Feeding a crowd

[Anonymous]

Help me figure out what to serve! I need to provide a day's worth of food for 15 people - some men with giant appetites, some kids, and one gluten-free child - for an entire day and I have no idea how to handle this.

Let me note that I will be out of town with family so don't have the luxury of my own kitchen/supplies on hand. Also, I work full-time and don't have a lot of time for cooking a ton of stuff in advance, although I will try.

So here are my ideas:

Breakfast - g-free cereal, fruit salad, croissants

Lunch - ??? I hate to do hot dogs. Any cheap suggestions? Vegetarian would be great!

Appetizer - ??? Veggies? Dip? What can I make in advance?

Dinner - Meatball subs. Can make a few meatballs without breadcrumbs. I need two sides for this meal! A salad, but what else?

All suggestions welcome. Please focus on feeding a lot of people cheaply and with minimal effort on my part.

TIA.

[Anonymous]

For lunch, some kind of pasta salad is always a hit in my house. I might do an assortment of salads: pasta salad, chicken salad (with precooked chicken from the grocery store, either a full roasted chicken ripped apart or even Purdue shortcuts diced up), a green salad, and then serve up a cheese platter, some olives, and some french baguette loaves. (Or you could always go to a local grocery store and just buy a bunch of prepared salads, cheese platter, and baguettes.) All of this is buffet style food, easy to eat.

Appetizers - store-bought sliced veggies and dip, cheese platter (left over from lunch), olives, hummos (store-bought) & pita, guacamole (store-bought or mash up avocado with lemon juice and chop some onions and tomatoes into it) and chips, easy-to-make quesadillas (a pack of tortillas, some black beans, shredded cheese and sliced onions - into an oven for 10-15 minutes).

Dinner - as a side, dice up some garlic and onion (and any other veggies or meat of your choosing) and simmer that in a pan, add your choice jar of store-bought pasta sauce - the result is easy, "home made" pasta sauce. Pour over any type of pasta. Easy side or main dish. Serve with garlic bread.

[Anonymous]

Breakfast - toast (normal and g-free bread ) with jam, fruit salad, yoghurt.

Lunch - sandwiches with ham (or salami, turkey etc), cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo/mustard.

Appetizer - Buy various dips (wouldn't bother making any), doritos/dipping crackers and veggies

Dinner - Pasta (easy, cheap and filling)

[Anonymous]

Lunch -- make your own sandwiches? Provide a couple different types of bread, a few different meats, one cheese, some lettuce, and condiments. Doesn't have to be fancy, then let them have at it. The guys can have two sandwiches.

You could do a nice (cold?) pasta salad as a side or veggie alternative. Tortellini with pesto and maybe some grape tomatoes and basil leaves thrown in. Trader Joes has some gluten-free pasta available.

Appetizer. Cheese plate. With crackers. Some fruit on the side. Grapes, apple slices.

Dinner -- Can you do a steamed veggie for another side? Or too much work?

[Anonymous]

If you have access to a crock pot, you can make large dishes that way. One of my favorite things for a large group is pulled pork sanwiches. Just get one or two pork roasts, add some BBQ sauce and cook on slow all day. Before you serve, pull out the roasts and put in a large bowl, tear the meat into smaller pieces and add more BBQ sauce until you like the consistency. All you need are rolls/buns, some bags of chips and some sort of vegie/fruit side.

[Anonymous]

Pulled Pork in the crockpot

Breakfast casserole or oatmeal in the crockpot

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

[Anonymous]

I think a crockpot is a great way to feed a lot of people (you could do meatballs in the crockpot I am guessing). The crockpot ladies website lists other gluten free recipes. Of course, my in-laws would turn their nose at a crockpot, so quite possibly you will have that problem.

[Anonymous]

You could do pasta salad with gluten free pasta - its sold at most grocery stores now. You could do a pickled vegetable salad like cucumbers, tomatoes and onions in vinegar, salt and sugar. You could do chili in the crockpot - its naturally GF. You could do egg salad, tuna salad and potato salad - all are GF. Cool ranch doritos, Smartfood and Cheetos are GF. You could also do a taco bar and that would all be GF as long as you make your own spice blend. That way you would avoid the breadcrumbs for meatballs (or use GF bread to make your breadcrumbs). For breakfast you could make an egg and pototo caserole with cheese and tomato and bake it in the oven.

I would just do ice cream for dessert, or make a GF chocolate dessert.

Please be very mindful of cross-contamination if you are making both GF and non-GF stuff. Even one crumb or a shared cutting board or an unwashed hand could make the GF child as sick as eating a whole loaf of bread.

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much, posters, especially GF poster! I'm still learning how to be inclusive on the GF front.

[Anonymous]

Baked potatoes in the oven. Scrub and stick them in on 350, then retrieve in 45 min or 1 hr. Store bought toppings like shredded cheese, sour cream, bacon bits. Or steam some broccoli if you're feeling ambitious. This could be a lunch or a dinner side dish. Gluten free.

[Anonymous]

OP again - oh, I love the baked potato idea with lots of toppings...chili, bacon, salsa, etc. Will definitely file that one away.

[Anonymous]

For breakfast, why not add a frittata or egg casserole? Protein will keep everyone full. I like ham, swiss/Gruyere & green onion in a frittata, and eat it with fig or peach preserves on toast. A delicious combination!