Hands up who loves BBQ's?? They define summer and offer the 'men' a chance to show off their skills (or lack of!) at cooking big chunky food on the BBQ! As a vegetarian I don't see a BBQ as full of kebab's, beef burgers, marinated chicken etc, I enjoy the humble vegetable burger, hallumi kebabs, corn on the cob and of course the mass of salads always on offer!! So when money supermarket.com announced they were hosting the Charcoal Challenge I was very excited! They gave bloggers £50 to host their own BBQ, allowing bloggers to show their creative flair on a limited budget.
I initially thought about decorations, I have a relatively small garden so it's easier to decorate on a budget! I bought some beanbag cubes from a sale at my local Tesco, they were only £6 each and were perfect! As it got darker we laid them together and watched the stars. I also bought a gorgeous Moroccan style lantern for when it got darker, which was £10.
Also as part of the decoration I thought about a cheap, yet stylish way of serving the food and drinks. I bought some Milk Bottles (£1 each) and thought they'd be perfect as unique glasses, along with a stripy pink paper straw (99p for 25 from Home Bargains). I served Mojito in the milk bottles, as it's a perfect refreshing BBQ drink!
I also visited the recent 'next' sale and bought two plastic matching summery wine glasses for £1 each - perfect for something bubbly! I also bought some flowery plates for £1.49 and pink spotty napkins for £1 from Sainsbury's.
We had corn on the cob with chilli butter, homemade vegetable burgers (meat eaters had marinated pork belly), lentil salad, green leaf salad, shredded courgette salad and fresh white bread rolls. For dessert we had old school pink wafers, sweet popcorn served in cute bowls (reduced to 50p from TK Maxx) and more mojitos :)
Have you been enjoying BBQ's this summer?
