Meals for large family staying over Christmas

[Westofeasttoday]

Hello everyone! We are having my parents stay for three weeks and my sisters family for 10 days over Christmas. At our peak we will be 10 people with four kids (two of which are over 6 foot boys who eat for country!) over ten days.

We are lucky as there aren’t any allergies or food issues.

Can people please suggest some ideas for ten people that won’t break the bank and aren’t just doubling recipes (if that makes sense). Thank you!!!!

Moussaka,, with salad, slouvaki, marinated chicken on skewers served with rice flat bread and Greek salads, jacket potatoes with bowls of different filling so they can choose, except the salads, all can be prepped frozen, just a few ideas.which I have done for a stay over crowd

Yeah, and 10 jacket potatoes!

Hot dogs
Pizza (oven cook)
Pasta bake
Slow cooker casserole
Jacket potatoes

For breakfasts I agree with help yourself cereal and toast.

Maybe once or twice for a brunch/ lunch do a full cooked breakfast.

I would also do a meal planner so everyone knows what to expect each day/ eve so they can sort themselves if they don't like something and it saves the awkwardness and wasted food.
Maybe for the second week have a vote/ ideas from the visitors of what meal ideas people liked?

I would also tell the visitors to do some cooking!
How about everyone pairs up and has a night each to host like that tv programme I can't think of the name?! Then you have some fun and everyone gets lots of nights off! The kids could even do an easy lunch. This could also be worked so everyone has the same budget.

Takeaway isn't really cost effective but how about chippy chips one night with something like a curry or chilli?

Good luck!

My oven would easily take ten potatoes. Have you only got one shelf, perhaps?

Omelettes - I was thinking of frittatas or tortillas, but French omelettes are so quick to make that it could be like churning out pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

I don't understand your comment? Can't you fit 10 potatoes in your oven???

Do you have a chest freezer OP? Or room for one in a garage (they sell fairly cheaply now second hand!)

If you do/can then start freezing slow cooker favourites now...in single portions all labelled up, and just let people choose from the assortment. Have a selection of salad and/or veg each night, with crusty rolls (and possibly cheese/ham etc on hand in the fridge for those that just want a sandwich) and you're done! I've done this before and just told people to sort themselves out from the freezer and that 'sides' would be 'out' from 5. Once they'd cottoned on to the idea, most of them took out their freezer meal to defrost earlier in the day, but some would leave it and use the microwave 😂

I don't mind people coming to stay, but I'm not prepared to be chained to the kitchen for hours each day.

Well, you probably only need to think of 8 dinners because one day will be a Christmas Turkey and the next day will be left overs.

Breakfast - toast, jam honey, marmalade and a few cereals. Self service!

Lunch - encourage people to go for a walk or to town and find their own. Alternatively, soup and salad, or soup and sandwiches, or a picky meal of bread, pate, salad etc.

Dinner - spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread, frozen pizzas, chilli, curry, chicken escalopes and veggies, marry me chicken (google the recipe), fajitas, tacos, a tray bake of some kind (for 10 you might need to do 2 trays).

I’d do cakes or ice cream for dessert.

There will be another 5 adults & 2 teens, all of whom should be capable of standing over a frying pan, so people can take turns. I hope the OP won't be slaving away in the kitchen for days on end with everyone else just sitting waiting to be served.

Thai curry, rice and poppadoms.
Spaghetti bolognaise.
Chilli, garlic and soy chicken noodles.
Tomato and chorizo pasta.
Cajun chicken pasta.
Soup and bread.
Sausage & mash.
Chilli and rice.
Enchiladas & salad.
Spinach and ricotta lasagna & salad.
Chicken and chickpea curry and naan.
Ham fried rice.

Leftover pie (ham, turkey, pigs in blankets, gravy, random veg and a few pots of oatly crème fraiche or alternative mixed together with a puff pastry topping and broccoli on the side. Sounds iffy, tastes great!

This is a really good recipe and freezes well. You could up the quantities a bit to serve 10. Either serve with mash and some green veg or I often put in a large ovenproof dish and top with ready-made puff pastry to make a pie.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-red-wine-carrots

It will be so lovely for all of you but hard work feeding everyone- maybe your guests could take turns doing their specialities and obviously those able to help with clearing up etc . Do say 3 batches of chicken with different seasonings- Cajun, paprika, rosemary for example and put on the table with warmed wraps salad savoury rice etc and everyone make their own choice of wraps! I bet you all have a fantastic time! Tuna pasta and pasta arriabiatta with chorizo are quick easy and filling

Lasagne

Dahl, naans

Chilli, cheese, potato

spag bol

toad in the hole

risotto

paella

pasta bake

pizza

spanish omlette

stew

soups for lunch

porridge breakfasts

Will everyone expect to be cooked for, at your expense, for 10 days/3 weeks?!

Can you not start a discussion about a rota?

Such a great list thank you! So helpful……

Yum! I may have to test drive these out before family comes :)

Great suggestion thank you! You ladies are making this easy thank you!

A 12-egg omelette in a decent sized pan is a great way to make a hot supper for 5 or 6 people, especially if you like your omelette a bit baveuse (dribbly/runny).

Yes we do. Everyone is coming from overseas but everyone has readily said they are happy to prepare and cook, but these ideas are great for planning and prep. My mum is a great cook so lucky there _ she’s completely in charge for Christmas dinner (cause otherwise it wouldn’t taste like home).

Thanks for the advise though. Really helpful!

No all good there. My mom and sister have both said they would help cook and prep and BIL always does too. They want to help and make it easy as otherwise I don’t think I could have them over for that long.

Helpful thank you. We often do ice creams for pudding which are self serve so all good there :).

I would keep an eye on deals atm as often big pieces of meat, pack of sausages etc are on offer in November but not so much in December. Also supermarkets often need space for frozen Christmassy stuff so non Christmassy frozen stuff is on offer.

Great shout. May need to do a good Costco run if not for toilet paper alone 😂

For breakfasts I used to work in a cafe where we would precook bacon on several trays and cool and drain the fat off and then store in the fridge and then crisp up when needed. It was actually very tasty and I use a similar method at home now although on a much smaller scale! I also always cook my sausages in the oven and could easily do at least 30 in one go.

For lunches I would be tempted to go down the soup route as you can make such large quantities easily. Something like a minestrone with loads of chunky veg or a chicken noodle soup would be my choices. Served with part baked baguettes and butter. I like to get a full baguette, spread with garlic butter and parsley and top with a mozzarella and cheddar blend then wrap in foil and put in the oven until all melty and delicious.

I agree a burger/hot dog night could be a good call! Very easy to cook a large amount of hotdogs, I did 40 recently without difficulty. I used the Dinos brand and served with various toppings including a chilli from the freezer and it went down a storm. There was a hot dog topping thread on here recently that could be useful if you go down that route. I'd also send someone to the chip shop for a few bags of chips to accompany them.

I would definitely do a few cottage pies/lasagnes in large foil trays and then serve with a variety of steamed veg or salads. Very easy to do large quantities of veg especially if you have a steamer.

Chilli is also one of my go tos for a crowd my chilli is famous among my family and is always requested. It is made with a combination of mince and diced beef and I serve it with rice, salsa, guacamole and tortilla chips and salad.

I love doing curries but would struggle to do enough for that many people as I like to do several different ones at a time and to get the quantities for everyone to have some would be a struggle. I think if I was going to I'd probably do shop bought bhaji, samosa, poppadoms , kachumber salad, chutneys, naan etc and then maybe a keema aloo, a chicken korma and some kind of vegetable curry .

Have pizza one night, well lots of pizza, you can buy cheap margarita and then let people add their own fillings.

I would probably aim to do a buffet every day, obviously different things. If you have a slow cooker have something in that, whether soup, chilli, bolognese, curry etc.

I have two slow cookers, a rice cooker, an electric steamer and a warming thing - like you get in Indian restaurants to keep the food hot.

The rice cooker cooks rice (obviously) and then keeps it warm for half an hour.

For breakfast I would seal something someone on here did at brownie camp. Beat a load of eggs and put them in zip lock bags (2-3 eggs per person) let people add cheese, spring onion, smoked salmon (that probably wasn't served at camp) use a sharpie to put names on and cook in a big pan of water.

Get a food shop delivery booked and ordered for half way through for basics top ups. Eggs, bread, milk, bananas etc

Who gives a crap loo roll order - box 48 double rolls.

Indian - homemade roti is cheap and freezes well. So make them now as they take a while to fry off each one ( only 2 mins each but if you’re doing 20!). Make, and freeze into sealed freezer bag.

Homemade sausage rolls are lovely with cheese and chutneys as easy dinner. I make, and freeze at raw meat and raw dough stage. Freeze on silicone mat lined baking tray individually and just bag up when solid. Then they cook in about 20 mins from frozen. Can then easily cook more or less based on who’s there. Make now