Budget busting menu....help!

[HeatherC]

How about some sort of rice dish? That would feed a lot. Zatarains Jambalaya is really good and can be served room temp. I follow the directions and then just add some sliced kielbasa to it. I also add chicken but if you want to keep the budget down, kielbasa would be good.

 

[MickeyP]

Maybe I missed something here, but what KIND of party is this? I thought I read ceremony going on somewhere, therefore, it does make a difference to what kind of food you are serving.

I would serve a certain kind of food for a 1st Communion, and a completely different kind of food for an Eagle Scout ceremony.

 

[cornflake]

Maybe I missed something here, but what KIND of party is this? I thought I read ceremony going on somewhere, therefore, it does make a difference to what kind of food you are serving.

I would serve a certain kind of food for a 1st Communion, and a completely different kind of food for an Eagle Scout ceremony.

I... what?

You would? What would be the difference? I'm kind of fascinated now.

 

[MickeyP]

You wouldn't???

I would think a 1st Communion is more formal (more beautiful).

An Eagle Scout ceremony would be more like Superbowl food-casual.

Both decent food, but different types, and different presentation. No??

 

[Eastern]

I realize he has favorite foods, but I would save those for a special dinner for your immediate family only. For the big kids party, with 100 people, you need to be more conservative than bacon-wrapped shrimp.

I wouldn't make all apps for that many people. You can have an apps table at the beginning: taco dip, chips, pretzels, veg tray, deviled eggs, etc, then serve a meal after that with trays of ziti, wraps, etc.

Making a zillion apps is hard! They have to keep coming out of the oven and it is tiring to have to run those things out as they are done cooking.

Some trays of ziti, teriyaki chicken skewers with pepper and onion that you make beforehand and throw on the grill or do in the oven, pierogies, meatballs, pasta salad, green salad, etc is cheaper and easier. Do it all in trays and put on sternos or keep in the fridge until it's ready to go out.

 

[mrsklamc]

I agree that the type of party is relevant.

 

[clh2]

I agree with the others - you need to "up" the food selection to include an entree. Baked ziti is my "go-to" dish for this. It is easy to make (you can make one with meat in it, and another one without to accomodate those that prefer to not eat meat.) Ziti is also something that can be made the day before, and then heated up the day of. Do you have a Nesco roaster by any chance? That would certainly make things easier. (Speaking from a mom who has done 2-pasta parties for 50+ girls on a cross country team)

I am seconding the PP that mentioned a pulled pork. You can get teeny tiny rolls- so this one would cross the brdge from appetizer to meal. And - from what I've heard, you can make this in advance and freeze it, and once it thaws, it heats up beautifully in a crock pot - making it super easy on the "day of". (I'm starting to look in to things like this for DD's graduation party.)

Congrats to your son! Is he earning his eagle award? That is a great accomplishment!

 

[lizabu]

The only way you're going to get this meal under $200 is to simplify it. You have was too many options and will have to buy way too many ingredients and will be over budget by at least double. My advice is pasta for the main dish. Something like lasagna or as others have mentioned baked ziti. Make 9 or 10 for a group of 100 people unless you're lucky enough to have pans larger than the usual 9x12. You can usually get 12 servings out of a 9x12 lasagna. Beside that have some nice buns. At this point we're already at about $100. Salad is nice beside this. Let people add their own dressing. And then desserts. Cupcakes are nice as you mentioned. Scratch will cost you more to make than out of the box. If you make the same icing for all of them that will save you a little. You can tint the icing different colors for the different cupcake flavours. Cheaper is to buy a couple large slab cakes at Costco.

If you have your heart set on having many different kinds of foods you should plan foods that have the same ingredients in them so you can save by buying bulk of the things that you need. For example meatballs, lasagna and chili all have many of the same ingredients.

 

[cornflake]

You wouldn't???

I would think a 1st Communion is more formal (more beautiful).

An Eagle Scout ceremony would be more like Superbowl food-casual.

Both decent food, but different types, and different presentation. No??

I admit I've never been near an eagle scout ceremony but... no? The type of event it was celebrating wouldn't matter at all to the food or presentation to me.

I'd do a formal party if I wanted a formal party or a casual party if I wanted a casual party. Has nothing to do with what's being celebrated.

I mean a graduation is a graduation, it can be formal or casual, be a catered affair for 200 or be ziti and beer for 50 - dinner at Nobu for the whole family or dinner at the local chinese place, whatever someone wants. It'd depend what we wanted to do, has nothing to do with whether it's a first communion or graduation or celebration because someone won teen Jeopardy or whatever. Any of those can go whichever way.

I mean... you can have a wedding in the backyard in a tent with food catered by Robuchon or you can have a wedding in the backyard with aluminum tins of barbeque and plastic tubs of cole slaw. Depends on the wedding, but they're both weddings!

 

[MickeyP]

Well, to each his own. It would definitely matter to me. I was just wondering why the type of event was not being revealed.

 

[emma'smom]

The pizza is a good idea and you can get sheet pizzas at WalMart (and probably Sam's Club) that you can cut up smaller....

My DH is doing a 40th birthday party for me at the end of the month and I've volunteered to handle the refreshments (yes..I know..for my own party---but he's handling the cleaning, decorations, cake, invites, etc....)

I plan to do most of it ahead so that I'm not scrambling after church, and for such big crowd, I didn't focus on "gourmet" but more on easy stuff that everyone likes. So, I'll save my fig and goat cheese wraps for a smaller gathering.

Anway...here's what I am thinking for about 50-60 people including kids for a Sunday afternoon open house (so not a main meal...but gives you an idea):

buffalo chicken dip (make ahead)
hot spinach artichoke dip (make ahead)

pigs in a blanket
meatballs/dill sauce (frozen meatballs)
pizza rolls (the frozen ones that kids seem to gobble up)

taco dip/chips/salsa
veggies/dip and some potato chips nearby that can be dipped too
cheese & crackers
fruit platter (buy at Sam's Club)
hummus/pita


Dessert: Birthday cake!

Beverages: Trader Joe's wine....lemonade....ice tea....ice water....coffee/tea

We did pizza sliced into small triangles for my DS's eagle ceremony. Get sweet pizza or any other kind of sheet pizza. Cut them into squares and then into triangles. Kids of all ages will eat it.

I also do sausage, peppers and onions with small rolls. Pulled pork is super easy. Cook and keep warm in a crockpot. Serve with small rolls.

 

[cornflake]

The pizza is a good idea and you can get sheet pizzas at WalMart (and probably Sam's Club) that you can cut up smaller....

My DH is doing a 40th birthday party for me at the end of the month and I've volunteered to handle the refreshments (yes..I know..for my own party---but he's handling the cleaning, decorations, cake, invites, etc....)

I plan to do most of it ahead so that I'm not scrambling after church, and for such big crowd, I didn't focus on "gourmet" but more on easy stuff that everyone likes. So, I'll save my fig and goat cheese wraps for a smaller gathering.

Anway...here's what I am thinking for about 50-60 people including kids for a Sunday afternoon open house (so not a main meal...but gives you an idea):

buffalo chicken dip (make ahead)
hot spinach artichoke dip (make ahead)

pigs in a blanket
meatballs/dill sauce (frozen meatballs)
pizza rolls (the frozen ones that kids seem to gobble up)

taco dip/chips/salsa
veggies/dip and some potato chips nearby that can be dipped too
cheese & crackers
fruit platter (buy at Sam's Club)
hummus/pita


Dessert: Birthday cake!

Beverages: Trader Joe's wine....lemonade....ice tea....ice water....coffee/tea

I know you totally didn't ask for comments on your menu, so I hope I'm not offending (don't mean to, just trying to help, done a few parties that size!), just saying...

That doesn't sound like a lot, unless there's a ton of the dips and chips and veggies and fruit and such.

As someone posted earlier, you should assume like 10 apps per person for a general meal type thing, but yours is dip/chip type heavy so it's harder to guage but... I'd plan on 500 servings of stuff, because even if it's not a mealtime thing, people snarf chips and dips like nobodys business - way more than they snarf tray-passed hors d'oeuvres.

I once did cheese fondue as one of like ... I want to say I had out at least 10 different things (and plenty of them) at a cocktail/dessert party for like 40 or so. I had planned a big pot of fondue, had lots of cheese and all for backup (though I'd only grated some beforehand, so that was fun), baguettes ready to go... I spent ALL NIGHT running back and forth making fondue. All night. Making fondue by the giant potful, running out fresh, hot, like quart at a time, with a baguette at a time and by the time I was checking on anything else 'is there more fondue?' I ran out of Kirsch is how much fondue I made. Give people something to dip, they'll stand there like motorized dipping robots.

I'm just saying. Make vats. Troughs. Do you have an unused kiddie pool?

 

[cornflake]

Well, to each his own. It would definitely matter to me. I was just wondering why the type of event was not being revealed.

I dunno why the OP didn't mention; it didn't occur to me it'd have mattered, as above.

It's interesting that you'd do it differently - that's what's fun about the Dis, learn something new and see how other people think every day!

 

[tyniknate]

I didn't reveal what type of party this was because on another thread I posted about advice on another matter in my planning and it turned into a big nasty debate and I had to ask to have the thread closed. Somehow my asking a simple question turned into a debate over the morals of Boy Scouting. I have to say that it really hurt to have so many people question something that our family has been so dedicated to. And boy were they nasty! That's why I didn't think it was necessary to reveal that this is for my son's Eagle ceremony. I hope this thread doesn't go in that direction.

Should have mentioned that I have been shopping sales and using coupons for quite some time for this. Most of the items I have found buy one get one free, at least for the bulk of the appetizers.

Shrimp are already purchased. They had them on sale buy one get one free several weeks ago and I bought so that I have 12 lbs of shrimp. I also got the bacon from the grocery store when they were running a buy one get one free sale, so it ended up being 2 lbs for $4. Was thinking I was going to have to change from wrapped little smokies and meatballs because of the cost, but then yesterday our local grocery had both on buy one get one free So I bought 4 packs of little smokies and got 4 free. Meatballs came in 3 lb bags for $9.99, so I bought 3 bags and got 3 free.

We have a tiny little general store right by our house and I will be getting the supplies for the meat and cheese tray from there. They suggested 4 lbs of smoked turkey, roast beef, and honey roasted ham. They also suggested 3 lbs of white american cheese and 2 lbs of swiss. They gave me a price of $60.00 for all of it. All I have to do is roll it up and put it on a tray. We buy all of our provisions for hoagie sales there, so they are very good to us.

Crescent rolls were purchased at $1.19/can minus the coupon for $1.00 off 3 cans so that made them $11.25 for 12 cans.

I'm using my homemade pasta sauce for the meatballs, so there's no additional expense there.

Slider-sized sandwich rolls we are getting from our local "budget bakery". The plant that makes Sunbeam bread is in the town about 13 miles from our house. They have a bakery where they bring all the stuff that is left over after the days deliveries have been made - (NOT day old stuff - just what they have made too much of). They always have rolls. I was in there on Saturday morning and talked with the staff and they said they would put back for me whatever I needed on that Friday. Rolls will be $.85 per package of 16.

Shrimp - 12 lbs..................$30.00
Bacon - 6 lbs...................$12.00
Little Smokies - 8 lbs...........$20.00
Meatballs - 18 lbs...............$30.00
Meat/cheese trays..............$60.00
Crescent rolls - 12 pks.........$11.25
Sandwich rolls - 12 doz........$10.20
Veggie trays - ?????............$?????
Pasta Salad.......................$20.00 ???


We have decided not to do pierogies and will instead make pasta salad. Fantastic idea and I love pasta salad!

My husbands grandmother is making a homemade fruit salad and donating all the ingredients. LOVE fresh fruit!

I also have someone who is making (donating) a big pot of buffalo chicken dip with chips.

All the baking supplies are things I have on hand. I do a lot of baking so I'm always very well stocked. I didn't include the cupcakes in the cost estimate of $200.00. I've decided not to do the mini cheesecakes and brownies. My sister and I will just be doing the cupcake tower with 6 kinds of cupcakes.....if they can't find a kind they like from this list - they are just too picky!
Orange creamsicle
Smores
choc/PB
Oreo Cookie
Vanilla Buttercream
Neapolitan

We will also have chips/pretzels.

I think based on the totals above, I can maybe budget $300.00 for everything. Am I overlooking something, or do you think I will be OK? I've watched closely at the last couple ceremonies we have been to, and this is way more food than has been served at the rest. They always end up with extras, so I think I will be ok.

This isn't the first large gathering I've done. For the past three years I've catered our Blue and Gold dinner for 200 people and done it for less than $3 per person and that menu is: Carved ham, roast beef, roasted red potatoes, green beans almondine, mac and cheese, applesauce, dinner rolls and coffee, iced tea and punch. You just have to be a really smart shopper and buy in bulk when things are on sale.

Paper products are donated by the troop and I have all the chafing dishes and buffet servers from previous events. My DH made a cupcake tower to hold 100 cupcakes......cost $2.00. He made it from wood that we already had at home. The overflow of cupcake will just go on small plates on the dessert table.

So.....let me know what you honestly think. What should I add?

 

[tyniknate]

If you are short on time/help, buy the veggie trays at Sam's. They are LARGE and are only $10. Baby carrots, celery, mini peppers, or pea pods, grape tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and dip. I really don't think you could but this many veggies for $10, and then there's all the prep work. Heck, 2 lbs of baby carrots would cost me $4 and a bunch of celery is $2, around here.

I agree with PPs who say there's no way to do this for 100 people on $200. If it's important enough that you want to be at the ceremony AND serve his favorite shrimp dish, it's important enough to spend the necessary cash to feed everyone.

I will be going to sam's club. Any guess on how many veggie trays I would need?

 

[pixiewings71]

OMG, I want some of your cupcakes!! So, from your last post he's an Eagle Scout now? That's AWESOME!! Something you should all be proud of! Congrats to him! I like your menu ideas, sounds like you've found some great deals, I did want to say, if you did do the wraps use cream cheese mixed with pesto for the spread, it's sooooo good!! And it's not mayo or standard ranch dressing, the pesto sort of "dresses" the wrap up and it's very tasty. I've done with very simply with the pesto spread, turkey, ham, provolone, lettuce and they've always been devoured. Another fun thing for people is a nacho bar, have melted cheese in a crock pot and put toppings out, people make them like they like them. Usually a popular item at our parties.

Have fun!!

 

[tyniknate]

Thanks. He worked really hard and I am so proud of him. Want to give him a nice reception for all the hard work he did.

I love the idea of pesto spread instead of mayonnaise or ranch dressing. Going to have to try those for lunch sometime this week! Sounds like a great way to dress them up for his ceremony!

I need to decide if I make them up ahead on a tray with the cold meats I have ordered, or do I put the ingredients out and let everyone build their own sandwiches using either the wraps or small rolls. Not sure which way to go with this.

I had thought about nachos, but my DS doesn't eat them and they were served at the last eagle scout ceremony. Trying to do something different so they don't think I'm copying them I do love nachos, though.

 

[princessmom29]

I didn't reveal what type of party this was because on another thread I posted about advice on another matter in my planning and it turned into a big nasty debate and I had to ask to have the thread closed. Somehow my asking a simple question turned into a debate over the morals of Boy Scouting. I have to say that it really hurt to have so many people question something that our family has been so dedicated to. And boy were they nasty! That's why I didn't think it was necessary to reveal that this is for my son's Eagle ceremony. I hope this thread doesn't go in that direction.

Should have mentioned that I have been shopping sales and using coupons for quite some time for this. Most of the items I have found buy one get one free, at least for the bulk of the appetizers.

Shrimp are already purchased. They had them on sale buy one get one free several weeks ago and I bought so that I have 12 lbs of shrimp. I also got the bacon from the grocery store when they were running a buy one get one free sale, so it ended up being 2 lbs for $4. Was thinking I was going to have to change from wrapped little smokies and meatballs because of the cost, but then yesterday our local grocery had both on buy one get one free So I bought 4 packs of little smokies and got 4 free. Meatballs came in 3 lb bags for $9.99, so I bought 3 bags and got 3 free.

We have a tiny little general store right by our house and I will be getting the supplies for the meat and cheese tray from there. They suggested 4 lbs of smoked turkey, roast beef, and honey roasted ham. They also suggested 3 lbs of white american cheese and 2 lbs of swiss. They gave me a price of $60.00 for all of it. All I have to do is roll it up and put it on a tray. We buy all of our provisions for hoagie sales there, so they are very good to us.

Crescent rolls were purchased at $1.19/can minus the coupon for $1.00 off 3 cans so that made them $11.25 for 12 cans.

I'm using my homemade pasta sauce for the meatballs, so there's no additional expense there.

Slider-sized sandwich rolls we are getting from our local "budget bakery". The plant that makes Sunbeam bread is in the town about 13 miles from our house. They have a bakery where they bring all the stuff that is left over after the days deliveries have been made - (NOT day old stuff - just what they have made too much of). They always have rolls. I was in there on Saturday morning and talked with the staff and they said they would put back for me whatever I needed on that Friday. Rolls will be $.85 per package of 16.

Shrimp - 12 lbs..................$30.00
Bacon - 6 lbs...................$12.00
Little Smokies - 8 lbs...........$20.00
Meatballs - 18 lbs...............$30.00
Meat/cheese trays..............$60.00
Crescent rolls - 12 pks.........$11.25
Sandwich rolls - 12 doz........$10.20
Veggie trays - ?????............$?????
Pasta Salad.......................$20.00 ???


We have decided not to do pierogies and will instead make pasta salad. Fantastic idea and I love pasta salad!

My husbands grandmother is making a homemade fruit salad and donating all the ingredients. LOVE fresh fruit!

I also have someone who is making (donating) a big pot of buffalo chicken dip with chips.

All the baking supplies are things I have on hand. I do a lot of baking so I'm always very well stocked. I didn't include the cupcakes in the cost estimate of $200.00. I've decided not to do the mini cheesecakes and brownies. My sister and I will just be doing the cupcake tower with 6 kinds of cupcakes.....if they can't find a kind they like from this list - they are just too picky!
Orange creamsicle
Smores
choc/PB
Oreo Cookie
Vanilla Buttercream
Neapolitan

We will also have chips/pretzels.

I think based on the totals above, I can maybe budget $300.00 for everything. Am I overlooking something, or do you think I will be OK? I've watched closely at the last couple ceremonies we have been to, and this is way more food than has been served at the rest. They always end up with extras, so I think I will be ok.

This isn't the first large gathering I've done. For the past three years I've catered our Blue and Gold dinner for 200 people and done it for less than $3 per person and that menu is: Carved ham, roast beef, roasted red potatoes, green beans almondine, mac and cheese, applesauce, dinner rolls and coffee, iced tea and punch. You just have to be a really smart shopper and buy in bulk when things are on sale.

Paper products are donated by the troop and I have all the chafing dishes and buffet servers from previous events. My DH made a cupcake tower to hold 100 cupcakes......cost $2.00. He made it from wood that we already had at home. The overflow of cupcake will just go on small plates on the dessert table.

So.....let me know what you honestly think. What should I add?

I serve shrimp all the time to large numbers of people. 12 lbs is NOT enough for 100 people. I would double that. If you are bacon wrapping them I cannot imagine there being more than 12-15 per lb, so you only have about 140-160 shrimp there. Most poeple will take at least 2, and those who really enjoy them will take more.

I think you are allright between the meatballs and little smokies on non-seafood meats.

Your 12 packs of crescent rolls and sandwich rolls arent going to be enough either. If there are 12 in a pack, that is only 144. I would have at LEAST 2-3 total breads per person. Everyone is not going to eat than many, but some will.

What is going in the sandwich rolls, the meatballs?? If not, and you are buying pre-made meat and cheese trays to build sandwiches, I think you have too many meatballs and aren't going to have enough cold cuts. 4 lbs of meat is not enough for 100. It would seem to be, but people tend to use more than 1/4 lb on average.

I would also have more than one cupcake per person. Teen boys are NOT going to take just one.


Most things like this that I host feed 40-50 and run about what you are bugeting for 100, even with smart shopping.

 

[cornflake]

Let people make their own sandwiches.

For the deli platter - PLEASE put the cheese on one side or one plate and the meat on the other. Don't intersperse meat/cheese like one piece of beef one piece of swiss. If someone doesn't eat meat, then they likely can't have just cheese, whereas if it's just cheese together on one area of the platter they likely will.

 

[SunnieRN]

Just wanted to say congratulations to your son and your family!! What a wonderful accomplishment!!

Have a wonderful celebration and I am sure people will be impressed with your menu! I do second the idea of having more bread products, as teenage boys, love them some rolls!! I would also put out butter/margerine, in case someone wants a roll without meat.