I am a veteran of many many years of tailgate meals...we are at least 1 1/2 hours from tail gate site....and "back in the day" the Iowa Hawks often started a game at 11:)0 for the TV crowd. One game was always designated as "The quiche game"....and I made at least 4 quiche... I made and par baked the crusts the night before....shredded the cheese, cooked and crumbled the bacon, chopped the scallions and sauteed the mushrooms. Then in the AM....as I staggered around waiting for the coffee to drip and the oven to heat, I mixed in the blender, eggs and milk and cream and seasonings. dumped the veggies, cheese and bacon into the pie crust, filled it with seasoned milk, cream and eggs and into the oven for 40 minutes while I showered and drank coffee and DH loaded the car with blankets, wine, bloody marys etc. When the quiche were done I put them directly from the oven into a cooler lined with many layers of newspapers and a terry towel, covered the pie with another overturned pie plate, a towel and more newspaper. I could stack 2 pies to a cooler ( or a Hotter...but how do it know>>:-) Fritattas can be made in a similar manner....bake and refrigerate the night before, re heat and pack into a cooler. Also sausage gravy works too....make the night before....re-heat and put into a thermos....bake biscuits and re heat over the grill in foil. Also make a fritatta and a big pan of sticky buns....and you will be a princess in everyone's eyes.

Sounds like a wonderful meal, san! And sounds expensive!! I try to keep costs to absolutely under $2 per person and I am a lot more comfortable with $1.50...and have even done a few for about $1 per person....but that was when I found a great deal on ham and the church had a lot of pasta from another thing. No way could we afford stuffed haddock! We cound on donations from the family to keep this service from costing the church anything. Most families donate between $200 and $300 regardless of whether we serve a meal for 50 or 150 people. A couple of families have stiffed us altogether...but the generosity of other's have made it possible for us to tell a few families not to even think about trying to make a donation to cover costs...we knew money was tight. Nope....queen of the penny pinchers and reduced for quick sale items here!! I insist on real butter, high quality olive oil, real garlic, real cream for coffee and mostly fresh veggies, but am vry willing to buy day old bread and "cook tomorrow or freeze" meats...and I am willing to cook an uncooked ham and pick meat from a whole chicken! Hmmm....ham loaf...speaking of day old bread....there is a freezer full of day old bread slices that have spent time on the table, but would be perfect in a meat loaf.... Hmm......ham loaf, scalloped potatoes, and either salad or green beans....hmmmmm... What can I make out of stale bread but bread pudding, cheese strata or crumbs? Linda C

. No Peek Casserole From Anne @ The KT Recipe Exchange This is a recipe that my family literally will fight over. It makes a delicious gravy (what they fight over) and absolutely nothing to making it.I double the recipe and there is still none left at the end of the meal. No Peek Casserole 2 lbs stew meat (I use 3 lbs) 1 can Campbell's Chicken Mushroom Soup 1/2 cup Ginger Ale 1 pkg Lipton Onion Soup Mix 1 4 oz jar mushrooms, drained (optional) Preheat oven to 300. Combine ALL ingredients (DO NOT brown meat and DO NOT dilute soup with water) together. Mix well. It will be lumpy before it's cooked. Pour into a casserole dish and cover. Bake 2 1/2 to 3 hours. DON'T PEEK!! Serve over pasta, rice or mashed potatoes. The smell as it's cooking is WONDERFUL

There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with making casseroles! It's one of the economical bonuses on a tight food budget, and a way to use small amounts of foods that might otherwise go to waste. (As we all know, wasted food is the most expensive food we buy.) Here's what I teach in nutrition classes about casseroles and other mixed foods items (like pizza, tacos, stir-fry, and fusion bowls). It's not volume, it's nutrition and the number of servings within the mixed-ingredient meal. Just because the ingredients are combined doesn't mean you don't count them towards your daily requirements of servings for each food group for the day.... Nor are casseroles an excuse to over-eat because you make large portions using cheap ingredients. To be economical: "Stretch" an expensive protein (meat) with a low-costing protein (eggs, beans, dairy, peas, lentils, whole grains like amaranth/quinoa, nuts, plant proteins like seitan and leafy greens, even protein powders...); NOT more grains/starches in the form of pasta, rice, tortillas, and fillers like high-sodium condensed soup - with just a token amount of protein per serving. Most people consume far too many servings of grains/starches as it is. Especially those that are typically empty calories, highly-processed, low-in fiber, high-glycemic, and void of nutrition. Examples: I serve a small 1/2 serving of chicken (about 1- to 1-1/2 oz. - a small tenderloin or a small chicken leg) with white cannellini beans for the remainder of the protein serving. A nice example of a recipe I did this with is "Tuscan Rosemary Chicken and White Beans" (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/tuscan-rosemary-chicken-and-white-beans/854e2207-1eb9-43e9-a118-0301f615cc05). I use smaller portions of meat and increase the vegetables. Tuna salad - add hard cooked eggs and/or cannellini beans to the mixture as high-protein extenders to get more servings of protein. Before going gluten-free, I would mix homemade gluten, ground (aka "wheat meat" or seitan) 50/50 with any kind of ground meat as a high-protein, plant-based meat extender. Food-for-thought: Tuna is NOT an inexpensive protein when you figure the cost by the pound. A 5-oz. can of tuna that costs 69-cents = $2.21 (rounded up) per pound. If you spend $1.19 per can = $3.81 per pound (rounded up) A serving of protein is 2-3 ounces and the suggested amount is two servings of protein per day (whether from meat or alternative non-meat protein sources). Therefore, a 5-oz. can of tuna is 2.5 servings of protein. So you need to build your casserole to meet your daily requirements from all the food groups. Each serving of tuna and noodle, or tuna and rice casserole, should have at least 1- to 2-ounces of tuna and/or protein alternative in it (depending on the number of servings of protein it needs to meet for the day), and 1 oz. of starch (1/2 c. of cooked rice or pasta) per serving of grain/starch you need for the day. It's suggested by the USDA MY PLATE we consume at least 6 (1-oz.) servings of grains/starches each day. I follow the old "Basic-4" and consume 4 servings of grains each day because I gain weight eating more than that. In general, 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish, ¼ cup cooked beans, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or ½ ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as 1 ounce-equivalent from the Protein Foods Group. - See more at: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/protein-foods#sthash.0TkMWywO.dpuf -Grainlady