When I shared the first two posts in our recent Party Ideas series (Easy Party Food Ideas That AREN’T Pizza and Activity Ideas for Parties INSTEAD of Food) with a group of Club professionals, they DELIVERED with even more great ideas!
Even better, a lot of these ideas are on the healthier side of the food spectrum. Which is GREAT, since Healthy Lifestyles is one of our priority outcome areas. Now, healthy is relative. These are meant to be special treats. They are also a little more work than buying food off the shelf, but they make for some great opportunities to cook alongside your members.
Katie Lewis from Boys & Girls Clubs of Placer County said her members love a tostada bar. “Easy and fun!” Here are some sample instructions from Pinterest, but you can put ANYTHING on a tostada. In my own personal life I love some scrambled eggs and goat cheese on one (with some Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning, because I deserve the best).
Similarly, Shira Rodriguez from Boys & Girls Clubs of the Albemarle also mentioned having a taco bar, and David Cook from Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Virginia suggested a nacho bar. An easy way to prepare your proteins for all of these is using a slow cooker. Mine got a ton of use in my Club days.
Another slow cooker idea comes from Anna Montgomery at Boys & Girls Clubs of Sheboygan County. She said, “I made loaded queso and my teens went bananas. Browned some meat, cut some veggies, threw it in a slow cooker with Velveeta and that’s it. They all wanted the recipe LOL!”
David Cook also had some sweet ideas to share. He suggested fruit kebabs or a smoothie bar. Here are some ideas for how to make these happen!
There are a million CUTE ideas for fruit kebabs, in all combinations and with some special add-ins. Pinterest is a treasure trove, and has some fun ideas for dips to serve alongside.
(This isn’t meant to be a Halloween post BUT DO YOU SEE THESE SPOOKY FRUIT KEBABS)
I know what you are thinking. “Sarah, the graphic at the top of this post promised pizza? Which is confusing because it is a healthy food post?? But I trust you???” YOUR TRUST IS WELL-PLACED. One of my favorite recipes is to make pizza on pita bread, which would be perfect for a smaller party. Each youth can make their own pizza, and then just stick them on a cookie sheet and in an oven or toaster oven until the cheese is melted. So good! And you can incorporate lots of fresh veggies for topping options.
I hope you’ve found these ideas useful! Celebrations are one of the most vital and most FUN parts of Club life. For more ideas from Clubs, check the “Celebrations” tag.
What did we miss? What other themed lists should we share on the ClubX Blog? What ideas have worked well in your Club? Let us know in the comments, on the BGCA Youth Development Facebook page, or at ClubXBlog@bgca.org!
Leave a Reply