Happy National Picnic Day! We love a good picnic, be it catching the weekend sunrise with a few bagels and smoked salmon, or premade sandwiches for lunch at a local park or even a light charcuterie afternoon happy hour before the Texas heat gets too scorching. There’s no wrong way to do a picnic but here is some food for thought as you start planning yours to celebrate:

• Beverages
  • Pending on the time of day you are going on your picnic you’ve got quite a few options! We like suggesting having two options with the first being water. It could be anything from plain water, fancy water, or even sparkling water. The point here is to make sure you are staying hydrated! The second option being a fun addition whether it is hot coffee, cold brew, shelf stable milk, 100% juice, canned wine, and the list goes on. Just make sure to know your crowd!

• Food
  • Breakfast: maybe some eggs from the hotbar line, yogurt parfait or fresh pre-cut fruit, smoked salmon from seafood counter, mini bagels from the bread aisle and don’t forget the starbucks on the way out and you’ve just assembled the perfect weekend breakfast picnic. Where’s our invite?
  • Lunch: Ready meals would be our go to here along with some pre-chopped fruit and vegetables found in the produce section. Again, be sure to shop the ad to see if there are any particular items on sale to sweeten your picnic up!
  • Snack/Dinner: charcuterie has gained an insane amount of popularity over the last few years and we want to make sure you’re on trend if you haven’t heard of it yet. By nature it means meat and cheese but to make it more colorful and rib sticking think in terms of ‘MyPlate’. By creating a ‘MyPlate’ you have a fruit, vegetable, grain, protein, and dairy component (so a snack pack essentially when you were a kid). You can make this as easy as opening a few containers and tearing off the loaf of bread or having it perfectly curated for the social media shot, it’s up to you!
    
• Accessories
  • Serveware – think cups and plates. Do you need them or is your food perfectly packed like a ready meals strawberry fields salad and a lite chicken salad sandwich? Or are you doing a low maintenance charcuterie platter and eating off the plate with just your hands? 
  • Utensils – think forks, knives, napkins, cups. Again, this all depends on the type of picnic you are having! But always bring napkins
  • Hand Sanitizer – there’s no shortage of this lately! Since you probably won’t have access to running water to wash your hands pre and prior to indulging make sure to have some hand sanitizer as an easy way to clean up.
  • Blankets/Pillows – pending on where you are going you might want to bring a tablecloth, or a blanket and maybe some pillows, or even a yoga mat if you don’t want to use your blankets outside.
  • Trash bag – if wherever you’re headed doesn’t have trash cans be sure to save and reuse your grocery bag to throw away items