Cooking for 15 for a week. What would you cook?

[CookingAllDay]

Going to a holiday home with family for a week.
10 adults, 5 children. No dietary requirements. Kids aged between 3-15. Not fussy eaters.

I need breakfast, evening meal and snacks. I think I'll be doing most of the cooking which is fine, others will help if needed, so the easier the better.

Any suggestions please!!!

Bbq

Chilli
Home made pizzas
Chicken drumsticks, salads, new potatoes
Sausage and mash
Spag Bol
Curry
Gammon and wedges
Fish pie
Cottage pie
Pasta bake
Fajitas
Stir fry
Quiche
Meat pies
Baked potatoes
Salmon
Casserole
Soup
Pulled pork
BBQ

Remember to take some huge cauldron size saucepans

If the property sleeps 15, you'd expect the kitchen to be equipped for 15, so the property should have these already.

If the kitchen isn't properly equipped for the size of property it accommodates, I'd seriously cut back on the amount of cooking, maybe things like pizza, salad and mozzarella fingers, but serve the pizza in slices so people all have some at the same time. Buy ready cooked chickens and serve with salad, garlic bread and coleslaw. Barbecue, but again, it's going to have to be a grazing affair, rather than everyone being able to sit down at the same time with full plates of food.

Trying to cook a meal for 15 will be a struggle unless there's at least a double oven and some proper 'huge cauldron sized pans'.

Put 15 burgers in a hot oven. Rolls, salad, oven chips (or sweet potato wedges if you can be bothered)

A big chicken casserole / stew. Thighs, root veg, small onions, wine. With crusty bread.

Spicy veg tagine with cous cous

A tray bake: chicken thighs, mini potatoes etc.

Tom Yum noodles. A big tub if pre-made bought paste, stock, coconut milk, lime juice, ready to wok noodles, bean sprouts or Pak Choi. Top with salmon fillets (but frozen bags) oven roast with 5Spice powder, sesame seeds, chilli.

This is a nice tray bake, easy to scale up.

www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mains/sausage-traybake

There are 15 of you. Assuming breakfast is toast, cereal, pastries, fruit etc., that leaves 14 meals.

I would cook for one meal. I would tell all the other adults that they are also responsible for one meal. The lucky adult who doesn't have a meal to do can sort the breakfast stuff.

I would do a chilli or lasagna for my one meal.

Sorry, read your OP wrong! Ten adults do a meal each, then 4 takeaways/eat out/picnic food.

I hope someone else does the washing up

Realistically it's only around an hour in the kitchen, and with a glass of wine, I don't mind at all

It really won’t be an hour OP, not unless you have other people to help you.
When we’ve done this on holiday, each family has taken it in turns to cook so there’s a few people each night to help with the prep but they’re not lumbered with it every night. Through in a fish and chip night, or a takeaway and it’s doable. But even a BBQ for 15 people it a lot to handle on your own and will take more than an hour.

Salad one night, make pasta or potato salad to go with it, and hardboiled eggs and ham.

@PennineSpring

Realistically it's only around an hour in the kitchen, and with a glass of wine, I don't mind at all

It really won’t be an hour OP, not unless you have other people to help you.
When we’ve done this on holiday, each family has taken it in turns to cook so there’s a few people each night to help with the prep but they’re not lumbered with it every night. Through in a fish and chip night, or a takeaway and it’s doable. But even a BBQ for 15 people it a lot to handle on your own and will take more than an hour.

It depends on what you're cooking and how efficient you are. I can cook a simple dinner for 20 in under an hour, no problem. A fancier dinner would take a bit longer

www.amazon.co.uk/Roasting-Tin-Simple-Dish-Dinners/dp/1910931519/ref=asc_df_1910931519_nodl/?hvlocphy=1006668&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=310856639426&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-418222817678&hvrand=7826658043029789978

Treat yourself to this. It has great recipes that are infinitely adaptable and easy to scale up. I love the sausage and sweet potato recipe.

I'd leave them to it and book into a hotel. What sort of a holiday is that!

I would cook trays of meat and serve with salads, new potatoes/potato salad, bread etc. Another night cook a joint of pork shoulder and do a hog roast, a big chilli with rice, salad and nachos, plus dips, cassoulet with Toulouse sausages or merenguez if you can get them, or slow roast duck legs - if cooked it for 25 before, serve with decent bread

It seems a funny set up, I wouldn’t want someone else deciding what I have for dinner when I’m on holiday.

Just come back from a holiday with 12 of us-(last year there was 18.) Every adult and the kids took turns to either cook or help cook a meal-here is what we had:
Spaghetti bol and veggie bolognese
Bbq with baked pots, salads etc
Homemade pizza ( had a pizza oven at the cottage)
Chilli and veg chilli, rice , salad
Carbonara/pesto pasta
Steak, homemade chips, salad
Roast Beef/chicken and veggie option.
Definately get help to cook-everyone has something they can cobble together and the kids love helping.
Breakfasts -cereal, toast, eggs collected from the chickens each day.
Lunches- bread, cheese, ham etc

Make a massive pot of ragu. Use half in a lasagne or as spag bol.

Save the other half and the next night do trays of potato or sweet potato wedges. Stir the cooked wedges through the ragu then top with loads of cheese and bake for 15 minutes.

Serve with salad and crusty bread. It's beautiful in it's simplicity.

How about making the first 2 night's meals at home, freeze them and take them with you?

Couple of big tubs of frozen chilli, just need chucked in a pan and heated up. Add tacos or tortilla chips so you don't even have to cook rice. Add bought salsa and guacamole.

2nd night, frozen lasagne that has been in the fridge since you arrived, just needs put in the oven.
3rd night- pizzas.
4th night takeaway
5th night out
6th night - a pasta bake or one of the dishes that someone has suggested that you think soinds easy.

Means you only have to actually cook from scratch once while you're there.

Breakfast- one or 2 days pastries.one day bacon butties. One sausage butties. One big cooked if you can face it. And the rest of the time it's a free for all with some breakfast type foods, toast, cereal. We only had 8 when we were away but all different ages so breakfasts sometimes was a staggered affair.

This thread is full of good ideas, but I do think cooking in a holiday cottage without all your usual equipment and an unfamiliar oven is not relaxing and should be shared.

An Uber Eats account

If you have outside facilities I would suggest a couple of barbecues and then escape.

We do a big week away with 15plus. Snacks and lunches are sorted individually.

Breakfasts - few boxes of cereal, bacon, sausages and eggs, loaves of bread, sauces.

Evening meals -
Fajitas with wedges and dips
Spag bol with salad and garlic bread
A roast
Curry (2x options) with rice and naan/poppadoms etc
Goulash with crusty bread
Pie mash peas and gravy (can you guess we are northerners!)
Take away/fish and chips

Oh, and we always share the cooking out! Those who pick certain meals then get to choose how they make it (eg the guy who does the pies makes them from scratch but he buys jarred sauce for the curries).

One MN chicken should be plenty for the whole trip.

Employ a bloody chef!!

I’m sure the cost would manageable if divided equally.