Buffet food?!
cheers! x
Answers: i'm doing a buffet for 150/200 people and wondered if any body had any ideas for cheap but nice buffet food?
cheers! x
The cheapest would be platters of sliced deli meats and cheeses, with baskets of assorted rolls (different mustards & mayo) .... a gigantic fruit salad ... a couple of jello molds/salads (they're very cheap to make) .... gigantic green salad ... bean salad ... pasta / macaroni salad .... potato salad ... relish platter (olives, pickles, peppercini, sweet peppers, green onions, radishes) .... cole slaw ..... For dessert, have about 4-5 bundt or 13" pan cakes, and a vast assortment of brownies & cookies. ... To make it special, DECORATE the platters with veggie flowers, parsley, edible flowers....
you could do a couple of pasta salads, one with some lightly fried onions, mushrooms, red pepper diced and mayonnaise and season and maybe one with prawns and mayo
A couple of whole hams, jacket potatoes with sour cream topping, and bowls of salad. Lots of strawberries, cream and meringues.
Or a couple of beef joints, horseradish mash, tarragon carrots, chocolate brownies, pears and hot fudge sauce.
Use your imagination - it needn't be finger food, frozen vol-au-vents and cheese and pineapple sticks (though sometimes we all like food tlike that LOL)
If you are doing food for so many then i suggest you stick to low risk foods, foods that do not matter if they are left out. Do you have enough refrigeration to keep your prepared food chilled? If not then stay away from seafood, rice, pate, meat products etc, stick to vegetarian foods, salads, salty foods etc, foods that are kept at room temperature for any length of time could well cause food poisoning. You have approximately 4 hours from fridge to bin with buffet foods so try and keep the preparation of the foods to the very last minute.
I go to a lot of seminars with lunch provided-pasta, garlic bread and salad always seems to be a popular choice. I've also seen a lot of finger foods like chicken tenders, fried mozzarella,french fries and crudites with dip.
people justadore spicy chicken legs which you can buy a bucket load from the supermarket dead cheap
Why on earth did you agreed to cater for 150/200 covers if you have no idea about the menu?
chicken wings in whole berry cranberry sauce, sliced ham with honey, sliced roast beef with onions and peppers, mashed potatoes or red russets, baby carrots with sweet peas in butter sauce, or Corn niblets, soft dinner rolls, Applesauce or flavored cubed jello.
Baked spaghetti-tomato meat sauce
Baked spaghetti -White sauce
Garlic bread
Tossed Salad
Chili beans/baked beans
Corn Bread
Slaw
Creamed potatoes
Simple Pasta salad-twirls.tomatoes, bell pepper, Ranch dressing, onion. Chill
Italian marinated carrot and celery sticks
Portioned Fruit cups-seasonal fruit-
canned fruit
Garnished individual puddings-buy commercial sizes or make homemade
Pound Cake/Sheet cake cut into squares/ Sugar cookies
Sweet/Unsweet tea--Water--Coffee, sugar, creamer, stirrer
Do ethnic foods and appatizers.
Example: Buy some (alot) of chinese, and stuff like that from Costco, stuff thats frozen that can be cooked easily. Stuff that can be appatizers...wings, artichoke dip, chips and dip, calamari, etc.. All that stuff can be bought frozen and comes with cooking directions.