First Picnic using Blog menu and picnic paraphrenalia

I thought it would be fun to follow up on the menu I designed and posted on my blog. We did go on our first Healthy Living Picnic this past weekend. It was so hot, it was the perfect night for a picnic. We got out our new picnic basket, plates, silverware and cups...none of which had even been washed!
I also got busy preparing the food. This is what we had-

Appetizer- Green Olives
Main Course- Oven Baked Fried Chicken
Salad- Tropical Cucumber Salad & Blanched Haricot Vert in Lite Balsamic Vinaigrette
Dessert- Rainier Cherries & Homemade Date Bars

The green olives I got from the Deli in our local Safeway. I chose the ones marinated in garlic. The Oven Fried chicken was delicious. I used the recipe I posted in my "Picnic" blog. Definitely a repeat...it was moist and satisfied the "fried" part of the expectation. One of the tricks to making it crispy was the baking soda added to the flour mixture...it worked! The Tropical Cucumber Salad was also the same recipe I posted in the picnic blog. It is made with fresh mango and has avocado in it as well. It was the perfect summer salad. It was bursting with flavor. The Haricot Vert were so easy to make and a fun finger food to nosh on. The Rainier cherries were "to die for". They have such a brief season they make for a very special treat. Our friend brought the date bars which were a healthy version, although I know were not the lowest in calorie! A worthy treat on a hot summer's night shared with friends and family.

All-in-all it was a great picnic and re-affirmed that picnics can be fun, pretty easy to organize and possible to make healthy. A part of a Healthy Living Lifestyle.

Note: The cheese you see in the photo was brought for our vegetarian friend...