Food for lodge weekend away

[weeblondie]

Hi there,

I am going for a weekend away to a lodge and there will be 12 of us altogether (all adults). We are looking to order a big shop to the house but have no idea where to start in regards to what and how much to order. We plan on eating in the lodge Friday night, breakfast Sat and Sun morning, lunches and snacks. Can anyone advise on things to stock up on and for any sort of meal that would be easy to prepare on the Fri night for a large group. I was thinking Italian or Mexican might be easiest to prepare - any suggestions welcome!

Thanks x

Why don't you do a poll as to what everyone fancies? Chilli or bolognaise perhaps for the evening or a load of nibbles and buffet type food to suit everyone? For the breakfast tea, coffee, OJ, croissants and pastries, bacon, sausages, eggs, toms, mushrooms, baked beans?

If you plan to cook every meal in you better have a few people who enjoy doing it because it's a lot of work. Then there's the clearing up to think about. Definitely do a few pizza and salad type things and try to eat out at least one evening.

The last time I did this we just had pizzas, garlic bread and salad on the first night as everyone was travelling from different directions and would arrive at different times. That way if people were horribly held up it was easy to keep stuff back and conversely if people arrived starving they could just crack on. Not very imaginative but practical

For food we usually do bread, milk, tea, coffee, eggs, tomato sauce, butter. I avoid cereal cos people are fussy about it.

Lunches depends if you want it naice or just sandwiches on the go? Cheese, crackers, oatcakes, cold meats, salad, some nice deli bits, crisps?

Bangers and mash with steamed carrots and broccoli. Don't forget a jar of mustard and tomato sauce. A packet of cheese sauce mix and a pint of milk for making a decent mash.
Fish cakes or breaded fish fillets and potato wedges with peas. Buy a net of lemons to cut into wedges to serve and some tartare sauce.
Spaghetti bolognese (made with a jar of sauce and pre chopped mix), served with garlic bread and pre-grated Parmesan cheese)

In the past I've done meals like curry or fajitas but found that you end up with leftovers when you add extra bits like popadums, mango chutney, naan bread, sour cream, salsa etc... It's also more to think about when you want to chat to people and something's likely to get left in the over/under the grill!

Lunches:
Tinned soup (choice of two types perhaps) and crusty rolls
Quiche and salad

Breakfast: avoid cereal and toast options because it's hard to judge what people have. A full English is also a headache.
Bacon rolls - allow two rolls and 4 rashers per person. Order a small bottle of brown sauce and tomato sauce.
Scrambled egg on toast- for this I'd allow two slices of toast, two eggs per person and one pint of milk between you. A couple of bags of spinach as optional. Serve with brown and tomato sauce from the bacon rolls.
From experience, 12 people will consume about 3litres of fruit juice at each breakfast.
I've also found it successful to order enough yogurts for people to have one per day.

Don't forget lemons and limes for alcoholic beverages! And some bags of ice?
You may also want to order two of each: punnet grapes, bunch bananas, bag of apples, bag of pears for breakfast and snacks.

We always have cheese, cold meats, bread, salad, nibbles and wine when we go away. Very easy!

We normally bring a selection of Costco extra large ready meals. And grab some bags of salad/rice/crusty bread/haven’t potatoes

Means no one has to cook

Easy tasty things like quiche /pizza/ready made lasagne with garlic bread and salad , cooked breakfast with fruit juice and some snacky things for night time pickings like cheese and crackers or nuts and crisps

We’ve done loads of big family and friends house weekends and normally divvy up the load - eg take a dinner or breakfast per couple/small group and get them to bring along the food. Have a kitty for essentials like milk tea, coffee, sugar, oil, nibbles, bread etc. And booze if you’re drinking. I always cook a huge casserole like coq au vin, freeze in advance and bring along potatoes or rice and veg. We are into cooking so don’t mind spending time in the kitchen preparing food together and this is part of the fun. Keep it simple - one or two big dishes, no fiddly things. Have fun!