Cold main dish for this Friday's kids soccer group potluck? HELP
 

Like the title says I need to bring a main dish for this Friday's soccer group potluck. It will be about 3 hours before they will eat so I want to bring a cold main dish suitable for parents and kids plus easy and affordable for me. It needs to be for 10 people. At this point I can only think of buns with cheese and cold cuts but I am not sure if that is main dish enough.

I like using the wraps, rolling them tightly and cutting them into pinwheels. They are easier to handle than a sandwich and you can see what is in them. You could do a spinach wrap (veggie) with leaf lettuce, shredded carrots, slivered cucumbers, slivered green olives, a little feta cheese and toss it in a little Italian dressing for extra taste. Use the original wrap with leaf lettuce, strips of tomato, deli cheese and deli meat. You could add baby carrots and apple slices to the tray and I think that would be enough to call it a main dish.

Pasta salad! I like to use the multicolored veggie rotini, canned 3-bean salad, artichoke hearts, green peas, and imitation crab meat (or chicken). Then I toss it all with ceasar dressing and douse it good with parmesan cheeze.

Multi colored pasta spirals, cut cucumbers, diced peppers, diced cheese. pepperoni slices, cut celery, Italian dressing.....mixed and put on ice till ready to serve!

Chicken SaladShredded chicken breasts, grapes cut in half or quarters, celery sliced on the diagonal and mayo to hold together. Youcan add shivered almonds if you like.

I was going to suggest a cold pasta salad as well. All of the above suggestions are great for mix-ins. Make ahead, chill in the fridge for however long and away you go!

Hmmm maybe this in tortilla skins like the above mentioned roll up. I thought the tri colored pasta salad sounded good but none of the kids did. Go figure.

How would I keep the roll up skin/tortilla from getting soggy?

I pat the lettuce until it's dry and squeeze the cukes, tomatoes and olives in paper towels until they are dry. I mix the veggies & torn lettuce in a bowl and put in a very small amount of Italian dressing, not enough to soak the wrap. Don't use mayo or mustard in the meat roll up and make sure any veggies you add are dry. If you make the roll ups about an hour before you go they shouldn't be soggy or wet. Chicken salad can be used but I do the whole veggie wrap (cut it in half) and add a lettuce leaf to hold the chicken salad in the wrap. Using celery instead of grapes helps make the Chicken salad drier. Chicken salad seems to fall out of a pin wheel to easily.

My favorite go to is Taco Salad. The bowl is always empty when I bring it home

This sounds interesting. How do you make it?
[QUOTE=Oneta;7699995]My favorite go to is Taco Salad. The bowl is always empty when I bring it home[/QUO

Oh, this sounds so good.. never thought of the 3 bean salad...do you drain it?

What do you put in it? I am looking for an empty dish. Do you think kids will like it? OK I need to shop tomorrow.

'This is a good taco salad recipe.
http://www.food.com/recipe/best-taco...#activity-feed

Put the chips in last minute. Tastes great!!

5 bean salad. If you live near Costco they have it already made in jars and it is delicious and cheap.

My crowd pleaser pasta salad starts with spiral noodles, canned (rinsed) beans in three varieties, chopped whatever I have veggies, chopped black olives (could substitute green). To this I add chicken, tuna, salmon, diced ham, crab, or shrimp whatever I have or has been requested (by whoever has to drive the farthest), and top wth "zesty" Italian dressing, and served with croutons on the side since I hate croutons.

OK I am trying this one. Several of my kids choose this one. I already made the dressing. Thank you all for your help.

Keeping this one for another time as I really like legumes. Great recipes. Thank you quilters for your help!

Bet the kids would like a walking taco. Put the taco fixings on top of an open mini bag of corn chips.

I put a very thin layer of butter on the wrap or flatbread, then a large romaine lettuce leaf before the chicken salad. The young man I cook lunch for doesn't eat both wraps the same day, so the lettuce keeps the mayo from soaking into the wrap. The lettuce doesn't get soggy if it's patted dry. I use dried cherries or cranberries instead of grapes in chicken salad for sandwiches. His has pecans, too, but kids might not care for that.

What a great ideas! I will do the walking taco another time as I just bought a big bag of corn chips but I agree I think they would really like that too as well as some adults.

I was wondering both about using a little butter and replacing the grapes with raisins or cranberries. I will make this for my family as for now I am all set with the taco salad. Pecans or walnuts sounds yummy to me but my kids don't like it either. tough luck. LOL They'll be in it as will be some mustard. I will use left over turkey for this recipe. I just had lunch how can I already crave food again.

I found some cherry flavored dried cranberries. Same price as dried cranberries and no added chemicals. Yummy.

It needs to b kid friendly, do kids like 3 bean salad?? not my kids or grandkids, i bet a taco salad and u could also take nacho chips to use with it, oh wait, how long before they eat, i dont know if the meat could set out very long. hmmmm

I assume that if you have a cold dish in mind, you'll have a way to keep things cold. I always make a chicken salad. I buy a bag of precooked cubed chicken, bread cubes, shredded Swiss cheese, finely chopped onion and celery, and mix in mayonaise. You can vary the propotions to fit your needs. It can also be heated up and served hot.

I used this recipe and it was a great success. I also made my own catalina dressing to go in it saving a couple dollars. It was very easy to make and everyone raved about it.

http://www.food.com/recipe/clone-kra...dressing-44124

Thank you for all your help.