Easy dinners for pool/playground evenings

[Anonymous]

All PPs ideas plus edamame salad (shelled). Kids can add to pasta, DH can add to lettuce.

[Anonymous]

For your husband - would he liked cured/preserved fish like lox, herring, etc? Instead of crackers, he can do zucchini slices, cucumber slices, endives, or lettuce wraps

[Anonymous]

I would go with cheese, crackers, olive, and a variety of fruit and vegetables. Add hummus if your family eats it.


Perhaps tell your DH the list you plan and ask him to suggest additions if he does not like it.

Remember to pack plates, napkins, and wipes.

Personally I have found trying to pack a dinner is more trouble that it’s worth. It’s easier for us to just eat before or after. But I know some people on the board do the whole “we eat dinner at the pool 3 times a week” thing. Good luck with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would go with cheese, crackers, olive, and a variety of fruit and vegetables. Add hummus if your family eats it.


Perhaps tell your DH the list you plan and ask him to suggest additions if he does not like it.

Remember to pack plates, napkins, and wipes.

Personally I have found trying to pack a dinner is more trouble that it’s worth. It’s easier for us to just eat before or after. But I know some people on the board do the whole “we eat dinner at the pool 3 times a week” thing. Good luck with it.

Agree PP. Unless you can do prepackaged chips, nuts, cheese sticks, and pb and j with same food for all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I pack picnics all the time. My fridge is basically a Tetris of tupperware filled with chopped veggies, cheese cubes, cold meats, hummus/dips, pasta salad, cole slaw, any leftovers. And I have a dozen ziploc bags filled with water/ice in the freezer, so I can keep everything cold.

Take an afternoon and filled small tupperwares with anything anyone in the family will eat. Don't envision providing a coherent "meal" -- just include enough fruit/veg/protein to keep them alive.

Each person can decide which of the offered items they will eat. If that means Larla has grapes, hummus, salami and peanut butter on crackers for dinner, sobeit.

Question PP. do you have it all in dinner size Tupperware, or bigger containers and divvy it out for that night?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pack picnics all the time. My fridge is basically a Tetris of tupperware filled with chopped veggies, cheese cubes, cold meats, hummus/dips, pasta salad, cole slaw, any leftovers. And I have a dozen ziploc bags filled with water/ice in the freezer, so I can keep everything cold.

Take an afternoon and filled small tupperwares with anything anyone in the family will eat. Don't envision providing a coherent "meal" -- just include enough fruit/veg/protein to keep them alive.

Each person can decide which of the offered items they will eat. If that means Larla has grapes, hummus, salami and peanut butter on crackers for dinner, sobeit.

Question PP. do you have it all in dinner size Tupperware, or bigger containers and divvy it out for that night?

Yes. I also want to hear more about how you organize this.

[Anonymous]

One tasty proteins main I make is chicken cutlets wrapped in prosciutto and pan seared. Raw tenderloins work great for this. My kids eat them like chicken tenders, and they are great cold/reheated, tossed in a salad, etc. I will also grill chicken wings and pack separate sauces in Tupperware to bring to the pool. I also do sheet pan Italian sausage and veggies, which I pack up and my family happily eats warm or cold.

[Anonymous]

These “easy” pool dinners are kind of making me feel bad about my skills/energy for prepping and schlepping food around for my family. If I manage to marinate something to grill, and we have one other thing to go with that meat I feel very proud. These amazing meal plans? You guys are great cooks!