Those warm summer days inspire lots of dreams of a relaxing day by the river with your loved ones, snacking on some delicious food while enjoying the sun and the cool breeze. As you listen to the leaves rustle in the trees, you enjoy everyone eating and having a great time. Maybe it would be a good idea to make this into a real trip, with real food. But what will you prepare?

 

It can be a lot of work to plan a wonderful picnic. What kinds of food should you bring? Salads and sandwiches? Do you need to cook at your picnic location? What needs to be kept cold? How many plates and sets of silverware do you need to worry about? Paper plates are an option, but they make a mess, too. And the clean up… what a lot of work! Suddenly a picnic seems like a bad idea.

 

Before you back out completely, what if there was a way to keep your plans easy and fun? If you bring appetizers for your food, they can easily be made ahead of time and require very little to prepare at the site. You do not even have to worry about plates if you do not want to. Cleaning up is simple.

 

Pick out a cold appetizer recipe that you enjoy. It could be as simple as deviled eggs or fresh vegetables. Make a big list of all the recipes you are considering for your picnic, and a second list of the ingredients needed for those recipes. Compare each recipe to discover similar ingredients. If they are prepped in a similar fashion, you can combine your prep time. For example, if you have a few recipes that use bacon, you can cook all the bacon at one time so you save yourself time.

 

Add all the recipes that sound good, such as bacon wrapped shrimp, cheese puffs, tomatoes filled with chicken salad and so on. Finger foods should be fun and easy. You do not want a lot of mess to clean up. The day before your picnic, assemble your appetizers. Pack them up securely in sturdy plastic storage containers and let them chill in the fridge. If you need to layer your appetizers, separate them with layers of waxed paper to keep them from touching each other.

 

Make sure that you have one or two really special cold appetizer recipes that will stand out among all the other snacks. They will be your highlight dishes. Perhaps they will be something unique like smoked salmon rolled in lettuce or pears wrapped in prosciutto. Prepare them with the others and chill until the next day.

 

Cold appetizers are simple because you do not have to worry about serving them hot. On your big day, just pack all of your storage containers full of appetizers into a big cooler. This will keep them all cold and delicious. Once you reach your destination, you can scout out the perfect spot for your picnic.

 

At your picnic location, unpack your cooler and just open up the storage containers. Spread them out on a picnic table or on a blanket. Everyone can pick and choose what they want to eat, one bite at a time. When the picnic is over, all you need to do is gather up the storage containers and toss them back in the cooler to take home. No muss, no fuss!

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