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End of school summer party

Recipes for an end of school kids party. Celebrate in the garden or by the swimming pool, weather permitting. If one of the summer storms is looming, why not an indoors picnic?

End of school garden party for kids, including recipes

The end of another school year is round the corner. Soon will be time for your kids to say their farewells to their friends as everyone scatters to different activities during the summer break. Let them say “good bye” in style with a garden party shared with their best friends.

We will select a menu everyone can enjoy, including all healthy foods good for them disguised as the old kid’s favorites. We will prepare homemade fruit yogurt to drink, a welcomed change from the soda or fruit juice and certainly nourishing. Alphabet cookies and cheesy dogs make tasty appetizers and they are certainly easy. Surely, children will not resist having their vegetables, if we present them as attractive wraps, or in these stuffed mozzarella salad. We will offer them chicken tenders and chips in an unexpected way and because it is a party, there will be a chocolate jam filled cake.

THE RECIPES

Fruity yogurt drink | top

Forget about sodas for a day and let us do something different to fruit juice –the option we always fall back when we want to think of something healthy to drink.

Ingredients

1½ cup milk
1½ cups whole milk yogurt
3 Tbs honey
2 kiwis, peeled and pureed
½  cup strawberries, liquidized
1 Tbs desiccated coconut
½ cup diced mango, pureed

Servings: 4

Procedure

Mix milk, yogurt and honey in a blender. Distribute equally into four cups. Add kiwi to the first, pureed strawberries to the second, coconut to the third and mango pure to the last one. Mix well. Chill. Garnish each yogurt with a piece of the fruit flavoring it.

If you use a standing hand blender, mix milk, honey and yogurt and divide the drink into four containers. You can add the fruit, diced, and puree it directly into the yogurt drink. Strain, then, the strawberry flavored yogurt to get rid of the seeds.

Quick alphabet cookies | top

Kids can start the meal by writing their names or those of their friends.

Ingredients

1 lb ready rolled pastry
1 egg white, lightly beaten
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
1 Tbs lemon juice
Food coloring (optional)
Colorful toppings

Procedure

  1. Pre heat the oven to 375°F (180°C).
  2. Extend the pastry onto a floured surface –if you are going to roll out yours, make it 1/5 inch (1 cm) thick.
  3. Cut out letter shapes – if you do not have alphabet cookie cutter, you can draw your own templates on baking paper.
  4. Lay the cookies on the prepared baking sheet. Bake them in the center of the oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool down on a rack.   
  5. Mix egg white, sugar and lemon juice and glaze the cookies. Decorate with your kids favorite toppings.

Vegetable wraps | top

If you use corn tortillas this recipe is gluten free.

For the salad
4 small zucchini, peeled and cut in thin sticks
2 potatoes, peeled and cut in thin sticks
2 carrots, peeled and cut in thin sticks
¾ cup shelled or frozen peas
4 corn or wheat tortillas
For the dressing
½ lemon, juiced
4 Tbs mayonnaise
2 Tbs yogurt
3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs chopped parsley leaves

Servings: 4

Procedure

  1. Cook carrots, potatoes and peas in boiling water for 8-10 minutes. Add zucchini and cook 2-3 minutes more. Drain, refresh and place in a bowl.
  2. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing and add it to the salad. Stir softly to coat the vegetables.
  3. Halve the tortillas, roll each half in a conic shape, wrap it in a colorful paper napkin, and fill it with salad. The salad cones hold well if introduced in a small paper cup.
  4. Chill in the fridge until required.

Cheesy dogs | top

Ingredients

1 lb pizza dough
8 cocktail frankfurters or 4 small frankfurters, halved
4 Tbs grated cheese

Servings: 4

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
  2. Roll out the pizza dough until 1/5 inch (1 cm) and cut 8 rectangles. Place them onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. Cut a small slit in the center of each one and introduce 1 cocktail frankfurter.
  3. Bake in the center of the oven for 10 minutes.

Stuffed mozzarella salad | top

Ingredients

2 mozzarella balls (1/2 lb each)
1 cup quick cooking rice
4 Tbs pesto
8 cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
4 romaine lettuce leaves, washed and patted dry
1 Tbs chopped basil leaves (optional)
2 Tbs olive oil (optional)
Salt

Servings: 4

Procedure

  1. Cook the rice following the packet instructions. Drain, cool for a minute under running water and drain again. Place rice in a bowl, add pesto sauce and stir carefully to mix.
  2. Halve mozzarella balls and empty carefully until 1/5 inch (1 cm) thick. Dice the extracted mozzarella and mix with the pesto rice, add the chopped basil if using.
  3. Place the lettuce leaves on a serving platter and one mozzarella half on top of each one. Fill with the pesto rice and garnish with the halved cherry tomatoes on the side.

Herb flavored chicken strips | top

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
4 Tbs mayonnaise
4 Tbs ketchup
Salt

Servings: 4

Procedure

  1. Put the breast smooth side down. Gently pull off tenders -fillets- and save them for another dish. Cut the chicken breast in 1/5 inch (1 cm) thick strips and about 4 inches (10 cm) long.
  2. Break the egg in a bowl and beat lightly; add chopped rosemary and salt to taste. Add chicken strips to the egg bowl and let it stand for a few minutes -flavor will be absorbed.
  3. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
  4. Cover egg coated chicken strips in breadcrumbs. Distribute strips on an oven pan.
  5. Cook chicken strips in the center of the oven for 10 minutes, turning once.
  6. Serve the warm strips with mayonnaise and ketchup on the side.

Cooking tips

  • For an original flavor substitute breadcrumbs with 7-8 oz crumbled corn flakes –healthy- or chips –more flavor. Both options should be gluten free –read the labels in corn flakes and chips to make sure.
  • Flavor the beaten egg with other herbs or your choice: fresh oregano, marjoram, savory or thyme all will rend a delicate flavor.

Jam filled chocolate cake | top

Ingredients

For the cake
1 cup (8 oz or 225 g) flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup butter (7-8 Tbs, 6 oz, or 175 g)
2 Tbs (2 oz, 50 g) powdered cocoa
½ orange, juiced
1 cup your favorite jam for the filling
For the frosting and topping
1 cup (8 oz or 225 g) powdered sugar
1/2 orange, juiced
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Dessert chocolate sauce or syrup to decorate
Sugar coated chocolate sweets like Smarties or M&Ms

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F (180°C). Grease a cake pan.
  2. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder together; reserve.
  3. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until smooth and creamy; add eggs and stir briskly to blend. Add sifted flour gradually, stirring each time, and the orange juice. Blend to make homogeneous batter.
  4. Pour the batter into cake pan and bake in the center of the oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove cake from the pan and let it cool down on rack.
  5. Halve the cake horizontally and spread the jam over the bottom layer. Top with the other layer.
  6. Mix powdered sugar with a little orange juice and egg white until smooth and fluid. Frost the cake and let the icing set until hard.
  7. Decorate with chocolate chips and write a message using the chocolate sauce.

Cooking tips

  • You can divide the batter into two layer pans and reduce baking time to 20-25 minutes.

Doneness test

Insert a wire cake tester or wooden pick in cake’s center. If it emerges perfectly clean, the cake is done. However, tests vary; sometimes the wooden pick should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it, or the cake will be too dry.

The cake should be lightly browned on top and beginning to shrink from the sides of the pan.

Perfect frosting

The icing is ready to spread when it starts to thicken around the sides of the bowl. Pile it on top of the cake and spread it with a broad knife or spatula. Have a bowl with very hot water by your side and dip the knife or spatula in the hot water as the icing thickens.


Get more party food ideas from easy desserts to make with kids.

Try some delicious and healthy zucchini recipes, especially finger foods.