Birthday party food

[bungletru]

Having a birthday party for a 2 year old, babies aged 0-3 coming and parents.

some don’t eat pork so I’m struggling to figure out what to put on

it will be a cold buffet, no access to oven etc. Any suggestions? Usually it’s a load of sausage rolls and stuff. Not sure now

Veg crudités, hummus
Sandwiches, quiches, cold pizza
Chicken strips, falafel, cheese
Fruit

They don’t really eat much at parties in my experience. I’d go for a sandwich (half a full slice), a sausage roll, a few crisps and maybe 2 veg sticks per child. Cheese sandwiches or chicken. Adults can have more of the same but you could put some quiches out, nice coleslaw, crusty bread and cheese board. Maybe some pizza? If you do it last minute at home and transport in foil it will be warm ish.

Thanks so far! Would squash be ok as drinks? Or should I provide juice?

Veggie cocktail sausages? Yes, squash is the standard

If you are serving food and drinks to adults, yes you should have something better than squash, and not just juice - sparking water at the least (I can't drink pure juice and I'm far from alone, it's the acid)

You can get veggie versions of most "beige buffet" type foods so shouldn't be too hard to cater for those who don't eat pork (and no shade, I love a beige buffet for a kid's party)

Squash is fine for the kids. For adults it's nice to offer tea/coffee or cans (though I will happily just help myself to the squash too if there's enough)

Cream cheese sandwiches, cut into small fingers or shapes if you have time/cutters, chicken nuggets, carrot/cucumber sticks/breadsticks and hummus, grapes, crisps and maybe a selection of cheese and biscuits for the adults, and those Teddy things for the toddlers, little boxes of raisins, juice boxes or squash for the kids with a jug of water, tea or coffee and diet coke/lemonade ( plus wine and beer, if appropriate) for the adults.

For afterwards, maybe fairy cakes with simple icing - nothing large or fancy, and some chocolate fingers (who doesn't love a chocolate finger?)

Chicken sandwich, cheese sandwiches, crisps, carrot and pepper slices, there are plenty of non pork mini rolls (look at Higgidy). Cake. It's a little party you don't have to offer a huge range of foods.

Cheese and onion rolls instead of sausage rolls?

I always do kids parties as vegetarian. They can't be trusted to only pick the things they're allowed to eat, and you can't watch all of them grab food at once. Keep it really simple, they only graze anyway.

Sandwiches - cheese or jam
Veg - cucumber sticks and halved cherry tomatoes
Crisps - big box of cheap multipacks
Fruit - melon cubes/blueberries/easy peelers
Biscuits - party rings/jammydodgers/Oreo's that kind of thing just check the packet for vege symbol

Squash is fine.

For adults I get some nicer biscuits and fizzy flavoured water

There’s loads of mini party food in the shops at the moment

I did a buffet this weekend for my vegetarian grandchildren ( 6/4/1 )

mini pizza - or a whole one cut up
quiche
cheese sausage rolls frozen from Tesco which were lovely
sandwiches tuna ( for eldest as not veggi ) / cheese / peanut butter ( check allergy) / chocolate spread
Crisps
small cubes of cheese / Quorn cocktail sausages
chicken / quorn nuggets
platter of salad bits
my LO’s love a dip, so I got some little disposable pots of Amazon and provided spoons with the dips for parents to fill

platter of fresh fruit
chocolate fingers
little cakes

drinks - I would buy the little bottles of flavoured water/squash for the children and bottles of water/juice for the adults (I find individual bottles work better at these kind of do’s. You could take flasks of hot water and tea/coffee

don’t forget - wipes / dish cloths / bin bags / cling film / kitchen roll

We also always do all veggie food at kids parties. At that age I'd add some fruit as little kids seem to love watermelon slices and the like
Margarita pizzas chopped up
Cheese version of sausages rolls
Generally lots of cheese- babybels or cubes of cheese

For parents I would normally just do tea/ coffee if access to a kettle and biscuits, posh crisps etc

Also have a jug of water because some people don't like their kids having squash

Perfect. Thank you all.. so helpful!

I made all the food for my two years old birthday. We had
Hummus and crudities
Fruit kebabs
Meatballs on sticks with a tomato dipping sauce
Veggie flatbreads
Pea and potato samosas
Cheese and turkey ham pinwheels

Same food for kids and adults - not one bit left over!

Thanks all. It went well

we did 4 x diff sandwiches. (Ham egg Mayo, jam, cheese)
samosas
Spanish omelet and olives
crisps
crudités and hummus
sausage rolls
cheese rolls
fruit

went so well 😃