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Picnic in-a-jar ideas!

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By Practical Frog
Some good friends decided that we needed to get together for good food, nice wine and great company and so invited us on a picnic. Yay - we love a picnic! It took a few weeks from invite to actually getting together due to rain, work and train timetables but it was so worth it when it finally came together!

I saw a picnic idea on the net that I just had to try! It was cute, sustainable, used things I already had at home and cost me nothing...

A picnic in a jar? Its fun and looks good too!

Here's what I did...

I made strawberry cheesecake into 4 individual jars - screwed the lids on and packed them into the picnic bag!

I made a rocket, feta and garlic dip and a roast capsicum, parmesan and cashew dip (by shuzzing them up in a blender until they looked and tasted good!) popped 'em into a jar and into the picnic bag too!

I made a few feta and onion tarts that sadly, didn't fit into any jar I had...

Found a spot with a view of the river, some wine and some wonderful friends and proceeded to chat the evening away!

Some long handled spoons - and dessert is served!

Yum!

Due to work commitments, I didn't get to explore this concept any further this time but there are some great salad in a jars in my future, I can predict! I had never considered the practicalities of jars for these type of things. We normally take crockery, not plastic, with us these days so it wasn't a big deal to add some more breakables to the cooler bags. I wrap anything breakable in tea towels and so if it does break the resulting mess is contained in the teatowel and not through the whole bag.

With the summer months coming up and school holidays just around the corner, outdoor dining will be a staple part of our diet. Its time to put the slow cooker away (sob) and move onto the next feasting phase of the year - The Picnic! Have a look at these sites for more wonderful "in a jar" ideas


salad in a jar
Becoming sandwich savy
 
The family kitchen





skewers9 500x477 salad on a stick salads food appetizers
Sugar Laws - Salad on a Stick


"Salad on a stick?" - this one I gotta try! The post itself is worth a visit!
There are so many things that can go into a jar and be taken out on a picnic that I had never considered! Once you start exploring this concept you will find many things that overlap - what about salad in a jar for work lunches - keep 'em airtight in a jar in the fridge and take one out every day for a healthy lunch at work and school - add a fork attached with an elastic band and you're done!
For the salad one, the dressing and the able-to-be-soaked-in-dressing-for-a-while veges go on the bottom and then you layer up the various veges and salad ingredients. Then you either tip the jar into a snazzy bowl at work and eat it (the dressing will now be on the top and your lettuce on the bottom in the more traditional salad fashion) or invert the jar (with the lid on of course) a few times to distribute the dressing through the salad, open and enjoy!

This is also a good idea for portion control, if you need to and also for making different salads for different tastes/allergies or intolerance's.

I think it just looks cute! 

Score card:

Green-ness: 5/5 for again - upcycling and/or recylcing!
Frugal-ness: 5/5 no cost picnic ware that is on trend? go to the top of the class!
Time cost: No more than it takes to make and put together a normal picnic
Skill level: Picnic preparation level!
Fun -ness: Its so much fun to watch peoples reactions!
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