Money Saving Wednesday…food for a Crowd
With the holiday season approaching there will be parties and family coming home. We will be serving food to large numbers of people. It’s time to plan now to keep the cost of those gatherings down. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Carbs are good. Carbohydrates are inexpensive and fill you up. They also help you to feel satisfied for a longer period of time following a meal. Include potatoes, pasta, rice or bread with every meal. Also think carbs when making appetizers.
2. Serve seasonal foods. If you are serving fruit include bananas, plums, apples, pears and orange slices.
3. Forget the drinks. Water is free! Add a few slices of lemons or oranges and you’re set to go. Don’t waste money on drinks unless it is a special occasion such as the Christmas party. I cheap alternative to sparkling cider: mix one 64 oz. bottle of apple juice with 1 liter of lemon-lime soda. Tastes great!
4. Purchase paper products at a restaurant supply or in large quantities such as the ones you get at Costco or Smart and Final. Get on the phone and ask for prices instead of running around to compare. Calculate the number you will need for the year and purchase them all at once, then you have them and you eliminate one more thing you have to think about. Plain white is fine, just use festive table clothes. Who will care if your plates and cups have flowers or Santa on them?
5. Cook from scratch. Cooking from scratch is almost always much cheaper. It is cheaper to purchase #10 cans of beans and add onions and spices than it is to purchase chili. A cake is much cheaper to bake than to buy.
6. Use a crock pot. You can make soups, stews, barbecued meat, even roasts in a crock pot. If you want to serve pulled beef or pork for example, purchase the cheapest cut of meat and prepare it in a crock pot. Slow cooking makes the cheapest meats tender.
7. Serve the food. Often there is not enough food for everyone to get a good size portion because the first people in line take large portions. Also have plenty of the least expensive element of the meal, usually the grain and let them have as much as they want. For the meat and other expensive elements dish it up yourself.
8. Breakfast foods are inexpensive. Pancakes, French toast, breakfast burritos are all very inexpensive to make and a fun change of pace. Kids love waffles with whip cream and fruit, and so do their parents!
9. Keep the dessert in the kitchen when you have a buffet. Serve the dessert after everyone has been served dinner. People will take less and waste less if they have already eaten a meal before they are faced with a dessert choice.
10.Always cut cakes and pies before serving.
11. Don’t mix it up. When making a dish with a sauce such as spaghetti don’t mix the sauce in. Serve it separately. Then, if you have left over sauce you can freeze it. Left over pasta can be converted into pasta salad for the next day.
12. Don’t purchase deli trays. If you want fruit don’t buy a fruit tray, buy individual fruits and wash and arrange them yourself. The same is true of a veggie tray. Mini carrots come in a large bag at Costco and are cheap. Depending on the season other veggies can also be purchased in large bags inexpensively.
What are your tricks for serving large groups. If you have nay great, inexpensive recipes for a crowd please share them.
Make sure when you cook a beef roast in a crockpot that it is a cheap cut of meat. The nicer roasts that should be roasted in an oven will be dry and stringy if cooked in a crockpot. Sometimes the chuck roasts are not very “cheap” but they are the kind that work better in a crock pot.
Terrific info!