what to put on the food plates at party for 5 year olds?

[mckenzie]

I've never done this myself before having usually gone for the lazy option of having swimming pool party etc where the food is all laid on.
Anyway, this time I'm doing it myself and just thought i'd check if you guys have any great tips for what to put on the plates. I have seen soooooooooooooooo much wastage at previous parties and it will break my heart if i end up throwing loads and loads of food away.

I plan on putting the food on each individual plate rather than having large platters that the children then help themselves to as from my limited experience I feel the first option is quicker and easier all round.

The normal seems to be
sandwich or 2
cocktail sausage
tomato/cucumber/carrot batton
few crisps
carton of drink.

Surely i must be able to make it more interesting than that? No??

Yes deffo put food on their plates & then when thats gone, go round to see who wants more.

How about Pizza faces and cheese cubes (using diff kinds of cheese to get diff colours makes it more interesting!) ?

I sure way to encourage the kids to eat whats on the plate is to make it into a face or something!!
For example........triangle sandwiches for ears, crisps for hair, cucumber for eyes, mini sausages for eyebrows!
Takes a bit of time but kids love it and you will find they eat more!!!

At dd's last two parties (4th and 5th birthday) none of the children were really all that interested in the food, most of it ends up in the bin because (a) they want to get back to the fun stuff and (b) all they want is the cake anyway. The children adored the mini Cornish pasties from Tesco, but otherwise most of them just ate the crisps and sausages and didn't bother with anything else.

We got party boxes for the food rather than letting the children help themselves - much quicker and easier to clear up after as well.

If you do sandwiched cut them into shapes using a biscuit pastry cutter, or if you have a playdo set use te cutters from that.

chicken satay sticks????

pita pocket sarnies??????

little cocktaik sticks with a bit of cheese, cucumber, cherry tom????

boxes of raisins or yoghurt covered raisins or yoghurt covered dried apricots?

little mini spring rolls or mini vegetable samosas

I did fish fingers/veggie fingers, chips and ketchup one year, and it went down a treat. Also juice cartons and birthday cake for pudding.

Grapes and strawberries
Cocktail sausages
Crisps
Sandwhiches(shapes)
cucumber and carrot sticks
pizzas
cheese and pinapple on sticks
Mini quiches

thanks everyone. I have a huge list now of things to choose from. Really like the idea of a smiley face!

Went to a 2 year old's party last weekend where ALL the sandwiches got eaten . The mum had made them in the shape of stars using a very small star cutter which made them look v. appealing and didn't cause too much waste (unlike when i've made them with big star cutter and looked aghast at what ends up in the bin - and thats before the children arrive).

There were also mini scotch eggs cut in half (more popular with parents), mini puff pastry pizza type things (homemade - Anabel Karmel I think) plus grapes and cucumber etc. Anything miniature always goes down well. You could always do the regular stuff but with a fantastic centre piece (I think Karmel does a cucumber crocodile with cheese on sticks poking out of it) to make it memorable and different.

fruit dipped in chocolate - yummy!!!!!!

It sounds a bit stuck-up (which I'm not!), and may depend on numbers and budget but I once did hard boiled quails eggs after having the same dilemma. The kids loved them.

You cannot leave out the chocolate crispies surely!!

We're leaving out chocolate altogether as one of the birthday boys doesn't like it (my DS).

We've got some great large cookie cutters though so i shall make sandwich shapes as it'll also make it more fun for me making them instead of just slapping two slices of bread together and leaving it at that.

And fruit and vegetable kebabs we've decided too.

Think i'll pass on the quails eggs though purely from an odour perspective. I used to love hard boiled eggs but since my second pregnancy I cant stand the smell!

i went to a party once where the kids were given mash potato

at dd's 4th party I did oven chips and nuggets ( 100% white meat natch)
went down a treat
also had veg sticks, cherry toms etc that they could add to plates if wanted to. Not a lot of waste
might do it again this year!

I love mash so that would suit me but not sure I fancy mashing enough potatoes for 40 children!

mini pizzas or mini home made burgers? Agree re small shape cutters. Life is really too short to do Annabel Karmel type cucumber crocodile!

sandwiches
sausage rolls
sausages on sticks
cheese and pineapple on sticks
pizza
tomatoes, cucumer and cheese on sticks
biscuits (party rings and jammy dodgers usually go down well)
fairy cakes

my absoluet top tip for kiddies parties is english muffins made into pizza's.

slice the muffins in half (you can get brown muffins) blitz some tomatoes with a little oregano to use as a basic topping. then add some grated cheese, ham, peppers...basicly whichever toppings you want.

if you ahev some spare time you can turn the toppings into faces and your children can help.

These are soo delicous i even make these for adult parties and they always go.

organic veg.
carrot sticks
cucumber sticks
pease in the pud
melon balls
fruit salad

i will not abide or tolorate junk food at parties. i make my own cake out of lettuce

lol custardo.

I know we are behind with the times here up north but quails eggs??

ooooh i quite like the sound of fruit salad kebabs actually!!

one shouldnt put food on pointy stick when children are around. one could have a child eye out. now be sensible.

have you got an apron and plastic gloves? you will need both. i think lakeland have some nice aprons in gingham.

funny you should say that Custardo - I woke up at about 3am this morning suddenly shouting out "we cant have kebabs you daft woman, children and pointy sticks spells danger".
I'm anbout to do a seacrh for child friendly kebab sticks - there must be some surely??

i dont know and don't call me shirley