One of our favorite “life balance” hacks is the late afternoon weekend playdate. Kids play, you hang with other parents. Kids eat. Then we pile all of them into a bed with a movie while we eat in peace. Parenting strategies #FTW!
This menu can be made ahead (sensing a theme here?) and served at room temperature. Just boil the pasta and give that a toss right before you are ready to eat. It also takes advantage of the best of summer (zucchini! sweet tomatoes!) and involves food on STICKS! What could be better? Start with Sangria. Who doesn’t like sangria? Side benefit – cut up fruit can be used for a kid snack. For the tomato pasta, if you’ve not done this you are about to be excited. This is a no-cook sauce. I let it sit on my counter most of the day, covered with saran. I add the basil upon tossing with hot pasta. The recipe link below is a guide – I use less garlic than it calls for. You can gussy it up by adding torn mozzarella if you want. Nobody will complain. If the kids won’t eat salmon make a few with chicken or shrimp. My kids would love the sticky gooey pavlova. But if you have an outdoor fire to get going, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to consider s’mores.
Tips and other notes:
Sangria Flora, No Cook Tomato Sauce, Salmon Skewers and finally, PLEASE click on this gorgeous PAVLOVA!
savegourmet.com 