Our family has been spending a lot of time outdoors-beach, park, hiking, walking around the neighborhood- since last year. I’ve never been an outdoorsy person and never thought I would be one, but with Covid taking out all opportunities to hang out indoors, we started going outside a lot more. And packing a lot of picnic foods followed.
I had packed lunches for munchkin when she was attending Montessori toddler and preschool, but I quickly learned that daycare/school lunches and picnic lunches aren’t quite the same. When playing outside, kids don’t stay still and eat their food in a neat environment. At least, not my kids. They are running around, touching everything, while eating as well.
Skewers, food on sticks, became one of my favorite picnic foods. The sticks keep dirty fingers away from the food while keeping the food organized in the containers. I’ve been experimenting with lots of skewer foods, and here’s one of my favorites: modified BLT skewers.
The original idea was to make BLT on a stick, but neither of my kids is open to raw tomatoes at the moment. They love cucumbers, and it’s one of the best hydrating foods to bring when playing outside. So I swapped cherry tomatoes to cucumber slices and used pretzel bites for bread. I guess we can call it BLC skewers.
On a lollipop stick, thread a pretzel bite, a cucumber slice, folded butter lettuce, and folded cooked bacon.
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I used lollipop sticks for these little skewers since it’s safer for little kids than sharp wooden skewers. For the bacon, use thinly sliced ones to make them easily foldable. The round bento box is from Takenaka Bento. Rectangle bento box is called Gel-Cool and has a built-in ice pack in the lid. You can get it from LOIS the store.
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Below is a variation of the same concept. I used Brazi Bites, butter lettuce, cucumber slices, and mini sausages. I found these mini sausages while shopping at whole foods market. I’ve been ordering my groceries through Instacart and Amazon throughout the pandemic, but I had to grab a last-minute ingredient a few days ago. That’s when I found these Fork in the Road Little Goodies. They’re made with uncured pasture-raised, family-farmed beef. My kids love mini sausages, so I was happy to find a higher-quality option for them.
