playground picnic: hummus & vegetable pita sandwiches

last summer, virtually every friday, i would pack up dinner for the then three of us and winn, roo, and i would visit a local playground for the afternoon. jason would meet us after he got out of work around 5:30. we'd play for a bit more and when we finally decided we're hungry, spread out our picnic dinner. we spent the summer visiting a dozen or so playgrounds, getting to know our favorites and a few we won't be visiting again, and finding dinners suitable for adults and toddlers that are also easily packable, delicious, and not repetitive. it was a challenge. so this summer, i'm going to track those dinners, along with their toddler and preschool friendly versions, since i know from experience the challenge it can be to find a picnic meal to satisfy young ones and adults.

over the last week, our weather finally broke, giving us a couple days of 65+ degree mostly sunny weather. yesterday was a particularly nice day - 70+ and sunny all afternoon. winn asked if we could restart our playground dinners and we were happy to oblige. the weather didn't hold out - by the time we got to the playground, my weather app showed we were already in the blue rain area and the green was coming toward us, the sky was overcast, and the temp had dropped at least 15 degrees. we played anyway. and an hour later, when winn pleaded to eat dinner there, we did, hoping to outlast the rain. we were lucky - at 7:00 when we were the last ones to leave the playground, no rain had yet to fall.

menu

• hummus pita sandwiches filled with plain hummus, sliced cucumber, tomato bruschetta topping, feta cheese, and garlic marinated olives
• clementines
• blue corn tortilla chips
• lemonade
• meyer lemon crinkle cookies and almond joy cookies [not pictured]
• preschooler friendly: half a pita filled with hummus and cheese and cut in half, clementine, chips, water, half a cookie
• toddler friendly: half a pita spread with a thin layer of hummus and cut into bite sized pieces, cut up clementines, water