Can you help me figure out how much ground beef to buy?

[LisaR]

I will have 12 teens over plus four or five tween boys. I will be setting up a taco bar. My family does not eat meat and even when we did, I never put it in our Mexican food. I would think you couldn't fit a whole lot of meat in taco shells and burrito wraps once you factor in all the other things you would add. I can't even begin to guess how much I should buy. Any suggestions?

 

[DisneyDizzy]

I have no guess on the meat but I CAN tell you my husband and son would forgo the other toppings and JUST do meat and cheese in tacos and burritos, if given the choice. You will probably need more than you think if the boys are making their own.

 

[TinklednPants]

I'd go at least 6 lbs. and probably more.

 

[lillygator]

is that 12 total people?

 

[LisaR]

I have no guess on the meat but I CAN tell you my husband and son would forgo the other toppings and JUST do meat and cheese in tacos and burritos, if given the choice. You will probably need more than you think if the boys are making their own.

Thanks! That is good info to have. It would never dawn on me to just put meat and cheese on but I bet you are right, that will be something many of the kids do. I don't even have a guess on how much to buy. Ugh!

 

[LisaR]

is that 12 total people?

16 or 17 total. 12 teens (15 & 16 y/o and 5 of them are boys) and 4 or 5 tweens that are all boys. The girls eat a lot, too!

 

[jen0610]

My 15 year old can eat 6-9 taco's - when REALLY hungry - with just meat and cheese on them. If he's doing just soft shell, it's a higher number of taco's.

Normally for the 4 of us, I use 2.5 lbs and that feeds us for dinner and enough for me to take the next day and have a couple of taco's for lunch.

One thing I also do, when I brown the meat, is I add water in the pan and cover it with the lid. It steams the meat and helps to break it down into finer bits - no big chunks of meat. It very much looks like the meat from Taco Bell.

 

[Hendoendo]

A Taco Bell Taco has about 1.5 to 2 ounces of meat if that gives you an idea. So you will need about 1 pound of meat for every 6 tacos. This allows for the shrinkage during cooking. If you have 12 teens and 4 tweens, I would estimate about 7 to 8 pounds of meat

 

[disneydreamersx4]

We use one pound of beef for our tacos for our family of 4 (DH, me, DD-12, DD-8). To feed 17 teens/tweens I would say 8 pounds if there will be no other food, 6 pounds if there is other food.

 

[mamacatnv]

1/2 pound per person is generally a safe bet - using a fairly lean ground beef. I use the 7% lean chubs from Costco.

If you don't want to buy 10#'s of hamburger, one way to stretch the meat is to add beans to it ahead of time. Either kidney or black work well along with taco seasoning. You could then reduce to about 1/4# per person (I personally only do this for field trips where the food budget is tight, I prefer meat as a stand alone myself).

If you offer rice too they will load up on the carbs to fill their plates.

 

[AshleyW]

I'd probably do 8-9 lbs, because I bet those kids will eat a lot. If you're having chips and salsa or rice or beans with the tacos, you could probably get away with a little less meat.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I'd say 8lbs would be enough... 10lbs if you want everyone to be really full, and you want leftovers.

The other night, I cooked down 2lbs of ground beef to make tacos, and I literally got 8 tacos out of that... and they were modest servings.

If you had 10lbs of ground beef, you'd be able to make 40 tacos, give or take.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

My 15 year old can eat 6-9 taco's - when REALLY hungry - with just meat and cheese on them. If he's doing just soft shell, it's a higher number of taco's.

Normally for the 4 of us, I use 2.5 lbs and that feeds us for dinner and enough for me to take the next day and have a couple of taco's for lunch.

One thing I also do, when I brown the meat, is I add water in the pan and cover it with the lid. It steams the meat and helps to break it down into finer bits - no big chunks of meat. It very much looks like the meat from Taco Bell.

Ahh, the memories. My friends and I used to go to Taco Bell when we were in our Teens and we'd EACH get a 10-pack of soft tacos! I often wonder where it would all go if I tried it now.

 

[LisaR]

Thanks everyone! You guys have been so helpful.

The taco fixings will include rice, beans, guacamole, a homemade salsa with corn and beans, store bought salsa, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. There will be burrito shells, taco shells and corn chips. In addition, there will be a garden salad and a pasta salad, per the request of the girls. Originally I wanted to go with a few subs from Subway but one of the guests is on a gluten free diet so I opted for the taco bar. Now I am thinking of adding a few subs and that way there is still stuff for her to choose from but more filling things for others.

There will be munchies for the first 2 hours before I open up the taco bar. After they get done eating, there will be more munchies. A little while later, I will put out cake, pie and fruit. The 12 teens will be here for 7 hours. The tweens won't be here as long and will probably miss dessert.

 

[disykat]

I'm pretty frugal so I would go with less than others here - probably around 4 to 5 pounds - and serve refried beans and spanish rice. I'd put the meat out a few pounds at a time. I have two teenage boys and 1 pound of meat works for taco night for our family of 4. I'd be more worried about running out of beans and olives!

Since you don't eat meat, I'd suggest some freezer bags to put leftovers in, in about 1/2 - 1 pound sizes. You can ask a parent who picks up (or a neighbor, friend,etc) if they want to take it home and stick it in their freezer for spaghetti sauce or chili.

 

[HM]

My family of four (two teens) uses 2 lbs for our taco nights. I think you need to plan on about 8 lbs for that group.

 

[jen0610]

Thanks everyone! You guys have been so helpful.

The taco fixings will include rice, beans, guacamole, a homemade salsa with corn and beans, store bought salsa, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. There will be burrito shells, taco shells and corn chips. In addition, there will be a garden salad and a pasta salad, per the request of the girls. Originally I wanted to go with a few subs from Subway but one of the guests is on a gluten free diet so I opted for the taco bar. Now I am thinking of adding a few subs and that way there is still stuff for her to choose from but more filling things for others.

There will be munchies for the first 2 hours before I open up the taco bar. After they get done eating, there will be more munchies. A little while later, I will put out cake, pie and fruit. The 12 teens will be here for 7 hours. The tweens won't be here as long and will probably miss dessert.

I know the last time we went to a party and they did a taco bar - graduation party - the only ones eating the rice, black beans, guac and the corn salsa was the adults. The kids, stuck to the taco's, both soft and hard shell, refried beans, and the nacho cheese sauce w/chips for dipping. We only saw a couple of the kids eat the guac and they were kids that belonged to the family hosting the party.

It does seem like you will have a good varity. You could also find the girls wanting to turn the salad into a taco salad by adding the meat and chips to the garden salad you put out.

 

[golfgal]

My family of four (two teens) uses 2 lbs for our taco nights. I think you need to plan on about 8 lbs for that group.

I was going to say the same, we are a family of 5, 3 teenagers and 2 lbs covers us, if I don't eat . Usually by the time I get to the meat it is gone .

I am one that would prefer to have WAY more then not enough so I say 8 lbs or so. You could do 4 lbs of hamburger and 4 lbs of shredded chicken if you wanted.

 

[ajk912]

Ground beef is way cheaper around here if you buy it in the 5 lb package. It's about $2.50 a lb for 80/20 if you buy individually or a 5 lb package is about $8. So if it was me, I would just buy two 5 lb packages (only $16, no use sweating about not having enough either) and be done with it. When you are having a party IMO, better to have too much than not enough!!!

 

[disneydreamersx4]

Thanks everyone! You guys have been so helpful.

The taco fixings will include rice, beans, guacamole, a homemade salsa with corn and beans, store bought salsa, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. There will be burrito shells, taco shells and corn chips. In addition, there will be a garden salad and a pasta salad, per the request of the girls. Originally I wanted to go with a few subs from Subway but one of the guests is on a gluten free diet so I opted for the taco bar. Now I am thinking of adding a few subs and that way there is still stuff for her to choose from but more filling things for others.

There will be munchies for the first 2 hours before I open up the taco bar. After they get done eating, there will be more munchies. A little while later, I will put out cake, pie and fruit. The 12 teens will be here for 7 hours. The tweens won't be here as long and will probably miss dessert.

7 hours say what You are a goddess
What kind of event is this btw?