To serve canapés for lunch?

[RhinosDontEatOatcakes]

I've got to cater a lunch for 6 adults and assorted children. Various dietary requirements, likes/dislikes, coming up with a menu is proving tricky.

Would you think it odd to be presented with an array of canapés for lunch? Nice ones, pre-ordered from M&S, plenty of them but still, just canapés.

YANBU

I'm not sure young children would enjoy canapés. Why not just put out a selection of nice breads, cheeses, ham, pastas and vegetable sticks. People can help themselves to what they can eat.

Well canapes are yum but you'll need a lot of them!

I would probably just do a sandwich selection - ham and cheese ones on normal bread then a GF wrap ones with hummos and roasted veg, or avo and tomato or something.

Plus crisps and veg sticks and maybe a nice veggie homemade soup

Ooh a picky lunch!

Sounds like a good idea to me.

I would just do a cold buffet if there's children

Yes why not? Make it into a buffet. Not sure what canapés you're thinking of, but why not serve alongside a spanish tortilla, ham or salmon, cheeses / relishes and different breads. Then kids can find something they like and adults can just help themselves.

Canapés are tiny, so you'd need a lot of them. I'd do a cold buffet instead.

Sausage rolls, veggie quiche, french bread, dips, veg fingers, cocktail sausages, cheese board, salad, pasta salad, potato salad, coleslaw, falafel etc.

Sounds lovely to me.
Just been to a lunch where they did exactly that for 3 hours. Gave everyone time to talk and mix.
Everyone really enjoyed it.

I'm thinking of doing similar. I have to cater for 20. M&S do a nice selection, maybe you could add a few more different selections.

Sounds really nice.

I think you need some proper food alongside. Maybe a couple of different types of salad and some nice bread.

Absolutely fine

Just do some basic cheese and ham sandwiches for the kids, a bowl of cut grapes, a bowl of crisps and it's job done. Takes less than 5 mins.

That sounds delicious! Can I come??

Food allergies are a nightmare with canapés, particularly gluten free and you need to order the special ones.
As a coeliac I happily have the same flavor sandwiches as everyone else on GF bread mark and Spencer's do a lovely small seeded loaf.
Why people think that GF need to be some kind of different worthy sandwich I have no idea.
Alternatively soup is often GF and nice bread regular and GF.

I'd be tempted to call it tapas rather than canapes. My favorite kind of people over meal.

I always do a big bowl of warm dough balls to ensure the DC have something plain and familiar to eat. If there are any meats and cheeses the DC make mini sandwiches. If not just eat them whole. They did once find a jar of choc spread and dipped the warm doughballs in and found their own food heaven.

I love these. I was at a conference in Spain if you years ago and that's what we had for lunch, salami, mini burgers, mini pizzas, other things that I can't remember, but it was all good.

YANBU love a picky lunch 😊

I do make my own dough balls. For events I lightly bake and freeze, then just pop them from frozen in a hot oven for about 8 mins. The pizza express ones from the supermarket are good too though, but the price adds up.

I use the same basic dough mix for pizza bases and always do too much so turn the excess into doughballs and freeze in little batches to use alongside pasta dishes.

My basic recipe is 500g strong flour, 1 sachet easy bake yeast or a teaspoon of yeast, a tablespoon of sugar, generous half teaspoon salt, a couple of sploshes oil (tablespoon or two), an egg and around 350ml water. (Sugar, salt, sugar, egg, oil all optional ingredients - if removing a liquid ingredient add more water if removing sugar prove for a bit longer).

Bung it all in a bowl really good mix and kneed, leave covered for an hour or till its needed, roll/ squish dough into a rectangle and cut into roughly even strips, roll each strip as a cylinder then roughly evenly chop up into chunks. They don't need much shaping or any time to prove, they bake in about 8 mins at 220 or if i'm freezing i take them out at 5 or 6 mins.

That's not a very large number of people to cater for. Depending on the dietary requirements I'd probably do a thick veggie soup or chilli with bread and salad plus pizza for the children who wouldn't eat that.

Or jacket potatoes with a couple of different fillings and some salad.

Canapes are a fiddle if you have to keep bring them in and out of the oven and people will still have likes and dislikes and they are pretty expensive.