Help! BBQ for 15, am 8 months preg...

[Pootles2010]

Need help! I suggested to dp yesterday that we might have our friends over for bbq (a family of four, with a 2 yr old and a baby) on Sunday, so the boys can watch the world cup and i can talk to my friend and have a cuddle of the newborn. Now he's invited all and sundry, we have about 15 people coming to our (2 bed tiny terrace) house on Sunday, plus 4 under 5's.

This would be bad enough, but i'm due on 15th July so can't really be arsed. Please help me! I need easy but nice ideas for food/snacks/drinks/puddings! Preferably with as little work involved as possible. Thanks!

bump

Ask your guests to bring one meat/veggie dish per family and then provide lots of salads, pre prepared coleslaw, bread rolls, crisps, etc that don't require much prep and you can open straight from a packet.

How about a few quick and easy pasta salads type thing chuck it all in a big bowl and leave it for them to help themselves let dh do bbq. You could also ask friends to bring some food be honest tell them you can't be bothered cos your tired.

Trifle/icecream or choc cake?
Salsa dip tortilla chips
Indian snack pack?
Fruit? on sticks

Cheat and if funds available go to M & S and buy the ready done snacks/picnic stuff and bags of salad etc

Go to our local butchers & buy nice sausages/burgers & pre-prepared kebabs etc.

Ask friends to bring a bowl of salad each (requires coordination so you don't get 3-4 rice salads).

Get bread rolls, nibbles,

icecream for pudding

We managed DH's birthday party for 86 on the above basis.

ps I assume DH will do the BBQing?

I will ask them to bring their own meat purely for cost purposes, but quite a lot of them are single blokes in their twenties that have no idea about cooking. Which i suspect is why they have a tendancy to live at our house come round a lot. Great ideas though thanks!

Was already thinking a trifle. I would do strawberries + cream but will be expensive for that many people - bulking it out with custard + cream definitely help!

Oh and yes he definitely will do the bbq'ing, hurrah! Am going to be hugely lazy/wasteful and get in paper plates + cups so i can just bung them all in the bin after.

Pudding should be easy. Either it's posh ice cream and fresh fruit, or Eton Mess, ie ready-made meringues crushed up (in large chunks) into whipped cream (the only bit you have to do yourself) with ripe berries.

Main course - everyone brings their own meat. So all you have to do - beforehand - are potatoes, however you want them (boiled then cooled and made into salad is nice, with balsamic vinegar dressing, spring onions and frizzled bacon bits), green salad (out of the packet), tomato salad (with some minced red onion sprinkled on top if you want), and some olive-oil-brushed veg skewers (if wooden then soak in water first so they don't burn), which consist of courgette, onion, halloumi if you like it, cherry tomatoes, cubes of aubergine, and red pepper - think of it as a deconstructed ratatouille if you like, with cheese . Get someone else to do the chopping when they arrive so you're not on your feet all day. Even if all the meat is inedible to you, you can at least have the skewers.

If you feel the need to do starters (I would since BBQ timings are unpredictable), go for bought dips and pita bread or tortilla strips - personally I love guacamole, tzatziki, salsa, humous and baba ganoush. Get someone to bring these too in fact.

Enjoy!

V jealous as we are not allowed to hold a BBQ in our patch of garden. Hope you enjoy it!