Snack time Fun, Part 2

[Anonymous]

First of all… so many thanks to the folks that helped me out last time.

To recap, I’m in charge of snacks for my kids band program. The director and I share a sense of fun about this, but he has much better things to do and leaves it to me, except for his “theme” requests. I know some people would consider this a waste of time, but I actually love it, so creative, yet practical ideas welcome. I have a budget which is getting more generous as I’ve been well under the first three events due to much baking.

I have to feed about 100 kids in a fairly efficient manner. The theme this week was “waffle party” Stumped, I turned to this group and someone suggested waffle cone bowls filled with fruit. I made the bowls, got tons of fruit at Costco, laid them out prefilled and let all the kids grab a bowl and then do their worst with whip cream and Hershey’s syrup. It was a huge hit and totally met the assignment. Fun, tasty, efficient, and under $2/serving… giving me a lot of remaining budget.

The next two themes are
Dim Sum
And
Bagel Brunch

Any creative takers? Even better, any other theme ideas that match this vibe? I love baking, so the valentines event is sugar cookies and petit fours, but I have two remaining events the band teacher didn’t specify.

[Anonymous]

bagel brunch is easy. Just do mini-bagels, pre-cut, and then an assortment of spreads and toppings.

Dim Sum might be a bit harder, but still doable. How old are the kids?

[Anonymous]

Dim Sum means to touch the heart. In other words small dishes that bring you comfort. We view it as small Chinese dishes. For something creative, I would make American comfort dishes. Trying to come up with traditional dim sum will be challenging. So think of all the favorite kid snacks

PB&j
Mac and cheese bites
Pigs in a blanket
Rice crispy treats
Carrots and ranch

[Anonymous]

Appalachian Trail

Serve food you would take hiking on the AT, so maybe a make-your-own trail mix bar, some classic ants on a log (celery with sun butter and raisins), smores bars, and of course a lot of fruit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dim Sum means to touch the heart. In other words small dishes that bring you comfort. We view it as small Chinese dishes. For something creative, I would make American comfort dishes. Trying to come up with traditional dim sum will be challenging. So think of all the favorite kid snacks

PB&j
Mac and cheese bites
Pigs in a blanket
Rice crispy treats
Carrots and ranch

lol no

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dim Sum means to touch the heart. In other words small dishes that bring you comfort. We view it as small Chinese dishes. For something creative, I would make American comfort dishes. Trying to come up with traditional dim sum will be challenging. So think of all the favorite kid snacks

PB&j
Mac and cheese bites
Pigs in a blanket
Rice crispy treats
Carrots and ranch

lol no

NP I thought this was cute. I don't know real dim sum though and I don't think many kids would eat the real stuff.

[Anonymous]

Sheesh, you are a really nice mom.

I agree, bagel brunch is easy; just keep it simple. If you want "better" bagels, get good ones from your favorite bagel shop and cut them into quarters. Lots of different flavors and cream cheese. Fruit salad. Done.

Dim sum is tough; I will really have to defer, but the first thing that popped into my head were those gyoza from Trader Joe's. They're not TOO hard to cook in mass quantities.

[Anonymous]

I would try bagel bites (stuffed with cream cheese) on skewers. Also think about bagel-adjacent treats like babka (buy one loaf of cinnamon and one chocolate at call your mother and cut into big cubes).

I think dim sum is harder and I would personally mix Asian and American tidbits and display some element in a bamboo steamer basket. I would do fortune cookies here too.

If it’s timed to Chinese new year order a tiny red envelope for everyone and get your kid to write little encouraging notes inside! Don’t forget cups of edamame for easy and healthy.

[Anonymous]

I like the idea of a "classic Americano" dim sum, provided the event is not linked to the Chinese new year.

I'd probably ditch the pb&j and do something like mini sliders - burgers, pulled pork, bbq chicken, etc. I think the key would be in the presentation (making the dim sum correlation) and having a nice variety of bite-size comfort food that appeals to kids.

If it is meant to be traditional Chinese dim sum, I would do some combination of dumplings, bao buns, rolls (spring, egg) and steamed edamame with mini cups of soup (wonton w/ crispy noodles for topping?) and/or mini cups of fried rice.

[Anonymous]

Dim sum can be categorized into the following

Dumplings
Buns
Meat - ex chicken feet, ribs
Folded dishes - noodles, egg, tofu
Vegetable dishes - turnip cake (my fave), long beans
Desserts - egg custard tarts, buns etc.

I would lean into the desserts. Go to an Asian market and buy a bunch of lotte custard cakes or similar. Bring out the whipped cream and fruit again if you want to augment. Do not cook 100 dumplings or baos! That would be too much work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:bagel brunch is easy. Just do mini-bagels, pre-cut, and then an assortment of spreads and toppings.

Dim Sum might be a bit harder, but still doable. How old are the kids?

High School Age

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the input!

The other logistical constraints I should have mentioned are

1) I have no way to heat things onsite
2) I have to move 100 kids through pretty quickly

So bagel brunch is pretty simple - precut bagels on plates Dixie cups with with cream cheese and a mini plastic knife. Sliced tomatoes. And maybe a Dixie cup with more adventurous toppings like some sliced onions and capers

I might need to give up on dim sum as I can’t crack the lack of heat…. I think dumplings would get really gummy

I /love/ the granola bar idea. I just have to think about how to make it efficient and not a total mess!

The American comfort food bites might actually be a cool idea. But I’m not going to try to make a dim sum connection. The group is about 60% Asian, a large percentage of first and second generation folks from varied countries, and I’d just generally look like a fool!

[Anonymous]

Do you have enough in the budget to have the dim sum catered? That may be your best path forward if the director is set on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have enough in the budget to have the dim sum catered? That may be your best path forward if the director is set on it.

OP again. Not even close. I have $7 pp for lunch and 2$ pp for snack. I can swing up to $4 pp since I was so far under with the waffles and the cookie party. But not even in the ballpark for catering.

[Anonymous]

are you a Costco member? The Costcos around here have an insane amount of Asian food. I think you could probably find something that would work cold — egg custard tarts are great and I think they have those.
You could also do udon noodles with a sauce (can you do peanut or sesame or are there allergy issues?) that would be good cold.
My kids would probably also eat cold dumplihh my s but I get that might vary. If you put them in aluminum trays and wrap in a blanket they will stay at least warm for a while.

Orange sections also work well for dim sum.