango chutney instead of butter
insert an onion bhaji (squash it a bit to flatten if needed)
add salad leaves
take a tiny pot of minty yoghurt to add just before eating

Cheese, crackers, grapes, jar of tiny cocktail pickled onions

Love the hotdog idea.

You can make a batch of frittata in muffin cases and freeze until needed - just take out what you need the night before. Play around with fillings mine liked sweetcorn and bacon.

Small wraps that you can fill yourself at the picnic so shredded chicken and thin strips of veg and then roll up were always popular.

Likewise picky pieces of fruit so whole grapes and berries with sliced banana, kiwi etc and satsuma segments.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie DH would go mad for the onion bhaji cob, will definitely try that!

We like tuna crunch - tuna, celery, pepper, cucumber, onion all cut up small with mayo in a baguette

Or little skewers of cold meat eg chicken souvlaki with pitta and garlic sauce plus chopped tomatoes onion and lettuce

Also a grain (can buy ready cooked pouch) mixed with sun dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, feta and veg/salad of choice

Falafel with a pot of minty or cucumber yoghurt.

Frittata, good for using up leftover vegetables.

Chicken Caesar salad travels well.

Waldorf salad with added flaked fish such as mackerel or tuna.

Devilled eggs.

Russian salad with added chopped ham or beef.

Pan Bagnat is a great for a picnic as it travels so well.

You can invent your own filling combinations of course if you get bored with the original Salad Niçoise..... pesto, mozzarella and tomato, or artichoke, ham and roasted aubergine pate are a couple of ideas.

Quesadillas, cooled then accompanied with salsa, guacamole and soured cream dips. They are my go to food on the move snack, if I can't be faffed with dips I'll pack the quesadillas with more filling.

@ShrigleyForty

Quesadillas, cooled then accompanied with salsa, guacamole and soured cream dips. They are my go to food on the move snack, if I can't be faffed with dips I'll pack the quesadillas with more filling.

Quesadillas are a great idea! I've only started playing with fillings for them lately - what types of filling do you have?

A thermos of soup with cups and buttered crusty bread buns or a pasta salad either warm in the flask or chilled in Tupperware .Also hotdogs in boiling water in a flask and take finger rolls and sachets of ketchup .

@MyAnacondaMight
Sorry , saw that I duplicated the hotdogs . I think I learnt it on mums net originally and really like it 😄

Something like PICNIC LOAF are great & the children can help make it.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I've just started reading the series again and seeing your user name made my heart leap!
Can't wait to meet all the gang again

@britneyisfree
Enjoy the books. Love your user name too!

Loving the qaesadilla idea btw.