Yummy Kids Sandwiches
for a Picnic

Kids sandwiches should be great to look at, easy to eat and simple to make. Lots of kids are fussy eaters so making sandwiches look attractive is an important part of preparing them. Kids are conservative, they know what they like and stick to it so favourites are the go but try a new twist on old favourites for variety.

Follow the example of the big takeaway food companies!! Make food fun and the kids will love it.

Keep the sandwiches small for little mouths. Use a white or wholemeal bread. Slice the ingredients thinly or mash them if necessary.

Avoid spicy fillings and thick breads that will overwhealm the fillings. The bread is there to hold the contents not to be the main meal.

Kids enjoy helping to make their own sandwiches and often have suggestions for the fillings. Sometimes their combinations may seem a bit strange to adults but if they like them go for it!

Here are some suggestions for sandwich fillings

Savoury Fillings

Vegemite or marmite by itself makes a simple sandwich.
Add cream cheese with grated carrot to vegemite
Tuna
Ham, cheese and tomato
Egg with lettuce or sprouts

Cream cheese with dried or fresh tomato
Cream cheese and cucumber
Cream cheese and pineapple
Avocado with chicken or ham and salad vegetables

Sweet Fillings

Crushed or sliced bananas Add a squeeze to lemon juice to keep the bananas creamy colour. Add crunchy brown sugar.
Sliced apple (lemon juice again) with sultanas.
Nutella for a choc hazelnut taste sensation. Add strawberries or bananas for extra flavour.

Peanut butter, Smooth or crunchy. Watch out for nut allergies they are becoming increasingly common especially in young children.
Grated carrot, honey and peanut butter,with sultanas
Peanut butter and sliced apple.

Have Fun with Sandwiches

Make sandwiches fun.

One of the easiest ways is to use cookie cutters to form them into all sorts of different shapes.

Depending on the cutters you have you can make sandwiches any shape you like.

Use wholemeal bread for teddies or gingerbread men and watch the kids bite off their heads!!

Cut out fairies or butterflies and cover them with pretty sprinkles. You will have to butter the top of the sandwich so that the sprinkles will stick.

Use shapes to complement your picnic theme. If you are going to the beach cut mermaids, dolphins or shells.

If you have a dinosaur or train fanatic in the family cut sandwiches to suit.

Choose fairly large, simple shapes for kids sandwiches. These shapes make it easier to cut neatly into the bread and the fillings.

Some Ideas to Get You Started

Traffic Light Sandwiches

Use a square sandwich loaf

Spread some corn relish onto one slice of bread.
Top with a cheese slice.
On top of 1/3 of the bread lay some tomato slices, to form the red light.
Leave a space to show the yellow cheese.
Place lettuce leaves or cucumber on the bottom 1/3 of the sllce to form the green light
Cut 2 rows of 3 circles in a second slice of bread to form 2 rows of 3 traffic lights. Use a small round cookie cutter or a bottle top for this.
Place the 2 sllces of bread together .
Cut the sandwich in half so that you have 2 sets of lights.

Spring Flowers

Spread one slice of bread with jam. Strawberry or rasberry for red, apricot for yellow.
Cut round circles from another slice and place it on top of the first.
Cut flower shapes out of the completed sandwich so that the circles are in the middle of each shape.
You now have flowers with coloured centress.

Hearts

Cut these in the same way as flowers using a heart shaped cutter instead of the flower. You will have hearts with coloured centres.

Two-Tone Sandwiches

Place 1 slice of wholemeal and 1 slice of white bread on a cutting board.
Cut out the centre of each one with a cookie cutter shape.
Swap the cutouts so that the wholemeal slice has a white bread shape in the middle and the wholemeal slice has a white.
Make two sandwiches in the normal way using the two-tone slices as the top.

Sandwich Wraps

Wraps are a different way to make kids sandwiches. They are made with lavash, flour tortillas or any flat bread which is not as thick and heavy as other breads.

Place the a flat bread on the bench and spread the ingredients on to it before folding or rolling it into a cylinder.

For kids cut the rolls in half so they are easy to handle.

Wrap the sandwich tightly in foil or plastic wrap to carry to a picnic.

Here is a tasty Crunchy Salad and Chicken Wrap but you can use almost any fillings you like. Experiment to find the one your kids like the best.

Rice paper makes lovely light sandwich wraps that allow the colour of the ingredients to show though. Try Avocado or Chicken with cucumber and mango for a change.

These recipes are on the freshforkids web site (www.freshforkids.com) where there are lots of suggestions for kids sandwiches made with fresh vegetables and fruit.

Try pita bread with pockets ready to fill with any appetizing mixture. There are mini pita pockets available. Fill them with salads and meats. Ideal for kids.

Return from Kids Sandwiches to Picnic Sandwiches

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