Check your grocery store deli. I just fed around 100 college-age women on deli food and it was cheap and tasty.

We ordered croissant sandwiches with chicken salad and other mixes, chips, vegetable trays, and fruit trays. We had mini-brownies and mini-cupcakes for dessert.

Moby Dick trays of kabobs with rice and bread. hummus and yogurt sauce. falafels for vegetarians. They also have a salad.

OP here. Question about quantities. A lot of places have trays for like 15-18 people. Does this mean I should get 2-3 of everything or should I have many different things? If I did a pasta salad, I don't want a trash can size bowl of oasta salad, so should I have two different pasta salads in smaller bowls?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm HOSTING the shower. That means I take care of everything. Who cares if I cook it or order it?

You also have $$ constraints. Either increase your budget or be prepared to put in some work, if only to bake and plate frozen appetizers and mix tubs of green salad.

OP here. I actually said that I DON'T have a budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you hosting if you aren't even willing to make a salad? Can you get someone to help you co-host? 50 people is a good size group. I would just do potbelly or corner bakery. Do a bunch of salads, breads and cookies. It might be a little more than $500 but it's tough to get below $10/person if you are ordering everything.

Who said hosts have to cook a thing? That doesn't even make sense.

They don't but this host also doesn't want to have it catered and rejected the idea of store bought chicken salad and green salad because she doesn't want to "cook".

OP here. What? I'm specifically asking what I can purchase or get catered because I don't want to cook.

Anonymous wrote:Id go to Costco and get remade chicken salad, croissants , prepared fruit salad, hummus and veggie platter, shrimp cocktail platter, pinwheel sandwich platter. Brownie bites and a nice cake with fruit on top. Wine, lemonade, water.

Grocery store croissants are terrible--get some other kind of bread.

Anonymous wrote:Do you mind picking up a lot of things?

Trays of sandwiches from Taylor Gourmet or Whole Foods.

Fruit Tray, Veggie Tray, Cheese Tray from Whole Foods.

A big bowl of pasta salad or beans salad or something from Whole Foods.

Cookies or Brownies from Whole Foods.
Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake or somewhere.

Drinks: cups, ice, champagne, iced tea pitchers, pelligrino sodas, waters.

She said whole foods was too expensive.

Cupcakes are a great idea, although pricey. Gtown cupcakes does mini cupcakes too -they are $29 for 2 dozen minis. For 50 people I've gotten 6 dozen, it's around $100.

Do you mind picking up a lot of things?

Trays of sandwiches from Taylor Gourmet or Whole Foods.

Fruit Tray, Veggie Tray, Cheese Tray from Whole Foods.

A big bowl of pasta salad or beans salad or something from Whole Foods.

Cookies or Brownies from Whole Foods.
Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake or somewhere.

Drinks: cups, ice, champagne, iced tea pitchers, pelligrino sodas, waters.

Platter of fruits and veggies - i usually get these at the Korean/Chinese markets and arrange them myselfs-so much cheaper
Dips, Dips, all types of dips with fancy crackers/breadsticks/chips
Platter of fancy brownies/cookies/desserts/pastries. Even regular stores tend to carry desserts that a bit different these days.
Maybe ask one of the friends to make something or or get some decorations.

If you want something different, go to a Asian carryout/restaurant and see if you can order eggrolls, spring rolls, sushi rolls, samosas, quiche. You can get this in the frozen sections at the market. How about a taco fixing area.

You may need a cake/center piece. We have use a watermelon and cantaloupe cut like a basket/carriage with fruits inside as the centerpiece.

So, first I think you need to realize that there is a trade-off between convenience and cost. You seem to want to do little and pay little. Then I think you need to look into Sam's Club or Costco. Even Shoppers Food Warehouse (we used them for a work party and the food was decent).

I will say if you are willing to do a little work, you can stretch your dollars further. Fruit is one area where cutting it up yourself often saves a ton of money. Think about cut up cantelope and/or watermelon. Or grapes (you could even just rinse and put out and let people pick them off the bunch themselves).

Anonymous wrote:I'm HOSTING the shower. That means I take care of everything. Who cares if I cook it or order it?

You also have $$ constraints. Either increase your budget or be prepared to put in some work, if only to bake and plate frozen appetizers and mix tubs of green salad.

You need a lot of food for 50 people! Try calling over to a Italian restaurant, like Maggianos, and they can help you order trays of food for a reasonable price. Trays are surprisingly reasonable. If you are into more ethic foods, you can also buy big amounts of Indian, Thai, etc...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you hosting if you aren't even willing to make a salad? Can you get someone to help you co-host? 50 people is a good size group. I would just do potbelly or corner bakery. Do a bunch of salads, breads and cookies. It might be a little more than $500 but it's tough to get below $10/person if you are ordering everything.

Who said hosts have to cook a thing? That doesn't even make sense.

They don't but this host also doesn't want to have it catered and rejected the idea of store bought chicken salad and green salad because she doesn't want to "cook".

Id go to Costco and get remade chicken salad, croissants , prepared fruit salad, hummus and veggie platter, shrimp cocktail platter, pinwheel sandwich platter. Brownie bites and a nice cake with fruit on top. Wine, lemonade, water.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you hosting if you aren't even willing to make a salad? Can you get someone to help you co-host? 50 people is a good size group. I would just do potbelly or corner bakery. Do a bunch of salads, breads and cookies. It might be a little more than $500 but it's tough to get below $10/person if you are ordering everything.

Who said hosts have to cook a thing? That doesn't even make sense.

It's common sense unless someone else is springing for catering. Or maybe this is the adult version of the kid's party when (adult) guests are not served any food or drink (sort of like the last lunchtime party that my DS was invited to which had an invitation that specified that food and drink would be served to kids and adults and adults were not even offered a bottle of water let alone food).

I'm HOSTING the shower. That means I take care of everything. Who cares if I cook it or order it?