Ideas for a buffet please?!
Ideas for a buffet please?
Hi, i have just been asked to do a buffet for a christening (40 people ish) Shes only a young girl and is on a tight budget. I'm doing it for free but shes buying food. Any cheap but cheerful ideas? Thanks.
Additional Details3 months ago
disco you freak!
Answers:
3 months ago
disco you freak!
what about the following
Assorted sandwiches and rolls
Breaded Mini Lobster Tails
Chicken Drumsticks - Roasted or Chilli Roast
Chicken, Bacon & Brie Wraps
Crisps & Nuts
Indian & Thai Savoury Selection
King Prawn & Chilli Roll
Lime & Coriander Chicken Mini Kebab
Lincolnshire Cocktail Sausages
Mediterranean Bruschetta
Mini Danish Selection
Mini Doughnuts & Muffins
Mini Quiche Tartlets
Fruit
These should all be nice but at the same time cheap and cheerful
Food
Chipolatas and cheese and pineapple on sticks - cant beat them!
Chicken is probably the cheaper meat to use, make sure you provide a few pasta dishes for any vegetarians, you can do some cheap fruit plates up with things like apples, melon, pineapple and also get some generic brand of cheeses (cheapest at Walmart) and make some cheese trays up. If you go crazy on cheaper appetizers, they will be too full to care so much what the main course is! Also, home-made cakes can be made pretty when iced, you can do cheap jello molds - spend a bit on the flowers on the table and people won't notice the food so much. Also, a lunch time thing is easier to do cheap than a dinner, people don't eat as much at lunch.
heres some ideas
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fruit salad
jello salad
Develed eggs
twice baked potatoes
potato salad
maceroni salad
7 layer bean dip and chips
spinich artichoke dip
.good luck.......
Well you can all ways make rice, that tend to stretch, Spanish rice, that is, cole salad, and roast pork. And make some finger food. Watch Food Network.com Good Luck
I'd say go for home-made - don't be tempted by Iceland's finest!
recipes like tuna plait (tuna, peppers and sweetcorn, bound with egg and wrapped in puff pastry), home-made quiches, home-made potato salad, coleslaw and stuff like that, would be so much nicer than shop-bought. It'll obviously take you longer, but everyone will appreciate it, and your money will go way further.
Another cheap but fab thing to do is to make different pates, and serve with green salad and crusty bread. If you have a microwave, I've got a fantastic recipe for liver pate, and another for smoked mackerel pate, if you want them - let me know. Dead easy, taste great...
do all hor'deurves (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and little sandwiches or a lunch meat tray. Go to a restaurant supply store and you can get large quantities of appetizers. Offer a variety of dips and cheeses and nuts. Also, you could get cookies, and mini cheesecakes, and other desserts and a smaller cake if you have one. I've been to a wedding that did this and this is also how we celebrated last X-mas and it ended up being way more than enough food for everyone and more variety.
You don't need anything too fancy for a Christening. It can all be done really cheap.
The most expensive thing would be a Christening cake if you're buying it but you could make one just as easily (or buy one plain from M&S and ice on the name yourself).
Iceland is great for party food and cheap too.
Sandwiches, sausage rolls (from frozen), quiche, potato salad, coleslaw, crisps and dips, plastic forks, paper plates and napkins (saves on washing up). Green salad, sliced ham, chicken drumsticks, cheesecake, wine, beer and apple and orange juice for the non drinkers and kids.
Go to Iceland, Farmfoods or Lidls/Aldis. They have loads of cheap and cheaful party food. Usual suspects of sausage rolls, chicken drumsticks, volavons (sp??) etc. Add some sandwiches made at home, cheese, ham and tuna will be fine, and some big jumbo packs of crips, the big corn snack kind not doritos or pringles as they are too pricy.
If you need drinks just get some big bottles of the own brand stuff.
Oh and don't forget paper plates and napkins.
Good luck.
How about home made onion bhajis, just chili, gram flour and onions, crisp dip: Mayo, 6 hard boiled eggs (mashed), pinch sugar and ketchup, home made sausage rolls frozen pastry and Cumberland, Lincoln or other spicy sausage, home made Banana Bread (simple and there is loads of recipes on the web) I went to a Jamaican Christening recently and all the Grannies had cooked big pots of their favorite dishes and brought them along curries and spiced chicken, rice dishes etc and the food was the best I ever had at an occassion like this, try the website www.epicurious.com for some good ideas Just thought Pasta Salads are easy and cheap and garlic bread
Wow. Sounds like quite a task!
1) Easy finger sandwiches.
You can get creative with presentation (maybe roll some up, for example). Or use a baguette, cut it in half lengthwise, then remove some of the bread to make a small "ditch" in the middle, and spread a filling in it (I like cream cheese, roasted red peppers, and shredded chicken, but it can be anything soft), then reassemble the loaf, put plastic wrap around it and stick it in the fridge for a few hours. When you are ready to plate it, take it out of the fridge, unwrap it, and use a bread knife to slice it into small sandwiches.
2) Fruit tray and veggie tray
3) Meat and cheese tray - you can also roast a couple of chickens and carve them up.
And of course, the rest of the standard stuff - dips, salads, etc - pasta salads are great because they are cheap and there are so many interesting and flavorful recipes out there.
Have fun and all the best!
Depends whether it's a finger buffet or a knife and fork buffet?
A selection of sandwiches,on different types of bread and in open buns always goes down well,ham,tuna mayonnaise, egg/cheese/spring onions with salad cream to bind,beef and horseradish,quiches,some pickled onions,crisps,nuts etc. Cheese board and apple pie and cream or a sherry trifle are firm favourites.
A knife and fork buffet you can do ham or veg quiche plus selection of salads and new potatoes.
The finger buffet you can do for about ￡1.50 per head all in (incl napkins,paper plates etc)
hot wings, meat ball, cheese sandwich, fruit salad, puffs (cheese, tuna, chicken)
for the heavier stuff, potato salad, BBQ-chicken
~Veggies~
A nice little salad bar would be nice. Just simple salads with two dressing choices (ranch or italian), nothing too fancy.
~Meat~
Chicken will be the cheapest no? And young people like chicken. :) Hot wings, fried...
~Potato~
Potatoes fill up quickly and you won't run out of food quickly. Mashed potatoes! No french fries, because people can never get enough of those.
~Dessert~
Cheap pies and other desserts! YOu can get them from Costco, etc. They even have tiramisu for pretty cheap. Or you can simply get one of those ready-to-go batch of cookie dough, toss them in the oven, and you have delicious chocolate chip cookies.
Hope this helped! Good luck!
-edit-
I forgot sandwiches!
You can make them easy. Here's a recipe for this roll I made once:
1. Get fresh apples and cucumbers and chop them up
2. Mix them in mayonaise with chopped up ham
3. Roll it into a crust-less piece of bread
DONE! It's deeeeelicious.
If you want to save the crusts, here's an economic idea:
1. Gather the crusts
2. On a pan, but a little bit of oil, and place the crusts, sprinkling sugar.
You get delicious desserts for (almost) free!
Swedish Meatballs (provide toothpicks)
Veg platter with Ranch Dip in centre (carrots, celery, green pepper strips, etc)
Devilled Eggs
Ham - get butcher to slice very thin
rye bread
pickles
cheese and crackers
Safeway (if you are near one) can design you a cake made of 40 cupcakes and iced to resemble a baby, or an angel, or whatever you desire.
Good luck!
Quiche lorraine.
Rice salad (rice, tuna, tomatoes, eggs and mayonnaise).
Gougeres. Really cheap and delicious!!
http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/w/recipe/r26...
If it is a dinner-style buffet, you will need a meat ,meat, starch, veggie, dessert.
Cheapest meat is chicken and it is most versatile. Usually you would have a second option of meat, such as fish, or beef. Maybe do a beef satay with a teriaky & Chicken satay w/ peanut sauce. Skewers are pretty cheap.
Rice, potatoes or pasta for the starch- make sure there is a sauce of some kind for pasta.
Veggies- frozen is CHEAP- and can easily be spruced up with butter and seasonings ( try a packet of ranch powder. Like you get to make salad dressing) Remember not to cook too long or the veggies look awful- only cook til just hot- not tender as they will continue cooking.
Dessert- if they have a cake- just a small plater of mixed cookies & chocolates as an option.
Salad -mixed greens, tomatoes & cucumbers should sufice, rolls (or baguette sliced diagonally), any condiments could be put into a bowl with a spoon to save $. It's alot of stuff, but shouldn't bee too expensive. You can find excellent recipies for sauces and other things on www.allrecipes.com
Have fun & good luck.
Here are some thoughts:
1. Chicken tenders (you can buy large bags of frozen, unbreaded tenders for very little money. Defrost and marinate overnight in Italian dressing. On the day of the christening, you can either grill them or broil them and serve on a platter)
2. Salads: fresh spinach salad, chinese chicken salad, green salad with dressings, pasta salad
3. Breads and sweet butter
4. Cheese platter: Spanish Manchenga, gouda, brie, grapes
5. Sweets: cupcakes, brownies, cookies
Because of the warm weather, salads are a nice option and are easy to make. If you go to places like Sam's Club or Costco, you can find larger bags of what you need and save on the money. If worse comes to worse, could her family help chip in and bring potluck dishes? Also, making a simple punch will save money on drinks. You can do so by blending:
1 can frozen lemonade
1 can frozen margarita mix
1 can frozen hawaiian punch
1 can frozen pineapple juice
2 liters of chilled ginger ale
2 bottles of lemon flavored sparkling water
well if you are in the Uk you could shop at tesco and purchase a lot of the value foods such as pizzas, sausage rolls, chicken pieces, tortillas, dips, quiche, make some cheese and tomato sarnies and some ham ones.
Buy some cheap bucks fizz to toast.
I catered for my sisters party for 90 people for about a pound per head. reckon you could keep this under 60 pounds.
If you need a christening cake just buy a plain iced madeira or fruit cake from Tesco and then decorate with your own ideas. lets face it you can buy all sorts of pre-made cake decorations now,
Various pinwheels (sliced medium brown loaf, off with the crusts, roll out each slice with a rolling pin, spread with cream cheese and various fillings, roll up into tubes and cut into approx 3/4" pieces and skewer with a cocktail stick)
Cocktail sausage rolls (look for Tesco value ones)
Mini vol-au-vents (for the filling egg mayonnaise, prawn cocktail {except chop up some fish sticks instead...cunning}, chicken {strip the meat from a cheapy pre-cooked one from Mr. T again, chop it and bind with a tin of Campbell's condensed chicken soup})
Spicy meat balls (cheapo mince, bound with an egg and add some spicy tomato sauce to the mix and roast)
Simple quiche (bacon&egg flan...bacon off-cuts from Tesco at 97p, block of shortpaste), make on baking trays and cut into fingers or cut into rounds with a pastry cutter for effect.
The list is endless:)
chicken wings
potato salad
deviled eggs
cake
icecream
milk
soda