Build Your Own Slider Bar for Dinner

Have you missed me? I hope not. I can’t believe it’s been almost two weeks since my last post. But since I also can’t believe we are halfway through summer and there’s still so much that needs to happen before the school year and new baby, I decided I needed a break! Unless dinner or recipes ideas like a build your own slider bar inspire me to pop-in and share. While I don’t have an exact recipe to provide you with, I felt extra excited to write this post because, well, I LOVE BURGERS. BEEF. Gimme burger night every night and I’m one happy woman. My family? Well, I’m SLOWLY rubbing off on them with our build your own slider bar. Or so that’s what I’m telling myself after our semi-successful meal.

I’ve been wanting the kids to branch out from hot dogs and so this summer I’ve been on a mission to get them accustomed to burgers. Or foods grilled other than sausages. Like I said, this was only round one, and it was semi-successful. Our build your own slider bar was semi-successful for 3 big reasons: Joey, Anthony, and Lily all ate something different, but they all chose from the same burger bar. Here’s how it panned out:

Lily didn’t touch her burger but ate bites of Mom’s until she hit a taste of mustard. She then ate some cucumbers and avocado to finish her meal.
Anthony took a bite of his slider [which had a nibble of beef that either hit his mouth or the floor] and then he ate the top bun with cheese. He continued his meal with cucumber slices dipped in ketchup.
Joey ate an entire slider with cheese. Of course. And none of the veggie sides.
Ted and me? Well, we ate ours differently too. I like mine classic with tomato, mustard, ketchup, cheese, and bun. And Ted likes his with BBQ sauce, cheese, and this sautéed veggie mixture of mushrooms, onion, green pepper, and a little A1 sauce.

Three little people. Three different people. Can’t expect them to like the same food all the time, am I right?! Unless it’s a vanilla milkshake. Clearly they are all enjoying that one!

I typically always have the fixings for slider night on hand, so when the idea hit me to do an actual build your own slider bar for dinner, I just picked up some pre-made slider patties and buns from Kroger. I love the convenience of not having to form my own patty [anyone else a little weirded out by touching raw ground meat?! I think it’s a pregnancy aversion this time around] AND it’s so cool that there are slider buns available for purchase. I love a cute meal, and guys, this one was just cute [and tasty] to me!

Here’s the sautéed veggie mixture I mentioned on Ted’s burger above. This is also delicious on grilled sausages, grilled sirloin steaks, or as an addition to panini sandwiches. All I did was heat olive oil in the pan, sautee the veggies on high, and then stirred in a tablespoon or two of A1 sauce before taking it off the heat.

Again, no real recipe to share and not many pictures. But I think you get the idea! Even though it took me longer to set-up our build your own slider bar for dinner than it took us to actually eat, I’m penciling this one in as a go-to meal idea to keep on rotation!

Just because it’s such a “cute meal,” I had to share the slider bar picture again!

Does your family have “build your own” nights? What’s your favorite?