Throughout the summer of 2020, we’ve been sharing family picnic ideas to help families enjoy food, fun and conversation while socially distancing. Sharing simple rituals, like backyard meals, can help everyone feel less stressed during difficult times. Each week, we’ve posted recipes, conversation starters and activity ideas that you can use for fun and relaxing family picnic dinners. And when the pandemic eases and life starts to return to normal, we hope that families will keep using these ideas whenever they need a little break from the usual — or a great idea for dinner on the go.
This Week’s Family Picnic Menu
This week we’re making chicken souvlaki! The genius of this recipe is that you can either make the chicken as written, or use leftover cooked chicken to make dinner even faster. Add fresh vegetables like tomatoes, red onion, cucumber slices or even roasted peppers to dress up your souvlaki. Serve the wraps with a make-ahead pasta salad, and finish your meal with a dessert that’s also a dance party waiting to happen!
Chicken Souvlaki is a winner when it comes to quick, tasty family meals on the go. Wrap chicken and toppings in a pita and add a dollop of yogurt sauce, and dinner’s done.
Greek Lentil and Orzo Salad can be a vegetarian main dish all on its own, but it also makes a powerhouse side dish. Make it ahead of time so it’s ready to eat when you are.
Have you ever made ice cream from scratch? It’s easy when you make it in a bag! Just a few ingredients a lot of shaking makes dessert fast and fun.
Fun
Your activity for tonight is making the ice cream! Turn on your favorite tunes and have a dance party, passing the ice cream bag back and forth so everyone gets a turn to shake it up. For added fun, try doing the hokey pokey or playing Hot Potato.
Conversation
The summer is coming to an end soon. Although the Fall won’t be quite what most of us expected, it’s still a good time to talk about transitions.
