Wednesday 28 May 2014

Mouth-watering Wednesday - Hosting your first barbecue? Here's what you need

Hey girls, I hope you're all well.



So it is barbecue season, and I thought that it would be fun to talk about my favourite barbecue foods. Because I am vegetarian, this is going to be vegetarian friendly food, because I don't remember what meat is good barbecue food any more. This will also be aimed at people who are hosting their first barbecue, because it can be slightly overwhelming, especially if your family wasn't one who had many barbecues, like mine was. 
So onto my favourite foods.

First of all you have to have burgers, right? And there are so many vegetarian burgers available, but my all time favourite one has to be the Tesco ones. I'm not actually a huge fan of Tesco in general, but I do love their vegetarian stuff. I think the Tesco veggie burgers are the best for barbecues because they are juicy, like a beef burger, and grill amazingly.



Another burger I would suggest is a home-made quinoa burger. This is made with quinoa, egg, courgette, and breadcrumbs, and is incredibly tasty. Now I've never actually cooked this on a barbecue, so I don't know exactly how it would turn out, but I still recommend it.

Next we need hot dogs, and I've only ever found hot dogs in Tesco, so I have to tell you to get those ones. These are delicious, and they taste like real hot dogs. I think it's nice that some vegetarian substitutes taste like the real stuff because it might be something you miss about meat, and you really don't want to, or can't have any more. I personally became vegetarian because I don't like the taste of meat, but I do really enjoy hot dogs, so I really love these ones.



Those are the only hot foods that I have at a barbecue, but if you have other suggestions, please leave them in the comments below. So now I'm going to move onto the side dishes.

Potato salad is my favourite thing ever. And last summer I made a sweet potato one which was delicious, and a healthier alternative to regular potato salad. Not only is it yummy and healthy, I also think it looks prettier because it is so colourful. And what's more important in the summer than colour, right? You could also make your own coleslaw, but I've never done that, so I would just get store bought., and there is nothing wrong with that occasionally.





You always need to have a salad at your barbecue, and I would stick to a basic one, just filled with roman lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, and some grated carrot. If you wanted to make it more interesting you could add some nuts on top, and some fruit, like apples or strawberries, just to mix it up a bit. But personally for a barbecue I like to leave the salad simple because most of the attention will be on the burgers and hot dogs, and not many people will be all that interested in the side dishes.



You're, of course, going to need buns, now I would go for wholemeal, but some people don't like those so always make sure to get a mixture. Or to save money try and get a half and half pack of buns, like Hovis 50/50, that way both health concious and not so health concious people are happy.



The final food thing you will need is condiments, now this can be whatever you want, but I like to have tomato ketchup, mayonnaise, salad cream, and brown sauce. This is a variety, and there will be at least one thing there for everyone. 



Don't forget drinks, I like to have a variety of soft drinks, like cola, lemonade, orange juice, and squash, as well as some alcohol, like cider, wine, and alcopops. I also like to suggest to people to bring their own drinks, and I've been to a few that rely on that, and that works great too because then everybody is happy.


To me that is all of the essentials you need at a barbecue, other than a barbecue obviously. The rest of the entertainment is completely up to you, personally I would have music on in the background, and let people socialise, because, to me, that is what a barbecue is for.

I think I might to a similar post to this and talk about picnics, with the difference being, I will be making the picnic healthier than a regular picnic, so stay tuned for that, which should be posted in a few weeks :)

Have a beautiful day

Dream beautiful dreams; live beautiful lives

xx



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