Meal ideas for a large crowd?!
Meal ideas for a large crowd?
We're having a family reunion and I'm looking for some ideas to feed a large crowd. So far I have spaghetti on my list!
Answers:
Yeah, you're on the right track. You want something that costs little and feeds many! Pastas are always a good "crowd" pleasing dish. Lasagna tends to stretch too. For large crowds I like to fix salads, pots of chili, soups and stews, ect. Fix a huge pot of green beans, corn, mashed potatoes. Anything like that works great! They are cheap and everybody loves them!
Good luck!
If your family reunion's going to be outside then you can get away with informal food like sandwiches and sides.
Get a whole bunch of things to make sandwiches with...different breads/buns, diff. meats & cheeses, veggies, & condiments...lay it all out and let people make their own.
Then, you could make pasta or potato salad to go with it.
If, however, it's going to be an indoor affair then go with the spaghetti. Salad, breadsticks, and a dessert would be easy to serve with it.
If you want to give people options you could do the spaghetti you mentioned, a few other similar "one dish" meals, like a casserole of some sort, lasagna or other easy things to keep heated. Then offer side dishes like salads, and some sandwich trays for people who might like something cold better. Have a meatless option (like maybe omit the meatballs on the spaghetti, or serve them on the side, etc). Have a few dessert options, like one large cake maybe, and then some trays with brownies, cookies, etc. And have some appetizers out when people get there even just like cheese and cracker trays or fruit/veggies and dip. Again, this of course depends on the size of the crowd! Also, think about maybe having a few people each bring a dish to make it easier on you. Even if people supplied the side dishes, it cuts a lot of costs, etc.
Hey, I don't live in that big of a family, but when my sisters and their friends come over my father always makes chicken wraps. They don't cost much at all. Here are all the items you need:
Chicken Breast - cut it 1inch strips 1/4 inch wide , fried or grilled
Tomato - Diced
Lettuse - diced
Onion - (optional) diced
Cheese - the 4 cheese in a bag, already shreaded
Sour Cream
Olives
Large Taco Shells
One fills me up easily and they are so good
Find you a meat shop that has bulk packages, a big grill, and stock up on burgers, hotdogs, chicken legs and quarters, cases of sodas from your local wholesalers club and ice, and lots of grilling sauce and aluminum foil. Don't forget the bread, buckets of potato salad and the cole slaw. Have other people grab them big desserts from the wholesale place for cheap.
First... Good luck! This is what I would use but after calculating the cost I went with catering
Feeding A Group
These amounts feed approximately 100 people:
2 gallons Applesauce
3 gallons String beans
2 gallons Baked beans
24 pounds Beets (cooked)
2 pounds Butter
12 Loaves of bread (1 lb loaf)
10 pounds Coleslaw cabbage
30 pounds Carrots (cooked)
2 gallons Peas
75 pounds Fried chicken
35 pounds Chicken a' la King
15 bunch Celery
1 pound Coffee (for 100 cups)
6 pounds Cranberries (raw) plus 6 lbs of sugar
6 cups Cocoa or hot chocolate
13 quarts Ice-cream -- bricks
14 quarts Ice-cream -- bulk
40 pounds Ham/beef/pork/veal roast.
30 pounds Meatballs
32 pounds Hambuger
35 pounds Pork chops
45 pounds Baked ham
14 heads Lettuce heads for salad
17 packages Jello (3 1/2 oz packets)
6 pounds Macaroni
1 gallon Pickles
35 pounds Raw potatoes (mashed)
4 gallons Punch -- (1/2c per person)
5 pounds Rice
2 quarts Salad dressing
3 pounds Cube sugar
1/2 pound Tea
65 pounds Turkey roast
25 pounds Weiners
Just go to Costco if you have any and buy a couple of lasagnes or pizzas.
Barbeque Beef sandwiches is always a great meal pleaser and a budget stretcher because beef can be shredded in a crock pot and sauce added.
Pasta, salad, breadsticks, and meatballs. This is the best thing for a large crowd
pastsa with chicken garlic bread chesese cake rib baked beans
Yes Spaghetti is always a crowd pleaser.
A big green salad
Lasagna
Meatballs
Garlic Bread and plain baked bread
Fruit punch
Cookies
A sheet cake
Do a pig roast. It is economical and everyone loves it. Look in your yellow pages to find someone. Serve on buns and enjoy!!!
Also serve salads, fruit & veggie platters, brownies, cookies, chips & dips.
Have fun!!!
You are going to think this is a cop out, but the best thing for you to do is to get a book on cooking for a crowd. It will tell you how many dozens of this you need, how many pounds of that you will need. In the long run it will save you from making mistakes, and having to run out and buy more of this or that. You can also save money by buying in bulk at at store like Costco's or Sam's.
Any pasta
Take and bake pizzas
Stew
large fruit salad
Pitchers of iced tea etc.
Ask them to bring desserts