Farm Theme Party Food Ideas

Last week marked the second birthday of my little nugget, my nephew Owen.  I helped my sis-in-law plan, and it turned out to be a great time!  As you will see from the photos, we had plenty of fun, great ideas from Pinterest, and creativity played a huge roll!  I loved spending time on the DIY projects, and even came up with a fun and cute centerpeice idea that was a hit with kids and adults!

Below are my recipes for BBQ meatballs (home-made and gluten free!), and a hot cheesy corn dip I call 'Farm Fresh' Corn Dip.  

GLUTEN FREE BBQ Meatballs:

I won't lie - I cheated by using a store bought gluten free BBQ sauce that I doctored up.... 

What you need

2 lbs ground meat of your choice

2 cups Gluten free pretzels, crush or ground in a food processor

A teaspoon of garlic powder

Salt and Pepper, to taste

BBQ sauce of choice

Honey

Balsamic vinegar

In a large bowl, combine ground meat, ground pretzels, garlic powder and salt and pepper.  Make sure ingredients are well incorporated, without over mixing.  Handling the meat too much will make it tougher.

Form the meatballs to about 1 1/2 inches around and place on a baking sheet

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until light pink in the center (usually checking one is enough - they will cook further in the next step)

Once cooked, remove and place in a crock pot.  Add BBQ sauce, drizzle about 1/4 cup honey and 2 tspn balsamic vinegar over the meatballs.  Let them cook for approximately 2-4 hrs before serving, stirring once or twice in that time to make sure the honey and balsamic get mixed in.

'Farm Fresh' Hot Corn Dip

Again, I kind of cheated because I used a ready mixed tex mex frozen corn that had green and red pepper and onion already in the bag.  I can call it 'farm fresh' because our local grocery store, Wegmans flash freezes fresh veggies, and it is often said these veggies are even fresher than the fresh produce because they are picked at the prime time and frozen almost immediately! Thank you Wegmans!! 

What you need

One bag corn with peppers and onions (ex: Wegmans Tex Mex Corn)

3 cups cheese (I used 1 cup cheddar, two Colby jack)

Mayonnaise (approx 2 cups) - I used light to make it a little less bad for you!

In a mixing bowl, combine corn mix and cheese.  Slowly add in mayo until it has a thin coat over all the other ingredients.  Transfer the mix to a crock pot, and leave on low for about two hours - you can cook this higher, but make sure to stir and turn down as soon as it melts so that it doesn't burn.

If you wish, season with salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of cumin or a southwest seasoning mix!

Serve with tortilla chips!  This recipe is also gluten free, as long as you check that your dipping chips are as well!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pal's special day, and I hope it gives you ideas for your parties!  Until next time, have good food, good company, and show your Buffalove!!