5 Amazingly Fun Dining Experiences for Family and Friends

Whether you plan to go out or want to eat at home, you can easily change up those family meals by altering the presentation. You can also swap out the time, eating breakfast for dinner or just having healthy snacks instead of a hot dinner. Finally, a food adventure featuring something you’ve never eaten before is also a wonderful way to expand palates.

Have a Tapas Night

Tapas, or small dishes in Spanish, are a wonderful way to customize delicious food selections for every member of your family. If your little ones are sensitive to the intense flavors that you love, doing a tapas night means that your little ones can enjoy cheese and grapes while you celebrate with marinated olives and cheese, loaded with the intense flavor and aroma of balsamic vinegar.

Small plates make it easy to serve those

  • dealing with food allergies
  • trying to go keto
  • in love with loads of different flavors

To make sure the children feel included, do your best to present the milder food choices in the same way as the fancier things. Fresh fruit on a skewer may actually get more Vitamin C and fiber in your little one.

Make Brinner

Brinner is more than eating a bowl of cereal before bed, though that can be helpful if you’re exhausted and hungry. Another simple way to protect your energy during a crazy busy week is to use your crockpot. A simple combination of frozen hash browns, cheese and eggs can cook while you’re away from home and be easily amended with bacon or sausage.

If you have a bit more time, try a French toast bake. These dishes can be made up in the morning, left to meld during the day, and popped into the oven when you get home. Do make sure to use glass to bake these dishes, and go ahead and let the pan warm up as the oven heats to avoid the risk of breakage. If the baking dish is just cool, there should be no risk, but there’s no reason to risk it.

Snackfest!

If your little ones are especially picky or really struggle to try new foods, change up the packaging to provide variety to other family members. A fun way to introduce a new food is to try it in reusable snack containers with multiple cells. These DIY “Lunchable” containers can also protect your budget.

In one, you can put nuts and dried fruit. In another, you can place pretzels and dip. A third can contain carrots and hummus and the next one can include salami and crackers. If you can find them, get these containers in multiple colors for the base container so you can separate them out before putting them in lunch containers. If your pickiest eaters absolutely can’t like a particular cheese or other product, you can use those colors to remind yourself that cheddar never goes in the purple containers.

Bring Home Sushi

For those who love sushi and need a change, it’s time to let your family try some sushi! Under Wraps Sushi, experts of handrolls in Utah, says sushi is casual and fun for the whole family. Itโ€™s easy to find something to accommodate even the pickiest of eaters. The key to enjoying sushi is to scale up what you like in the raw state, whether it be meat or vegetables. There are even plenty of options that contain fully cooked meat and veggies. If you’ve never had sushi before, start with maki and try to stick with cooked, chilled fish, such as crab or steamed shrimp.

If you love a particular fish, take care when trying it raw. For example, if you love the flavor of seared scallops, the raw version may not offer the same sweet, savory flavor. When you’re ready to scale up to a handroll, stick with fish that you know you enjoy.

Try Gourmet Baked Potatoes

Baked potatoes can be customized and turned gourmet with one primary ingredient. It’s fat. For example, you can bake your potatoes, cut them in half, scoop them out, and mix the filling with

  • butter
  • cream cheese
  • steamed crab or crab salad
  • parmesan cheese

The fat from the butter and the cream cheese will seep into the flesh of the potato and turn the entire potato into an infusion of sweet crab and smooth cream cheese. Other combinations include leftover steak and garlic, leftover dark poultry meat and gravy, or portabella mushrooms with butter and soy sauce.

Jeff Campbell