The Charcoal Challenge

We were recently given £50.00 by Money Supermarket.com to host a Barbecue as part of their Charcoal Challenge competition.

Shock horror – but we don’t actually own a BBQ!  We have a very small patio and limited space, so have never invested in our own piece of kit.  So the first thing to buy were a couple of disposable BBQ’s.  I’d used these before years ago so thought they’d be great for our first family BBQ.

Monkey was very excited about the whole idea and as a special treat we got his bubble machine out – he loved it when the bubbles soared into the sky along with the smoke from our BBQ.  I also bought him a bubble wand for him to have fun with whilst I cooked.  I could have got a lot more budget bargains on the meat front if we’d had a bigger party, but as this was our very first family BBQ I used the money to buy better quality burgers etc.

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com Our BBQ buy

So we were all ready for our first family BBQ, the sun was out and I decided to make my own coleslaw.

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com homemade coleslaw

I’m sure you can buy it cheaper, but I love to mix up my own whenever possible – grated carrot, white cabbage, spring onions and some mayonnaise (sometimes I add a bit of apple too).

We’ve been growing our own vegetables and I had a lot of rocket, so that was a great start for a healthy salad to go with our burgers, kebabs and lamb steaks.

I added avocado, onions, radish, cucumber, peppers, celery, cherry tomatoes and some croutons to the rocket leaves.

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com BBQ salad

I’d bought some wooden skewers and decided to make some chicken kebabs, (next time I’ll marinate the chicken in something overnight for added flavour), I added some cherry tomatoes and red and yellow peppers.

I lit the two disposable BBQ’s, waited until the coals turned grey and we were off.

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com BBQ time

I’d sliced some mozzarella and tomatoes to go with the burgers ….

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com burger fillings

I also made use of some Fresh Gourmet crispy onions to top the burgers off.  They tasted wonderful.  As did the kebabs and minted lamb steaks.

I’d had a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge and decided that the chef had definately done enough to deserve a glass, Daddy P was on lemonade as he had to work last night, and Monkey had an Innocent Apple and Raspberry juice too.

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com Our first family BBQ

For pudding, I scored down three bananas and pushed a Cadbury’s flake bar inside, covered in tin foil and placed on the BBQ for 20 minutes – divine (even for a not so keen on chocolate person as myself!).

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com BBQ baked banana with chocolate flake

I asked Monkey if he had enjoyed his first BBQ – Mummy it was delicious – that made my day 🙂

We ended the afternoon with lots of bubbles ….

http://www.over40andamumtoone.wordpress.com BBQ bubble time

We all really enjoyed our first family BBQ, and will be having another one very soon.  My top tip would be to prepare everything in advance and make sure the kids are entertained while they wait for everything to cook.

disclaimer:  we were sent £50 to spend on our family BBQ for this post