Cooking for a large group 3x day for over a week. Recipe help please!

[Anonymous]

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My husband’s family is visiting from overseas for 3 weeks over the summer.
We will probably travel half the time but while they are staying with us, I need to feed them.

I’m used to cooking for 5 people but now it will be 12 people and that’s very different.
Also, my husband’s mother is strictly vegetarian but won’t eat salads, veggie burgers or tofu among other things. She typically eats her own cooking - Indian food. I will likely have to make her food separately too.
That’s another issue because she won’t eat chick peas and all my Indian food recipes are with chicken or chick peas.

But for the rest of the group who eat anything but red meat - any recipes that work for large groups???
Breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas

I’ll make my homemade macaroni and cheese for kids and large salads to have on hand along with sandwich supplies. Maybe a French toast casserole one morning and sometimes they will have eggs/toast or cereal and fruit.

But I’m overwhelmed by this. I’m a decent cook but I get nervous trying new recipes for other people so I’m going to start experimenting soon.

Any easy meal recipes appreciated since I’m likely shopping, planning, cooking and cleaning alone.

[Anonymous]

Order in. A lot.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea. I wouldn’t know where to begin either. Good luck, seriously.

[Anonymous]

Costco.

For your MIL, why not just let her cook her own stuff. Take her to the store to find ingredients for her soups or whatever she eats.

[Anonymous]

Pioneer Woman has a sheet pan pancake recipe that I plan to make during the next big family get together

[Anonymous]

Pot roast,beef,pork or chicken roast,tacos, sheet pan shawarma, shrimp scampi, lasagna, baked macaroni, baked salmon, fried rice, mexican rice, grilled meat, bbq ribs. Make it simple by making 1protein, 1 veggie, 1 side.

[Anonymous]

I would get a caterer or a sous chef. Not kidding, that’s too many people to cook for for one person.

You need to make breakfast self serve. Assign someone to get bagels every morning. Have cream cheeses, precut fruit, smoked salmon, red onion, that sort of thing. Anything else they can go out and get. Maybe do a big crock pot oatmeal option some of the days.

Lunch is out of the house. It has to be.

If you’re really only cooking for dinner, you *might* not die. Make every other night restaurant or take out or catered.

[Anonymous]

For breakfast, get a mix of fruits, bread, cereal, oatmeal, and you can oven bake easy items like scrambled eggs, sausages, breakfast casseroles and even bacon. We do this a lot on vacations and the key is make use of your oven, get a mix of easy and ready to eat food and on busy days, get take out/reheat ready to eat food.

[Anonymous]

That's too many people, for too long a time, and too many dietary restrictions. You are very kind for attempting to accommodate and host everyone.

I wouldn't make breakfast except for one special brunch on the weekend, otherwise just have lots of options available. Oatmeal, waffles, cereals, yogurts, bagels. Trader Joe's has amazing croissants you can put out to rise the night before, they are really good!

For lunch have salad and sandwich ingredients available: nuts, cheeses, breads, spreads, salad greens

Let MIL cook for herself

I would maybe cook dinner once or twice a week at most, other than that I would really heavily on going out or doing take out.
Make sure to stock up on easy, frozen meals like pizza, and also staples like spaghetti.

Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Look for things that can be easily doubled or tripled And that store well as left overs.

1. I’ve done the NYT chicken shawarma for a large crowd. I’ve served with rice or naan on the side. It’s great with yogurt/lime sauce, lettuce etc on naan.

2. Stir fries -Japanese, Chinese or Thai are great for a crowd too. For the kid who won’t eat veggies, I set aside some meat. For the vegetarian, I set aside veggies now. For everyone else, add the meat into the veggies.

3. At Costco, we like the frozen marinated salmon. Very easy to cook.

[Anonymous]

Are they coming from India? Are they flexible eaters? When DHs extended family came from India for our wedding, they pretty much just wanted what they eat at home. We found an Indian grocery and let them cook for themselves, which is what they wanted.

[Anonymous]

Dal, aloo gobhi, and Baigan bharta (eggplant-not sure I spelled it right) are all pretty easy. If she eats paneer you could do paneer in a chicken tikka sauce and chicken tikka for everyone else.

I’d do a big pot of spaghetti sauce w/ gr turkey or turkey meatballs, so easy to cook for a large group.

Grill one night (turkey burgers or impossible burgers, turkey hot dogs, bbq chicken) with corn on the cob.

[Anonymous]

I would focus on dinner. For breakfast and lunch, just ask what you can have on hand and let everyone fend for them selves.

For dinners I would have a phone call in advance to discuss menus. I would hope they would offer to cook several times a week too.

[Anonymous]

Tacos. Keep all fillings separate for the vegetarian. Let everyone customize and assemble themselves.

[Anonymous]

Hire a chef