Of course, "doctoring" some baked beans always works.
Four bean salad is one of my favorites.
There's an awesome, easy fruit salad posted on my "Picnic Foods that Hold Well" thread. Lots of other ideas too!
I like deli baked chicken..........oh! Whoops, veggie's, huh?

Shrimp cocktails (pre-cooked shrimp and jarred sauce or just mix ketchup and horseradish with a bit of garlic and wortecershire). Dang! Meat again.

OK, I'm making Quinoa Salad with Strawberries and Cucumbers in a light Sesame Ginger Dressing this weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Avocado, tomato, sprout, cream cheese wrap.
Black bean, corn, tomato salad (could use all canned stuff), add a bit of chopped onion, some cumin and sour cream, fresh cilantro if you like it.

I love cold veggie stuff when it's hot, so I try to keep a bunch of prepped raw veggies in the fridge. Grab 'n' go!

Marinated veggies of all sorts. Toss with light or fat free italian dressing.

Ummmm...........that's it for this brain burst!

Deanna

It doesn't sound like you need ideas so much as you have really good ideas already!

My picnic ideas are usually pretty complex but I have been inspired by your creativity!

I'm thinking of last Monday's mountain bike to the lake. My guy made a great meal that took a long time to make but I bet it could be turned into a quick fare easily.

The original and time consuming project:

Tuscan styled navy bean salad~
Soak dry navy beans overnight, cook until tender, let cool in fridge.
Add chopped roasted red peppers, minced raw garlic, dried rosemary leaves, chopped fresh basil, cooked bay shrimp or chopped larger shrimp, black pepper, lots of balsamic vinegar, chopped fresh tomato and a dash of lemon juice.

Baked chicken with mole sauce altered to taste like something Mediteranian~
Slather chicken breast with left-over home-made mole sauce (tomato paste, cocoa, onion, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, cumin, chopped oven roasted jalapeno, vinegar etc) but add marjoram and crushed rosemary leaves to the sauce first, bake, cool then slice into small portions.

Caesar salad.

He put one serving of each dish into our little tin lunch boxes (the kind that stack, like in India or China, we got them from cost plus world market), one three-tiered lunch box for each of us.

Ride bikes out to the lake and enjoy. Leave before the mosquitoes start to bite.

This could be made with canned beans, pre-cooked shrimp and the chicken could be whatever you have left-over from the previous meal with a little flavor adjustment so no one knows it is a left-over.

Not sure how that sounds but we scarfed it down with big smiles!

One thing I like for picnics are savoury "cakes". You can freeze slices and just whip some out of the freezer and they can defrost on the way to your picnic.
One idea, feta and herb.
in a bowl put 180G flour, 200g crumbled feta, a couple handfuls chopped herbs - mint, parsley, basil..., & sachet of baking powder, 100g parmesan, then in another bowl mix 3 eggs and 100ml oil and 100ml milk. Add wet to dry, mix and bake in a loaf tin for 1 hour.
They're lovely with tuna and lemon zest, roasted veggies... the options are endless.

One of my favorite picnic meals is one of the simplest. A really good loaf or baguette, some full flavored cheese (I am partial to a nice, ripe brie, but if you're watching fat another choice might be wiser), ripe, seasonal fruit (strawberries, grapes or peaches being favorites) and a bottle of wine. Heaven.

Other times, if I want to mess about a bit more, I love grilled chicken as I can make it the day before and it's great cold or room temp. Potato, mixed grains or cous cous salad of some sort. Raw veggies with salt, olive oil and za'atar or a dip.

A really nice "dress up" for a simple sandwich and chip picnic, is a thermos of chilled gazpacho or, if it's a cloudy, chilly hike type picnic, a thermos of hot soup.

For drinks (other than wine!) I often fill empty juice or water bottles partway with water, freeze them solid, and then simply add some tap water to fill. Ice water is so nice if you've been hiking or otherwise enjoying yourself in the sun. I also freeze empty yogurt or tupperware containers of lemonade and put them into a Coleman jug of iced tea or punch...they chill it nicely, and add flavor without watering it down the way plain ice would.

Doesn't have to be vegetarian, I often cook for meat eaters and even eat with them. No red meat though, and I try to stick to the healthy cuts. I LOVE the idea of cold shrimp, but sadly I gave it up for ecological reasons. Shrimp was just about my favorite food! That's one reason I'm a conservationist btw, I love to eat seafood that comes from healthy ecosystems. That sadly may be a thing of the past, but I don't want this to turn into a discussion of the sad state of the world! Not while STRAWBERRIES are in season!
When I was a kid mom used to put out smoked oysters from the tin for picnincs. I loved them too!

Oh I forgot to add one more idea, orange juice with lime juice. My mom used to make that, it was just reconstituted frozen orange juice (the big tube) mixed with the smaller tube of lime juice. Everyone always raved about that "exotic" drink. Another one I do is mint lemonade, luckily I have fresh mint growing in my yard. I can throw some frozen strawberries in it before I go out the door.

Thanks for reminding me about that tuscan bean salad, JCL, I used to make a version if it all the time but have gotten out of the practice. I even have navy beans on hand in the pantry.

I need to get in the practice of prepping raw veggies in batches so I have them ready to go in an instant for snacks, etc. My mom always used to do that.

In the summer, I often feel like a short order cook for my extended family. I often make wraps, roll them up for an hour or so and then slice and serve. I vary the ingredients, but either hummus or baba ganoush (that can't be spelled right) serves as the base. Usually a bed of mesclun salad on top, thinly sliced tomatoes, and some sort of deli meat. Or, I love putting just goat cheese down and then lettuce and roasted chicken. Roasted peppers go great in that one too.
I cut each wrap in thirds because we all love to mix and match.
Jo

"One of my favorite picnic meals is one of the simplest. A really good loaf or baguette, some full flavored cheese (I am partial to a nice, ripe brie, but if you're watching fat another choice might be wiser), ripe, seasonal fruit (strawberries, grapes or peaches being favorites) and a bottle of wine. Heaven."

Rachelellen took the words out of my mouth. A kitchen isn't required for this picnic, just a deli. The baguette might be sourdough and I might add a piece of sausage (although I know you would not). This picnic can be made while traveling away from home. I've done this picnic in Napa Valley, California while visiting wineries and in Stratford, Ontario while attending the Shakespeare Festival, two very memorable picnics.

Jim

lpink, what else do you add to the coleslaw mix besides the poppyseed dressing? My coleslaw always leaves a lot to be desired, IMO. I'm loving some of these ideas. Good thread!

Thanks, jude

Jude, that is the weird and wonderful thing about that coleslaw "secret." I just buy the bagged colseslaw ( buy 1/2 purple and 1/2 white if you want to be adventurous, lol!) and pour on the dressing. I brought it to a potluck picnic at work once when I was working at a biological research station (small group) and it was just my "desperation" offering, and it was a big hit. I don't know the name of the brand of poppyseed dressing I used, but it came from the fridge/produce section of the grocery, and it was probably a somewhat higher end product. After that point, you can throw in whatever else you like in your coleslaw. One interesting addition I like sometimes are peas, which you can toss in the frozen ones out of a bag real simple. But that's not part of my poppyseed coleslaw secret recipe.

Another easy peasy dressing, which I think would work good with coleslaw although I eat it on salads a lot, is mayo with a healthy glob of dijon mustard and dill weed. A friend turned me on to that quick and dirty secret dressing. I call it "California Dan's Secret Dressing." Don't tell anyone! You could add honey if you like coleslaw sweeter and thin it with milk or yogurt of whatever. Another quick and dirty coleslaw secret is to add celery seed if you don't have celery to put in it or like celery from a texture standpoint. That's something else I learned from my mom, she put celery seed in a lot of things because dad had "celery issues." :)

Thank you so much, lpink! I may turn out to be the coleslaw queen of my family, yet.

Poppy seed dressing reminds me that I posted a recipe for Chick Pea salad on the Beans Cookalong 21 thread that is excellent.I don't know how to move it to this thread, but if you have time to check it out I think you'll like it.

jude

I splurged and got a whole grain baguette, it was FAB! Also saw that white bean salad with balsamic vinagrette at the deli, and took it home and dolled it up with tuna and olives. Have been chowing on the leftovers from the picnic all weekend. I couldn't find St. Andre which is my favorite soft cheese, so I got Port Salut.

Your weather must not be as hot and humid as it is here! I fear I would just melt into a big blob of fat at an outside venture such as a picnic. That does not stop me from enjoying reading about the ventures/adventures of others and soome of these ideas sound great!

jude

Well actually the weather for picnics has been kind of awful here lately. I went hiking at a local park Saturday and then picnicked afterwards and it was OK but not the greatest weather, that's for sure. Sunday's "picnic" was on the floor in the living room, due to that being the only room I had the AC on in, and also due to the tables in the kitchen and dining room being full of junk.

I had to smile when you mentioned tables being filled with junk...I'm probably going to drown in a sea of magazines, many of them cooking magazines. No I'm not that good a cook, love to read about the recipes and look at the "pretty" pictures.

I have hundreds of cookbooks, gardening books and books on herbs in pristine condition. It's a sickness. DH says they are on every table and chair in the house Which is not quite true but uncomfortably close. I believe "misery loves company" might be appropriate.

Now that I have discovered the cooking forum, that's where I go for recipes. Everyone is so kind and helpful and it's a heck of a lot quicker than thumbing through a gazillion cookbooks. Plus...these peope know HOW to cook (and take pretty pictures).

jude

I thought I would resurrect this post today after I found this link to MS "Real Simple" ideas for 1/2 homeade, 1/2 store bought picnics.
This is going to become my new standard way of cooking, lol!

Here is a link that might be useful: 4 Fast, Delicious Picnics