Economical party food that's tasty - any ideas?!
Answers: I'm about to entertain about 120 people for a birthday function and looking for economical party food ideas that are tasty and easier to make and serve.. looking forward to hearing your ideas!
Combine 32 oz of mayonnaise, 32 oz of sour cream, 8 oz of ground parmesan, 1 pack of knorr type dehydrated vegetable soup mix and two boxes of frozen chopped spinach, micro the spinach, cool, squeeze out all water, mix all and serve with potato chips, sliced bread, and those tiny carrots that are cheap and you dont have to cut. Total cost about $12.00, this will feed 30 people, so I guess you will need to do the batch 3 or 4 times the recipe, its really easy and you will blow away the guest with the taste.
Buy jumbo flour tortillas, and grated mixed cheddar & jack cheese, take one tortilla, put cheese all over it and roll it up kinda tight. Cook in a pan w/ seam down, cool the quesadilla rolls a bit, sliced about 7-8 pieces and you have a cool quesadilla that is easy to bite and cut. serve with off the shelf salsa, sour cream .
Thai Chix drummettes, wings, Buy chicken wings, seasoning salt, black pepper, curry powder, can coconut milk, dredge in flour, fry, serve with thai sweet chili sauce serve on the side, you buy the sauce its cheap at an asian store
You could also do the Thai chix w/ inexpensive thigh meat and legs, essentially making allot of Thai BBQ chix, serve with some cheap rice, borrow a rice cooker from a asian friend they all have them. or they can make the rice for you.
Make a spiked cherry punch w/ coolaid, water, sugar, very cheap and nice to drink, buy a bag of crushed ice. spice w/ bacardi.
Buy a watermelon and cut it up, serve with a dip of blueberry yogurt.
buy a couple of bags of frozen meat balls, bake them in the oven then toss in your favorite sauce, sweet and sour, bbq etc.
Have fun
Cat food canape's
Go to Iceland, not the country, the store
Sweet and sour meatballs are easy and inexpensive, just meatballs with equal parts grape jelly and chili sauce in a crockpot. Also spinach dip and tortilla chips are a big hit. Tortilla roll ups, casseroles if you are serving a meal of sorts.
noodles and potatoes are great food streachers,,as well as soups ,stews and chili,if u go with a buffet and have salads,first,then pastas and mash potatoes with ranch dressing ,pastas with cheese etc,then turkey is cheap and ham and desserts can be fruits and cake etc
or a huge weiner roast,chili,s mores
Mini sausages wrapped in smoked bacon (pigs in blankets!),
Prawns on skewers, mixed vegetable skewers (sweet peppers, mushrooms, small whole onions, chunks of sweet potato grilled until slightly charred), mini jacket potatoes topped with cream cheese and chopped sweet peppers, slices of cooked meat on a platter, large bowl of either chili-con-carne or curry with tortillas and pittas. Crunchy, chunky salad with feta cheese in Italian style dressing. Bowls of humus and sour cream, sliced beefsteak tomatoes with sliced onions, bowls of tortillas covered with melted cheese and sour cream.
I did this for a family gathering and it was fab!
Hotdogs and chili.
You can buy 4 or 5 crock pots and fill them up with canned chili, salsa, and maybe some frozen corn and if you can extra cooked meat. Cook the chili on high for 8 hours and then add the hotdogs right into the crock.
Serve with buns and frito chips
Pam
A huge pot of spaghetti, cheese cubes, crackers, veggie trays or subway party trays
Big pots of chili and bolognaise, savoury rice (It doesn't matter if it's cold) , loads of baked spuds and quiches made on round pub trays.
Home made vegetable soup and crusty bread.
That's what I do for large parties.
You don't mention what sort of age the function is for but you could make a big pot of vegetable soup i made one the other day and i put in a butternut squash, one orange pepper an onion a squirt of tomato puree a handful of mixed herbs and a dollop of wholegrain mustard and just boiled it up then blended it all down and it was a beautiful rich orange colour and tasted fab!! just add a swirl of cream to the top and serve in nice bowls serve with a nice roll or hunk of bread. it was really cheap,quick and easy to make made quite abig pot to. obviously you would need to times the ingredients but soup is always a winner. for the main course you could do curry and rice again cheap and easy to make for alot of people or do a buffet type thing and then puddings you could offer fruit or make/buy a large cake/cakes the other day we had a Victoria sponge (sounds boring i know) from Iceland it cost a pound and it was enough for 6-8 generous portions so maybe buy a few of those with maybe a strawberry sliced on the plate or something. Whatever you do I'm sure it will be lovely . Good luck with it.
you can get some of those big party subs or a tray of subs, make shredded beef or turkey in a crock pot for sandwiches, sloppy joes, potato salad, pasta salad, chips and dip, veggie trays, fruit trays
or you can do a Mexican theme and have different meats for tacos like ground beef, shredded chicken, or shredded pork all in crock pots- have all the fixins along side like shredded lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, sour cream, black olives, taco sauce, jalapenos. make big batches of refried beans and Mexican rice in some crock pots also. you can pick up some tamales also, make big platters of taco dip or bean dip- have some kind of Mexican dessert too like Churros or Mexican Wedding Cake.
I have two recipes that are easy and economical to make for a large crowd.
1) Spinach and artichoke dip. This recipe is great served with tortilla chips or pita bread, and is a real crowd pleaser. You can make a giant batch and keep it warm in the oven on low heat. Here is a link to the recipe I use:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/...
2) Cocktail weiners wrapped in Pillsbury croissants. Buy a couple packages of cocktail weiners and a couple rolls of the Pillsbury croissants. When you are unrolling the croissants, cut each one in half, forming two pieces. Simply roll up one of the weiners in the crossiant and follow the baking instructions on the side of the roll. When you are ready to serve, put on a platter and insert toothpicks for ease. Serve with some spicy mustard.
I hope these help! Have a great party!
Yep !!! Go to iceland; great choice of party food at great prices......