(Indoor) Picnic Birthday Party!

My baby is 1! We through her a big birthday party in her grandma & grandpa’s backayard with a picnic style lunch. Simple munchies to start – tortilla chips, salsa, pita chips, veggies and hummus. An assortment of salads: simple green, potato, and pasta. For the main event, we catered wraps, because I am not super mom and had to farm out some of the work. It’s good to admit when we’re not perfect. Dessert: Blondies (because she got her daddy’s hair. If my genes had been stronger we would’ve had brownies), made by my fantastic-best-friend-since-4^th-grade, Ariel, fruit salad, and a home-made and –decorated birthday cake. It was the largest party I’ve ever organized and hosted. And it was fantastic!

And now for the recipes:

A mega batch of Picnic Potato Salad (I used 9 lbs of potatoes, so 6 times that recipe!)

Pasta Salad (my mother-in-law’s recipe):

1 package of pasta (we used rotini)

Chopped celery, green onion, red pepper, zucchini and broccoli (wing it, keep chopping until it looks like a good amount!)

For the dressing, we mixed together red wine vinegar and olive oil (I wish I could remember the amounts, but I don't! I'm sure you could wing it and figure it out to taste), plus 1/2 tsp of oregano, basil and garlic powder. Salt & pepper to taste and add a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. It tastes best after at least a night in the fridge.

Kid’s pasta salad:

Frozen Mediterrenean Veggie blend from Whole Foods (zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, onion, green bean..) steamed, chopped into baby-sized bits, mixed with orzo, topped with a splash of orzo and a sprinkle of dried basil and oregano.

Fruit salad (a bit of everything that looked good at the market - strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, grapes, and peaches)

Blondies (recipe from Smitten Kitten, with chocolate chips added because chocolate chips are delicious)

Birthday Cake (Lemony Vanilla variation of the basic vanilla cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes take over the World, multiplied by 8, with vanilla buttercream from the same book, covered with Wilton fondant) 

Finished product

Being enjoyed by one of our little guests