Simple party food ideas - children

[Aimsmum]

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I will suggest my constant fail safe that all the kids eat and it doesn't need too much effort:

hot dogs and ice cream!

I put out a large bowl of fruit.
Large jugs of squash and/or fruit juice.
Crisps if I'm feeling generous.

Simple! hth

I would go for the hot dogs option as well - had them at a christening party last week and they seemed to go down very well with all the children.
You could have bags of things too - mini cheddars, iced gems. raisins etc so you don't have to do any prep and any left over can just be put away for another time

We had about 35 kids on saturday and did our own food. It was all eaten pronto I pinched lots of ideas from Annabel Karmel

Cutout and pinwheel sandwiches filled with either soft cheese or ham.

Mini hot dogs put into a grapefruit to look like a head. These went in about three seconds.

Sausage rolls and pork pies which I had cut up.

Cheese and pineapple on sticks which I put on a cucumber to look like a crocodile.

Crisps, dried fruit and cherry tomatoes.

For pudding I made a fruit salad inside a melon, it was supposed to look like a pig but it looked like fruit salad in a melon.

I also did little coloured meringues which went down really well and decorated biscuits.

I made up a batch of fairy cakes which the kids decorated using ready mixed icing and sweets.

the only bad point about the food was that there was none left for us to snack on when we got home.

That does sound like a lot of preparation but most of it was done by Me, my Mum and dp in the morning, you could buy fairy cakes to decorate and miss out decorated biscuits or again get the kids to decorate them.

the hot dog heads are a great fave and as nothing goes to waste I ate the grapefruit the next day!

Exemplary TSAP - I'll pinch allthose ideas for dd's Halloween party, ta. LOL at melon pig.

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You would have laughed at the melon pig if you had seen it! His trotter kept falling off. But that is the charm of home made party food I suppose.

I love doing halloween food, we are having a party again, have clubbed together with a few mums and rather than have lots of little parties we are hiring a church hall.

I did,

Cheese sandwiches,
Ham sandwiches,
Apple wedges,
Cheese cubes,
Carrot sticks (big prepared bag from Tescos),
Crisps.

All easy to prepare and box ready for transporting.

Ice Cream factory for afters. (Hall had a freezer).
Blocks of ice craem cut up put into small bowls,
Tubs of chocolate buttons and smarties,
Chocolate and strawberry sauce,
Hundres and thousands.

I meant to say keep it simple, kids are not impressed if you spent 4 hrs preparing it all and their parents will only see what is mashed into their clothes .

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There was a suggestion on here not too long ago regarding Fairy Bread. Buttered while bread cut into squares and sprinkled with 100's and 1000's. I'm nicking this idea for dd's birthday in 2 weeks

WHITE bread

Aimsmum, I did a 35+ birthday party once and my tips would be:

They won't eat that much and certainly not that many sandwiches so don't over cater. I think I buttered something stupid like 5 loaves of bread and had 3 odd left over.
Don't forget vegetarians, you can get veggie hot dog sausages if there are any veggies coming
If you get multi packs of crisps etc you can only open what you think and then add more if it gets low.
I let ds choose the food at his (8th) party yesterday and he chose:

Wotsits
Quavers
Iced Gems
Chocolate cake bars
chocolate spread sandwiches on white bread
Jammie Dodgers
Party rings
Popcorn (they watched a film)
Cake

That was it. We are normally an organic brown bread and lentil type house so I think he loved the chance to eat a load of crap. One child said 'my mum said I can eat anything except vitamins' at which I reassured him that there was no nutritional value whatsoever in any of it.
Are you doing a bouncy castle? I'd thoroughly recommend it (did it for ds's 4th and 5th) and you can deflate it when you want them to eat. You don't even need party games then and they go home worn out.

WWW where can you et the veggie hot dogs from as dd has invited the whole class and we have quite a few muslim children who won't eat anything that's not Halal. Veggie Hot Dogs sound a good compromise possibly.

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Asda do veggie hotdogs in the freezer section, they take 2 minutes in a microwave. (I buy them very rarely, under duress!) If you wanted nicer ones Cauldron foods do nice organic tofu veggie sausages in most supermarkets.

Ooh thanks WWW. I will definitely have a look for those.

you can also get veggie hot dogs in tesco and sainsburys. I know because we buy them every week

wow this is useful.Have dd's 2nd party coming up and lots of other 2 year olds attending.We are in a hall.She will eat anything but at home its all fresh and home made.I am a little worried that if I provide a fairly healthy menu the other kids wont like it.

Also everyone is saying that I should put food in boxes (like you get at mcdonalds) but when i was little (many,many years ago)and mum did parties,it was all laid out on a table and we helped ourselves.I remember we always had a jelly made in a rabbit mould and she chopped up green jelly for grass!

I have never put food in boxes or been to a party where this is done.

Let them fill their plates!

Loving the jelly grass!

When I am doing cakes I push green icing through a sieve and it makes really good grass.

the benefit of putting it in boxes is that you can cater for a specific amount of kids. That said it doesn't mean that they will eat it.

Putting it out on plates means that they can help themselves to what they want. I shouldn't worry too much... if they get hungry they'll eat again at home.

Oh right I see. I suppose it prevents them grabbing loads of food they won't eat as well while another kid starves.

I just get a warm glow inside from seeing a table full of party food.

I like seeing a table with food as well.

They all seem to empty the fruit bowl each time as well.

Besides......... how can I pick if the food is in those tiny boxes..?