No Cook Barbecue
While the adults always look forward to a good cook-out on a summer’s evening, children often find family barbecues are less fun, because the time it takes to cook food and the darkness and lateness of the hour often means they can’t enjoy the garden as much as they’d like to. Give them their own barbecue one summer’s afternoon, and allow them to play at being grown-ups.
Provide some ingredients
You need the components for a no cook burger: rolls, salad ingredients, relishes and ketchups, which the ‘cook’ can then assemble, using a slice of ham or other cold meat instead of the burger: there are processed meats that look like faces or trains which many children love and this adds excitement to the meal.
Set you salad chef up with childhood favourites – coleslaw if the kids eat it, if not, sweet corn salad and pasta salad, potato salad and other simple favourites to slap on to paper plates alongside the burger.
Drinks can be simple but impressive – fizzy water with flavourings like peach and apple juice is like champagne, and you can make a fruit cup with a mixed fruit juice and strawberries and raspberries floating on top. Let them scoop it into wide plastic tumblers with a soup ladle.
A chocolate fountain is a high style treat at the end, but if you’re not up for that, let them put together paper bowls of ice cream, fruit, sherbet, milkshake syrups and small sweets to make a personalised dessert.
Care and cleaning
Cheap plastic tablecloths and entirely disposable crockery and cutlery mean that when the barbecue is over you can just bundle up the cloth and throw the whole thing straight in the bin. Make sure you have a sprayer to hand with water and detergent in, to wash down any spills before they become dangerously slippery or attract insects, and wet wipes will keep small faces clean.