Living Today: Affordable Family Fun

Picnic Trends — Take your family outdoors for a summer meal!

Wraps are winning when it comes to sandwiches.

* The reason is that they’re new and trendy — a nice twist on the old standby sandwich.

* They’re also healthier since wraps have less sugar and flour in them than bread does.

* In addition, there are spinach wraps and tomato wraps that give you a little veggie in your bread, making the bread even more healthful.

* Lettuce wraps are even trendier when you serve thai or chinese food in lettuce cups or wrapped in lettuce making your food lo-calorie and highly inventive.

Chips are no longer just potato.

*Vegetable chips are the hip chip.

*Baked chips are even hipper than fried chips.

*Banana chips are great for those hikes before the picnic because they’re such instant energy.

A jug of wine is so yesterday.

Wine boxes that come with a sippy straw have replaced splits and mini-splits of wine. For a romantic picnic twist that breaks the mold of the bottle and corkscrew, consider wine in kid-like boxes and mini-cans.

Listen up.

Then there’s mood music. You don’t need your own personal mariachi band or giant boom box to create a picnic mood. An MP3 player with an extra set of ear phones — or even more romantic — one ear bud for each of you — will bring you and your picnic date closer, physically, and you’ll share the same music and MP3 player and music.

Get off the picnic blanket

Bring a frisbee, a ball for catch, a kite, some knitting, checkers, scrabble and a pillow for a nap!