picnic ideas during days out.

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i am not putting this in recipes, because i think it is more suited here.
i have family coming to stay, and we will spend lots of time and money going around london, surrey,v arious theme parks, and lovely places in scotland.
i want to do picnics to keep the cost down, but am already, only two weeks into the summer holidays, gettinig bored of our usual picnic. and family havent even arrived yet.
this is what we usually do. please giv eme your suggestiosn so boredom is staved off. and we dont go and have big expensive meals.

egg mayo sandwichs/rolls
cheese sandwichs rolls
various meats sandwiches rolls
frankfurters
cheese, sliced up
cucumber sliced up
humous with chopped veg
frubes/ypughurt pouches etc
water to drink
packet of crisps each/ box of raisins each/pak of party rings or jammy dodgers for the kids as a treak/snack later.
pizza slices

what can i change to make it less boring? and what about those days when you are out for the entire day, so need to actually to two meals, not just meal, and then snack on the go? or should we just bite the bullet and decide that we will need to have one picnic, and one meal in a restaurant?

also, does anyone know if it is ok to take along a disposable bbq, and use it to heat food up? for example, cooked, frozen meat/chicken/burgers, that can be taken along frozen in the cool box, and then 'cooked' on the disposable bbq so something different, and hot? can we do this in random parks?
tia

What about:
sausage rolls
boiled eggs
cold sausages/chicken
fairy cakes/muffins
pasta salad
potato salad
fruit salad
nuts
pies
filled croissants?

For something hot, take your own thermos or do you like soup? Get fish and chips one day.

Have a wonderful time. Will be back later if I have any more ideas and to steal some - I have a month of picnics starting Monday, so inspiration would be very welcome.

My kids like boring!

They are usually starving when we are out and about, and will eat anything put in front of them. We generally just have sandwiches (tuna or ham or cheese), crisps (big treat as we don't have them at home), fruit, and cakes/snacks/treats.

Punnets of strawberries go down well.

Wraps, a line of boursin down the middle, grilled peppers (M&S) down the middle, with a leaf of cos lettuce.

You can use plain philly for anything with a strong flavour. The cream cheese kind of holds them together. So you could do wrap, philly, coronation chicken.

oo, i love thtat bree. i dont think the kids will be too ecstatic, but it will keep me, and parents happy.
we do the cold sausages thing, the frankfurters. but wasnt sure about cold chicken. does it not taste yucky and fatty?
croissants are good. will try those.
we did quiche a couple of years ago, but no one liked them. i bought tesco bog standard quiche, maybe homemade would have been better, but making quiche is such a long drawn out process.

any ideas on the disposable bbq?

The thing with the disposable bbq is being there long enough for it to cool down sufficiently that you can 'dispose' of it, rather than just abandon it.

And also situating it suitably that it doesn't burn or scorch anything.

Lots of parks etc. have signs saying they are not allowed. I'm not sure any actively encourage them.

I think it's a nice idea, but you'd need to plan carefully and pick your spot carefully.

i hadnt considered the time required to cool it down. could we not throw some water at it just before we leave?

when i was yougner, we always so signs up thgat said no bbqing but in recent years, i havent seen anything at all like that anywhere. i was wondering if it was still the case.

We tend to also do

Salad in a bowl
Cold new potatoes
Cooked meats
wraps
fritta
cocktail sausages with a dip
pork pies
scotch eggs
beans and sausages in a flask
Soup

We tend to picnic often too, as we can not afford to eat out twice in a day. Sometimes depending on were we are they do get to eat in a cafe

whats fritta?
i think i may do th esoup thing. hot food is always such a luxury on a picnic
and do you all think we should then definitly do the one meal in a restaurant / cafe type place?

Fritta is like a deep omlette.

I do different ones and start them in a deep fying pan and finnish in the oven.

I tend to use what I have left ie

Cooked New potaote
Onions
Peppers

Cheese and chive

Sausgage and bacon

You can then slice it and serve it hot or cold, so great for picnics

It's frittata

wraps- salad and chicken nuggets/quorn ones. Yum.

Cold chicken is nice - you could do it tandoori or tikka style

SOme people like cold pizza

Oh Mercy - forgive me and my dyslexia

Get over it

I was spelling it correctly so stitch could look up the recipe that's all.

and pasta salad?
babybels?
blueberries/plums/raspberries
coleslaw
pickled onions...
cherry tomatoes

Pizza Bread, Olives, Hummus, foccacia, falafel.

I read Mercy's comment as more helpful than critical, TMH.

You must have a large cake that you can slice, ideally a fruit cake but I know chocolate cake is more popular with LOs

...but plain, no buttercream nonsense.

I was thinking about the bbq - you could make toasties or hot sandwiches if you used one:

toasties -
cheese and onion
cheese and coleslaw
hot sandwiches -
bacon
chicken
sausages

Don't some of the beaches still allow you to?

I second the frittata - we do Spanish omelette a lot: onion, potato and egg, as it is yummy hot, warm or cold.

Like the idea of sharing a big cake - cadelaide, what chocolate one do your DCs like?

Nigella has a great one, hang on.....

Squahed sandwhich is lovely (I think thats what its called;

Hollow out a crusty loaf (pref. a round one)
Fill it with layers of antipasti meats, nice cheese, olives, pesto, roasted peppers, sundreid Toms, parma ham.
Wrap it in clingfilm
Put it on a plate in the fridge weighed down by a couple of cans of beans for a couple of
hours.
Really delicious picnic food, easy to make and everyone can share it

here

I usually make it with apricot jam for the children, and I just bung it all in the processor (after I've melted the butter and choc). Comes out lovely every time.

Oooh lovely, thank you, will get the ingredients and see if my oven will play ball. Like the idea of chucking it altogether, too so will cut and paste that to the "original" recipe.