Need Meal Ideas

[collins0616]

I am looking for ideas for feeding a group on a budget. I will be feeding 40 breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week. We will do "sack" lunches everyday. Eat at the house for Breakfast before we leave for the park and dinner back at the house in the evening. Looking for ideas that are easy (can do crock pots) quick to prepare after a long day at the park, and still nutritious. Will also need snacks for the parks. I have come up with some ideas, but looking for more

 

[SaraJayne]

I am looking for ideas for feeding a group on a budget. I will be feeding 40 breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week. We will do "sack" lunches everyday. Eat at the house for Breakfast before we leave for the park and dinner back at the house in the evening. Looking for ideas that are easy (can do crock pots) quick to prepare after a long day at the park, and still nutritious. Will also need snacks for the parks. I have come up with some ideas, but looking for more

You're having 40 people staying in the same house for a week?!

 

[Pesky]

FORTY people? God love you. First off, for dinner, I presuming there are other adults in this group and therefore would try to spread the cooking duties around so it rotates.

Breakfast:
cereal and granola
pastries
yogurt
pancake breakfast
scrambled eggs and bacon/sausage
fresh fruit
french toast
(obviously some are easier and quicker than others; if you want to go easy, keep it a continental breakfast in the morning and if anyone else wants more, point the way to the kitchen)

Snacks:
Granola bars
Fresh fruit like apples and pears and bananas
dried fruit packs -- raisins, apricots, etc.
nuts

Dinner:
spaghetti (if you are driving, I'd probably make a double batch of meat sauce (or veggie one depending on the guests), freeze it and then bring it with)
Lasagna (yes, there is a crockpot variation)
burgers/hotdogs
brats with sauerkraut
pulled pork sandwiches (another crockpot wonder)
beef burgundy (yet another crockpot one -- bit more involved but America's Test Kitchen has a great recipe for this)
pot roast (crockpot)
grilled chicken
cream of mushroom soup chicken
shrimp scampi (I use Tyler Florence's recipe -- very easy, quick and delicious)
chicken picatta
rotessirie chicken (yay Costco!)

 

[scrapquitler]

You are much braver than I am.

I am assuming you are renting a condo or house while on vacation?? Things to consider:

Do you have enough kitchen capacity to easily cook for 40 people? If you are going to make pasta for 40, you need quite a few large pots for boiling water for example. If you are staying in a rental, just having the proper number of pans/oven space, utensils, etc might not be a reasonable expectation, so you'll have to plan for that ahead of time. When we rented a condo, we had one cookie sheet, one 9X13 pan, two saucepans and one larger size pan, plus about 6 of each utensil (fork, spoon, knife) and dishes for 6. With 40 people eating in that sort of kitchen, you are going to need to supply paper plates and plastic utensils, I think (you can't get that much in the dishwasher, and who is going to want to wash all those dishes even if you bring them from home?)


buffet style continental breakfast (muffins, fruit, coffee, cereal, milk, juice) will definitely be the way to go. You can probably go with a little more on some days (frozen waffles, sausage, for example) but that will take a while to cook even that for so many people.

For dinners, I think the PP had some really good ideas, esp. the crockpot ideas, but you're going to need multiple crockpots and it's going to take a fair amount of planning and coordination. You'll also probably want options for any picky eaters in the group (and with that many people, there will be at least a few).

I do think you'll either want to take turns doing all that cooking/shopping/clean up or at least have a few nights where you get take out of some sort, because nobody is going to want to spend their entire vacation cooking for 40 people for every meal.

Honestly, I'd probably go with the breakfasts, let each family group figure out and make their own lunches to go and bring their own snacks. Then I'd pick just A COUPLE of days to cook a communal dinner for everyone, and those nights would likelly be cookout of burger/hotdogs, pizza and maybe ONE of those crockpot meals. For the other nights, go out or have each family group figure it out themselves.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Have you considered the effort that will have to be put in for this? You can store food for 40 in one fridg--someone is going to have to go to the grocery several times during the week. How many crockpots are you bringing? Who is cleaning all this up?

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

So I did a little snooping and see your 40 people is a group of young girls and the adults who are bringing them. That might make it easier.

For breakfasts, I would go with cereals, yogurt, fruit--things that can be pulled out of the fridg and girls can help themselves. Paper plates and cups.

It looks like you're planning to be out and about at lunch.

For dinners, have fruit available at every meal, but I'm not sure you can do totally healthy in these circumstances. Think easy preparation--cookout (burgers and hotdogs with chips), order pizza, pick up chicken (rotisserie), sandwiches.

I've been on trips with this number of people for church groups, and when we prepared actual meals (breakfast and dinner only), we would have a couple of people whose job it was to do that, and they really did almost nothing else during the trip.

Remember that you won't have commercial kitchen equipment, so even to do something easy like spaghetti, you'd have to cook probably 5 batches of pasta.

 

[pixiewings71]

40 people??? Cooking for 40 is not a vacation IMO.....
I think Pesky has some great ideas!! Good luck!

 

[akclayton]

That's quite a group there.

Does anyone have a Sam's Club or Costco or a local store similar to the two that they are members of? Bulk buying could become lots cheaper.

Breakfast
Cereals, fruits, toast with jelly, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, applesauce

Bag lunches are a good idea.

Dinner:
Spaghetti, rotisserie chicken, order pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets/strips, taco soup and frito pie isn't bad either.

Popcorn is a good snack. My grandma used to always pack crackers, cheese that's in the can, and peanut butter for a snack.

 

[kjetjl]

Dorito Tacos!

Purchase the individual sized Dorito bags. Each person crushes the Doritos in the bag. Put desired taco toppings in the bag, close top and shake. Eat right from the bag and toss when finished. The easiest clean up ever!

5-6 lbs ground beef for 40 pp-I add just a touch of taco seasoning but the Doritos provide the flavor

chopped lettuce
salsa
black beans
cheese
sour cream
corn
any other favorite taco topping

 

[erinmomof2]

I would suggest a mexican bar. Taco shells, tortilla chips, flour tortillas, cheese, ground beef, beans, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, ect. It would be really easy to just brown the meat (you could even do it in advance) and heat up some beans. Let everyone make there own and everyone could find something they like. It's also great for people with allergies because almost anyone could do something with this.

Another easy meal is chili (again you could brown the meat in advance) and hotdogs.

A baked potato bar or salad bar would be easy and inexpensive. Chicken soup is really easy and could just cook all day in the crockpot. Shredded chicken/pork sandwiches would be simple and could go in the crockpot. A big batch of fruit salad could last a couple meals as a side. Same thing with potato salad or coleslaw.

 

[Gigi22]

Can you purchase frozen quiche and bag salads? With rolls and fresh fruit, it makes a good light meal.
Shepherd's Pie with salad. It can be made ahead and heated.
Alternately, do you have access to some good-sized casserole dishes? I am thinking that a few of the Best of Bridge 'wifesaver' recipes for breakfast would be useful--they are a bread, egg, and cheese casserole that you make the night before, hold overnight in the fridge, and bake in the oven in the a.m.
Depending on the season--stuffed peppers. You make your favorite meatball recipe, stuff into hollowed out peppers, bake in tomato sauce. Serve with salad and bread.

 

[PennyInPink]

Sloppy joes? precook the burger to take with you, mix wth cans of sauce into crockpots or electric roaster, serve with buns, chips, a fruit platter.

 

[CarolineB]

To free up a stove top burner, the microwave pasta boat (bed, bath, and beyond) for $6 works great for 2 person servings of pasta -- I have one of these and it's very easy to use. The pasta takes about 15 minutes to cook. There is a snap on lid for draining the pasta. This would be an option if someone doesn't like what's on the menu for dinner.

I also make lipton double noodle soup in the microwave -- I use an 8 cup bowl so it doesn't overflow -- each package of soup needs 3 cups of water. This would be easy for someone that's hungry and wants to eat something light right away.

One night could be a sub night -- that's pretty easy to have ready for when you get back.

What about a rice maker for cooking rice for rice and beans to serve as a side dish.

Use frozen meatballs for an Italian bread, pasta, meatballs, and salad night.

Use no cook lasagna noodles for lasagna -- I would probably just make 2 pans in the oven rather than the crock pot.

Taco bar sounds yummy.

Chicken thighs are cheaper than chicken breasts.

Cook / prep the night before??

For breakfast, instant oatmeal packets are quick and easy.

Bring a blender for smoothies as a snack. I go to a lot of training seminars and these have been given to our group. Use frozen strawberries (or blue berries, fresh bananas), vanilla yogurt, skim milk, vanilla ice cream -- I just made a smoothie today with strawberries, yogurt, ice cream, and skim milk -- so good.

Look at boy scouts or girl scouts websites -- they'll have a lot of recipe ideas for cooking for large groups.

 

[ORDisneyfans]

What age are these girls? I have a 14 3/4 and a 9 1/2 yo! Let me tell you they only eat: Cheese Pizza, Macaroni and Cheese, Spaghetti (no bumps please!), Lasagna, Make your own Sub Sandwiches, Baked Potato Bar, Chicken strips and Tator Tots, BBQ Beef Sandwiches and Salad, Taco, Nachos or Burrito Bar (can also be taco salads), and tonights dinner: Candy Chicken and Rice.

Candy Chicken:
In Crockpot place 6-8 Chicken breasts or thighs cutup, 1 C Brown Sugar, 1/2 C Vinegar (I use rice vinegar), 2T Soy Sauce, 3 Cloves of minced Garlic, 1/4 C 7Up or Sprite!!! Cook all day on low or 4-5 hours on high! Can be doubled, tripled etc!! Serve over white rice! Everyone loves this!!

At Girl Scout Camp they will eat oatmeal made in the crockpot every day with brown sugar on top and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! At home forget it!!

I second the Girl or Boy Scout camp cooking ideas!

Good Luck ... you are one brave lady!!

 

[swilshire]

A daily visit to Sams or Costco might save the day. They have lots of family size casseroles and other frozen foods that you could just throw in the oven. It sounds like you need a full time cook to take care of those duties.

Even worse, can you imagine getting all those girls through the showers in the mornings?

Sheila

 

[Nanu57v]

Here's some ideas: Make ahead chicken fingers. You just buy boneless skinless chicken breast and make them assembly line style. Freeze for later and cook from frozen, or cook immediately.

http://www.themommysaver.com/2011/04/freezer-meal-chicken-fingers-or-nuggets.html


Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

This is also easy. I make my own broth, but if I were feeding 40, I'd use bouillon. Cook and shred chicken in the process, and combine chicken, broth, a bag of soup vegs, and egg noodles.

http://www.themommysaver.com/2011/08/freezer-fast-recipe-chicken-noodle-soup.html

Italian Chicken

I included the link, but really, its just a list of suggested marinades. You take boneless skinless chicken, cut it into serving size portions, and put in freezer bags. Then pour your marinade over it. We used italian dressing, lemon juice, hot sauce, wine, wine vinegar, lime juice, margarita mix (works best with pork), etc. You can prep ahead and freeze. Or, to prep down there, just throw it in the marinade the night before.

http://www.themommysaver.com/2010/08/freezer-meal-recipe-friday-italian.html


For side dishes, I'd definitely do bagged fries, rice, boxed potatoes, etc. For vegs and fruit, I'd do those with littlest prep. Steam bags of broccoli (or buy a bunch of those steamfresh bags). Bags of apples and oranges.

This last one is a casserole that we LOVE. It takes about 15 minutes to make, but you would only have to make 8 of them for you meal, and it wouldn't be 8 x 15... I usually make 2-3 at a time and it doesn't take any longer (maybe 5 minutes), so I'd guess it would take about 45 minutes to prep all 8, and then you don't have to worry about sides. You'll need two ovens to bake all this though.

http://www.themommysaver.com/2010/07/freezer-meal-recipe-friday-stovetop.html

Oh, I was just thinking how you said crockpot. Our favorite easy crockpot meal. Serve over egg noodles:

http://www.themommysaver.com/2010/06/help-i-need-quick-easy-dinner-crockpot.html

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I don't think you can deal with accomodating picky eaters with alternate hot meals in this situation, if for no other reason than the kitchen is going to be full with the actual meal. Have bread, peanut butter and jelly available for make-your-own sandwiches. The girls won't go hungry!

But please please please take a few minutes to contemplate how much time this will take. It sounds like you are thinking "make sack lunches and throw stuff in crock pot and everyone goes to the park for the day." Just making 40 sack lunches and loading them into the vehicle is going to be seriously time consuming. You need a good plan and a detailed menu.

One idea would be that one adult stays behind each day. That person's job is to prepare the meals for that day and buy any groceries needed for the next day.

 

[Minnesota!]

I would get a few boxes of cereal (hot and cold) and a few cartons of eggs, and a few loaves of bread, big jar or two of peanut butter for breakfasts. Hardboil the eggs and people can just serve themselves easy each morning.

Lunches - making 40 sack lunches a day is going to be a PITA! I would think that maybe 4 adults should be in charge of this. Each makes 10 sandwiches, throws them in a bag with a banana, some chips, and a bottle of water.

Dinner -

CROCKPOT!

Fill a crockpot with chicken and bbq sauce. Cook all day on low. Shred chicken. Serve on buns with salad on side, some beans, etc.
Fill a crockpot with seasoned taco meat. Have shells, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, beans on side.
Fill a crockpot with spaghetti sauce (just buy a few jars, add in some spices, some frozen meatballs) make a few boxes of noodles, a few loaves of garlic bread.
Fill a crockpot with sloppy joe meat, some beans, chips, salad on the side
Fill a crockpot with chicken breast, chopped veggies, chicken broth, some seasoning. Cook all day. Serve over rice for chicken rice soup. Make 40 grilled cheese in the oven.

 

[pixiewings71]

What age are these girls? I have a 14 3/4 and a 9 1/2 yo! Let me tell you they only eat: Cheese Pizza, Macaroni and Cheese, Spaghetti (no bumps please!), Lasagna, Make your own Sub Sandwiches, Baked Potato Bar, Chicken strips and Tator Tots, BBQ Beef Sandwiches and Salad, Taco, Nachos or Burrito Bar (can also be taco salads), and tonights dinner: Candy Chicken and Rice.

Candy Chicken:
In Crockpot place 6-8 Chicken breasts or thighs cutup, 1 C Brown Sugar, 1/2 C Vinegar (I use rice vinegar), 2T Soy Sauce, 3 Cloves of minced Garlic, 1/4 C 7Up or Sprite!!! Cook all day on low or 4-5 hours on high! Can be doubled, tripled etc!! Serve over white rice! Everyone loves this!!

At Girl Scout Camp they will eat oatmeal made in the crockpot every day with brown sugar on top and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! At home forget it!!

I second the Girl or Boy Scout camp cooking ideas!

Good Luck ... you are one brave lady!!

Oh my, that sounds really good!!! I will have to try that soon!

I would get a few boxes of cereal (hot and cold) and a few cartons of eggs, and a few loaves of bread, big jar or two of peanut butter for breakfasts. Hardboil the eggs and people can just serve themselves easy each morning.

Lunches - making 40 sack lunches a day is going to be a PITA! I would think that maybe 4 adults should be in charge of this. Each makes 10 sandwiches, throws them in a bag with a banana, some chips, and a bottle of water.

Dinner -

CROCKPOT!

Fill a crockpot with chicken and bbq sauce. Cook all day on low. Shred chicken. Serve on buns with salad on side, some beans, etc.
Fill a crockpot with seasoned taco meat. Have shells, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, beans on side.
Fill a crockpot with spaghetti sauce (just buy a few jars, add in some spices, some frozen meatballs) make a few boxes of noodles, a few loaves of garlic bread.
Fill a crockpot with sloppy joe meat, some beans, chips, salad on the side
Fill a crockpot with chicken breast, chopped veggies, chicken broth, some seasoning. Cook all day. Serve over rice for chicken rice soup. Make 40 grilled cheese in the oven.

I just did that for dinner Friday night....we still have shredded chicken, I'm going to have to freeze some after we eat leftovers (again) tonight. lol I made chicken enchiladas with it last night.

OP how many rooms will you have? You will need dishes to do any oven baking, if you don't have enough you may need to pick some disposable ones up at the store. I like the suggestion of cereal, bread, butter, peanut butter & jelly for breakfasts. Can you eat a QS lunch at the parks and then do the dinners at the room? It might be easier to do that, much less time consuming, making 40 lunches per day is going to be a challenge. I haven't seen your other post (referred to my a pp in this thread) so I don't know how many parents are going but I really think you will all need to share this responsibility, that's a lot to take on for 1 person.....

 

[collins0616]

No some together, but will be gathering at one for meals.

You're having 40 people staying in the same house for a week?!