Party Food: Kids' Favorites

Here are some foods that are hits with just about all kids. To be on the safe side, consider including at least some of these on your menu:

• Baby carrots with ranch dressing
• Cheese (cheese cubes and especially string cheese)
• Chick'n nuggets with dips or BBQ sauce
• Cookies
• Floats (ice-cream with root beer, cola or orange soda)
• French Fries
• Fruit (grapes, strawberries, fruit kabobs, raisins, leathers/roll-ups)
• Goldfish crackers
• Ice-Cream (cones, sundaes (requires syrup, whipped cream, cherries, sprinkles, candy pieces) or buy little prepackaged ice-cream cups, ice-cream bars or sandwiches if you want to avoid the mess)
• Juice (freeze brightly-colored juice in ice cube trays and serve with clear soda or juice; if you're concerned about spills, buy light colored drinks like apple juice or lemon lime soda and fill cups only half full for younger children)
• Mini hot dogs or hamburgers
• Nachos, chips & dips
• Pasta (spaghetti and other fun shaped pastas (bow ties, bunnies, etc.) - caution some kids don't like tomato sauce, so have butter and cheese as an option)
• Pizza (on pitas, English muffins, or if ordering from pizza parlor, order largest size you can use and ask them to cut it "party style" (small diamonds or squares) to avoid slices that are too big and hard to handle)
• Popcorn (Jiffy Pop is especially fun or set up a "topping buffet" with taco/BBQ seasoning, Parmesan cheese, Italian herbs, and cinnamon sugar)
• Popsicles
• Sandwiches (make finger sandwich with peanut butter or cheese spreads, trim crusts and cut into 4 squares or triangles)
• Sherbet (some kids just love this stuff, especially the rainbow kind, which makes great-looking floats with clear soda)
• Tater tots or McCain's "SMILES" potato snacks