Ideas to feed a group of 15-20 with limited cooking capability UPDATE!!! What worked and what didn't

[jaybirdsmommy]

I need to feed my husband's night crew during a 5 day event next week. It's going to be chilly and they'll be outside the entire time so I need some ideas for hot food that can be cooked in a crockpot or on a tiny camper stove. It will be prepared at the camper, packed up, and delivered to individual posts.

To complicate things, I'm on duty until 6pm every day so it really needs to be easy recipes that I can slip away for a few minutes and throw in the crockpots or prep in the morning to cook later. I'm hoping I'll have someone to help me but not counting on it. Our grill is broken or I'd take that and do hamburgers one night.

All I've come up with so far is chicken noodle soup with grilled cheese, spaghetti with garlic bread and salad, and maybe mac and cheese with a veggie.

Anyone have any good, easy, large batch friendly meals? I want to avoid things like chili/tacos/bbq, anything that might give someone an upset tummy. They will be at individual posts, not in a central location so taco bars/ baked potato bars, things that I'd normally do won't work.


UPDATE********

I got home yesterday at 10am, went to sleep with and alarm set for 2pm thinking I'd get up and go to work for a couple of hours - woke up at 11pm.

We got everyone fed except for Saturday night. We had to triple up on a post that was supposed to only have 1 person on it. I chose the safety of the employee assigned to that post over getting everyone fed.

Day shift had sandwiches, that went well.

For night shift:
Wednesday got chicken noodles (it was supposed to be soup but I put too many noodles in the crock pot).
Thursday got sandwiches
Friday got McDonalds
Saturday got nothing (most had been fed by the campers around them)
Sunday got sandwiches.

We only had 2 people disappear, both off of day shift. Overall, I think it went really well.

However, I did make the discovery around Friday afternoon that there was a ministry set up on property feeding all of the people working the venue. I'm going to find out more about them for next time. I'll happily donate our food costs to them if we can run by their tent and grab food to go.

 

[JaxDad]

Beef stew with some kind of bread?

 

[Skippy918]

How did you get roped into this? Why can’t they bring their own food?

 

[lifesavacation]

Pulled pork sandwiches with a potato or macaroni salad would be super easy.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

How did you get roped into this? Why can’t they bring their own food?

Because no matter how many times we remind them that they are working a 12 hour shift with no ability to leave the property to get food (and really nowhere close by even if they did), they always forget. Having done this event many many times, I know that hungry, cold, bored employees have a tendency to disappear at 2am.

In other words, I'm hoping that if I feed them I can then sleep a few hours without being woken up to take over an abandoned post.

Also, we have amazing employees who are working 12 hour shifts outside in whatever weather. The least we can do is feed them.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Hams are uber cheap this week. I might pick up a few spiral hams and toss them in a crock on low about 3 hours before you need it...

Serve with chopped fresh pineapple and some potato or pasta salad (easy to premake both the night before and preprep the pineapple and then just dish cold).

PS - And if you do the ham, you can toss leftover chunks in the next night's mac and cheese...

 

[lifesavacation]

Do you have an IKEA near you? You could buy a few bags of IKEA meatballs, put them in a crockpot with some marina, slap some cheese on top and do meatball subs with maybe a side salad.

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

Taco bar - baked potato bar - deli trays for sandwiches

 

[monsterkitty]

Some sort of pasta with meatballs. Place in the smaller tinfoil serving trays. You can always buy frozen lasagna at Costco and heat that when you get home.

have pizza delivered or deliver it yourself

sub sandwiches with a warm soup

mac and cheese

fajitas with no onions, just red and green bell peppers

 

[NotUrsula]

I second the ham; though I'd just heat it and serve it sliced. It sounds like the kind of event where perhaps fires are used for warmth? If so, clean a bunch of Idaho potatoes, roll them in coarse salt (like Kosher) and wrap them inividually in foil, then stick them in the fire embers for couple of hours: this makes WONDERFUL baked potatoes. (My dad spent time as a shepherd once upon a time; this was pretty much all he ate when out with the herd in a VERY remote area.) If you can't do the fire trick, you can make and freeze au gratin potatoes and warm them in a crock pot as well.

Chicken stews such as Country Captain, served over white rice. The cooked rice can be frozen before you leave, and if you time it right, will be ready at just room temp when it is time to serve the hot stew on top. (Country Captain, if you don't know it, is very popular in Army circles; young men seem to love it. You can make it with chicken thighs, remove the bones after cooking, and then freeze it. Skip the almonds if you think there could be allergies.)

Chicken and Dumplings will also freeze well, but you need to pull out the dumplings and freeze them separately (wrapped airtight), then put them back on top of the pot when the dish is warmed.

Freezing pre-cooked foods in flat shallow bags (rather than block-shaped containers) makes for quicker reheating onsite, and they fit nicely in ice chests for transport, too. To heat them, just cut away the bag and drop the frozen flat (or flats, as you have a crowd) into a pan or crockpot.)

If you have access to a couple of double boilers, you could also go with steamed options.

Also, for a project like this, I would definitely try to borrow some tools from friends and family; perhaps someone you know has a portable BBQ or smoker they would be willing to lend? (Can be used as a warming oven for frozen foods wrapped in foil) Extra crock pots? (I'm hoping you'll have a small generator for all that electricity!)

PS: Food-service supply stores in a lot of areas are open to the public as well. You can get boxes of individual packets of things like butter and ketchup there. Also individual cardboard serving trays such as restaurants have, which are easy to clean up after without being styrofoam (which is not only a PITA to pick up after and endangers animals, but can melt if hot food is dished onto it.)

PPS: BCLA's jambalaya idea is very good (chicken and sausage, or chicken and ham if you will probably have leftovers from ham cooked another night), but since you seemed to be steering away from anything that might be considered spicy, I didn't mention it initially. (Not that the Zatarain's box version is at all spicy, but I digress.) It also freezes exceptionally well (in fact, it's better after being frozen, as long as it wasn't initially overcooked.) However, it does not really re-heat well on a stovetop; this is one that you need to do on-site if you don't have something like a microwave or a smoker available to reheat it.

 

[TwoMisfits]

And let me throw out another super simple (pretty cheap) crockpot able dish - hot dogs. Go to Aldi's and get their nice all beef hot dogs and just stand them up (or on their side) on low for 2.5-3 hours. Bun them and aluminum foil them. If you have a 2nd crock, throw in cans of Aldi's baked beans and container them up with the dogs and some baby carrots or bags of grapes (or use the leftover pasta salad or potato salad or mac and cheese from days before as the "other side").

 

[bcla]

Boxed jambalaya. Not sure what you can find where you are. I've tried Zatarain's and Tony Chachere's, and found both to be pretty good. It might take a bunch though. Not sure what you might be able to use for meat, but I like chicken or shrimp. Some prefer sausage. I've added extra celery or bell peppers.

 

[Sinder]

I need to feed my husband's night crew during a 5 day event next week. It's going to be chilly and they'll be outside the entire time so I need some ideas for hot food that can be cooked in a crockpot or on a tiny camper stove. It will be prepared at the camper, packed up, and delivered to individual posts.

To complicate things, I'm on duty until 6pm every day so it really needs to be easy recipes that I can slip away for a few minutes and throw in the crockpots or prep in the morning to cook later. I'm hoping I'll have someone to help me but not counting on it. Our grill is broken or I'd take that and do hamburgers one night.

All I've come up with so far is chicken noodle soup with grilled cheese, spaghetti with garlic bread and salad, and maybe mac and cheese with a veggie.

Anyone have any good, easy, large batch friendly meals? I want to avoid things like chili/tacos/bbq, anything that might give someone an upset tummy. They will be at individual posts, not in a central location so taco bars/ baked potato bars, things that I'd normally do won't work.

double post

 

[Sinder]

I need to feed my husband's night crew during a 5 day event next week. It's going to be chilly and they'll be outside the entire time so I need some ideas for hot food that can be cooked in a crockpot or on a tiny camper stove. It will be prepared at the camper, packed up, and delivered to individual posts.

To complicate things, I'm on duty until 6pm every day so it really needs to be easy recipes that I can slip away for a few minutes and throw in the crockpots or prep in the morning to cook later. I'm hoping I'll have someone to help me but not counting on it. Our grill is broken or I'd take that and do hamburgers one night.

All I've come up with so far is chicken noodle soup with grilled cheese, spaghetti with garlic bread and salad, and maybe mac and cheese with a veggie.

Anyone have any good, easy, large batch friendly meals? I want to avoid things like chili/tacos/bbq, anything that might give someone an upset tummy. They will be at individual posts, not in a central location so taco bars/ baked potato bars, things that I'd normally do won't work.

Are these adults? If I was feeding them 5 nights I wouldn't worry about upset stomachs. Tacos, chili and pulled pork/chicken are the easiest things to do for a crowd, just go low on the spice and have some hot sauce available for those who want it.
You could do sausage and peppers in the crockpot.
Shredded beef for sandwiches

ETA- you said your grill is broken but will you have access to one before you go to the camper?
You could pre-cook burgers and dogs and then warm them in the oven at the camper.
Could do the same with chicken drumsticks, or even ribs

 

[bcla]

When you said a tiny camper's stove, were you thinking a little backpacking one?

Or more using larger propane canisters?

I guess a crock pot would require more time (and probably less electricity), but with less risk of burning if one forgets to stir. I mentioned Zatarain's, and they've got tips on using slow cookers.

https://www.mccormick.com/zatarains/recipes/main-dishes/slow-cooker-chicken-and-shrimp-jambalaya

 

[Sinder]

When you said a tiny camper's stove, were you thinking a little backpacking one?

Or more using larger propane canisters?

I guess a crock pot would require more time (and probably less electricity), but with less risk of burning if one forgets to stir. I mentioned Zatarain's, and they've got tips on using slow cookers.

https://www.mccormick.com/zatarains/recipes/main-dishes/slow-cooker-chicken-and-shrimp-jambalaya

I'm guessing a stove inside a camper

 

[bcla]

I'm guessing a stove inside a camper

I guess then there's clarification on what "camper" means. If it's an RV with a small kitchen, that brings up a lot of possibilities, especially if something can be prepared in advance and then just reheated. But I do like jambalaya on a cold night.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm BAACK!: I just realised that if you have the right tools, you could use sous-vide cooking (or even old-fashioned boil-in bags) to make this chore MUCH easier. Investing in a vacuum sealer and a large-capacity sous vide might be a worthwhile business expense for him in this case, as you do it annually.

If you did that, you could cook/package all those individual portions at home in the comfort of a real kitchen, seal them up, freeze them, and all you would have to do is drop the bags into a pot of hot water to reheat them. Then just fish out a bag, cut the plastic and slide the food into a cardboard serving tray; and voila, time saved on-site for sleep.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

When you said a tiny camper's stove, were you thinking a little backpacking one?

Or more using larger propane canisters?

I guess a crock pot would require more time (and probably less electricity), but with less risk of burning if one forgets to stir. I mentioned Zatarain's, and they've got tips on using slow cookers.

https://www.mccormick.com/zatarains/recipes/main-dishes/slow-cooker-chicken-and-shrimp-jambalaya

No, sorry, I meant a little tiny oven inside of an RV camper. So a regular stove, just smaller than the usual house sized one.

 

[Sinder]

I guess then there's clarification on what "camper" means. If it's an RV with a small kitchen, that brings up a lot of possibilities, especially if something can be prepared in advance and then just reheated. But I do like jambalaya on a cold night.

The OP said prepared “at the camper” so it sounds like the tiny camper stove is the typical RV oven/stovetop. It does open up possibilities. The oven is quite small so cooking for a crowd would take awhile but you could heat up already cooked stuff in batches.
Plus there would be 2-3 burners.

When we go up to our camp and have a crowd I pre-cook alot of food but just use our grill to re-heat because the oven is small