Summertime is the best time to hang out by the pool with family and friends, to enjoy their company and good food while basking under the sun. Having a pool party is a way to kick back a little, allowing for a bit of fun and much needed relaxation at the end of a busy week. It is also a great time to entertain guests with delicacies that are both nourishing and refreshing at the same time. Since you would expect that guests would be swimming during a pool party, the food that you should prepare should be easy to carry around, easy to eat and easy to digest. Here are some great pool party food ideas.
Appetizers
A great idea for a refreshing appetizer is a vegetable platter, which contains peeled baby carrots, broccoli florets and celery sticks served with a bowl of dipping sauce. You can also serve cheddar cheese cut in small squares, each one topped with a piece of ham cut in the same manner. Put the ham and cheese squares together using toothpicks. Guests can easily move around and mingle as they pick up a few of these healthy appetizers. Other choices of appetizers are fried chicken wings, buffalo chicken wings and crackers served with spinach dip.
Salads
Serve a bowl of fresh mixed greens consisting of spinach leaves, cucumber and baby lettuce. Use white or red wine vinaigrette mixed with olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper as dressing. You may also opt for a potato salad instead of mixed greens. When serving the salads, keep them chilled and fresh by placing ice underneath each bowl.
Entrees
Serve grilled beef, pork and fish as entrees. You may also grill some hamburger patties to make burger sandwiches. Don’t forget about the little ones. Serve them with grilled hot dogs and cheese pizzas. When serving the hot dogs and hamburgers, heat up the buns on the barbecue grill to make them toasty.
Side Dishes
If you have a bigger budget to work with, you can also add a seafood platter consisting of shrimp cocktails and slices of fresh raw fishes–the ones you normally find at sushi bars. If you have enough time to prepare, you could also make some sushi rolls and spring rolls.
Drinks
Serve some fruit punches, virgin for minors and with alcohol for the adults. Keep plenty of canned or bottled juice and water in a cooler near the pool to provide nourishment for those who are swimming or mingling nearby. Lemonades would also come in handy for the young ones. Another great choice is to serve coconut juice, whether fresh or frozen ones, that you can buy from an Asian supermarket.
Desserts
A platter of assorted fresh fruits is a great choice of dessert for a poolside party. Choose tropical fruits such as pineapples, watermelons, mangoes, bananas, oranges and strawberries. You can slice the pineapples, mangoes and watermelons into several pieces and leave the smaller fruits unsliced. Ice candies and cotton candies are great choices for kids. Ice cream on a cone may not be the best choice for a poolside party, for it can easily melt and be messy, however, you can substitute it with a fruit sorbet served in a plastic bowl or a cup.
