One way to recycle the basics is to give them a different flavor. Like baked chicken can be tandoori chicken, Greek inspired lemon chicken, etc. You can do the same with meatballs--Greek, Lebanese, North African, Swedish, sweet and sour, etc. Enchiladas, which are a bit more prep, but popular where I live, can be classic beef or pork, chicken with salsa verde, cheese, etc., plus you can chop up all kinds of meat and vegetables for the filling and make them any flavor you want. You can also make it into layered casseroles, if rolling that many is off-putting. There are innumerable great casserole recipes, which, again, are easily made new with a change of spice profile and/or protein.

You can do the same thing with salads and starches, change the seasoning to suit the main. And you'll have a great variety for hot vegetables if you just go with what's in high season.

One thing that comes to mind for a large group is polenta. It can be done in the crockpot and made to fit with your main dish. In the fall you could add pumpkin and parmesan, for a Southern style meal add some cheddar cheese and roasted corn, etc. Roast some meat in oven and some veggies or a salad.

Some other ideas off the top of my head would include chicken and dumplings or meatloaf. For the meatloaf you could do individual sized ones to make the serving quicker.

Breakfast for dinner could also work. My kids always think that is a treat. This could be a French toast casserole, or a waffle bar where everyone cooks their own. Include some bacon and sausage and a fruit salad. Maybe add a quiche or frittata for those who eat less carbs.

Depends on where you live if the polenta would be acceptable or not. In my neck of the woods, kids would put their nose down close and say "What's Thaaaat?" and the older folks would tilt their glasses up...and politely take some salad and a roll, then complain that there was nothing to eat. LOL!

How about a baked ham and baked beans? Roast pork or pork chops with tater tots and a veggie of some kind?

I may be misremembering, but I think bumble is in the South and she could call it grits. I have learned about taking "interesting" choices to large gatherings, though. Our youth group has a fundraiser roughly once a month that they call Soup Sunday, and I made a Thai pumpkin soup. Some absolutely loved it but most definitely were not that adventurous.

Well people go wild for big kettles of shrimp and grits! Maybe if a deal on shrimp at the food service supplier were available...

Something I thought of while making lunch is sausage and peppers, maybe with rolls for sandwiches and a side of plain pasta. The little kids might just want some pasta with parm, but if their moms bother to give them a piece of sausage, they'll probably like it. :) Or if that's too Italian, do the German version.

You all are all so nice to comment! My group is 75% unsophisticated/uneducated/untraveled Southern and basically wants fast food, except for a few who want salads. Thy are wonderful, beautiful, interesting people whom I want to serve well.

Anyway, food that does not have a "name", no mismatch casseroles however tasty, nothing "weird" ( Hardees and the local meat and 3's don't have it) and nothing that "everyone" can't eat, no seafood essentially, well, it gets complicated.

The group isn't nouveau vegan, gluten free, lactose intolerant, none of that popular foodie stuff.

I am thinking sloppy joes next time, with oven fries and salad. A scrumptious dessert, always.

And if I have the time, homemade Swedish meatballs.

Last night, one child looked at everything and indignantly said, " I just want chips! (tortilla)".

The mother said, "Baby, you eat whatever you want".

I am toying with a breakfast at dinner thing. It would work well as long as I have a salad (citrus ?) too. These are unadventurous eaters, the shrimp and grits thing, well, shrimp is too expensive, but overall, that's a high end restaurant thing. I know it is associated with the South, but not the common folk. I should just smoke some pork butts, but I am so tired of that being served everywhere all the time and I don't like it much as I take the leftovers home!

A baked potato bar could work. Then people could customize to their preferences, if someone does not like chili, fine but if they want oodles of cheese, that works too.

Along the same lines of customizable you could also do bowls: Buddha bowls or burrito bowls depending on the toppings you provide. Then, if a kid is a picky and just ends up with rice and cheese, so be it, there is still food in his belly.

If you think you could get away with it, Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti is pretty good for those who are less adventurous in their tastes. Baked potato soup may work as well.

The more I cook for people, the more I am finding that most people are not that into food, or change. I cherish the moments when I can cook for people who are open and want to experience new foods and I try to cherish cooking for people according to what their needs are and for many their need is for food with familiarity.

Baked potato bar! Yes! That sound great!! Thank you!! I felt like last nights menu was a modified burrito bar, several just piled everything on top of the other, skipping the tortilla.

I was also thinking of grilled cheese sandwiches hot off the griddle and a soup, the type undecided. Maybe baked potato! And the ubiquitous salad.

With grilled cheese, nothing but tomato soup!
Baked potato bar!!...giant potatoes, butter, sour cream, chili ( without beans) broccoli, chopped tomatoes, chopped green onions, shredded cheese and more sou cream....and perhaps some salsa!
Bet that will go great

Thanks for the further information, especially the name requirements which exclude casseroles. I had no idea shrimp and grits was a high end restaurant thing. What I've seen here is more back deck, plastic foam bowls, substitute for a crawfish boil because California crayfish are the size of lobsters and come from questionable water.

Sloppy Joes sound like a great idea. Good with a basic green salad.

Re breakfast for dinner, could you do big pan quiche for the protein? Or maybe scrambled eggs just because that's easy in quantity? You could do a chopped salad ("raw veggie hash"?) for some vegetable. A spinach salad with bacon and chopped eggs would be breakfasty too. Would pancakes or something like that for thirty people be doable? If not, maybe oven toasted toast and an egg dish as the star?

If you can make waffles up ahead of time (though they won't stay crisp), you could do chicken and waffles one time. Maybe with cole slaw. You don't need as many waffles if they have fried chicken on them. :)

It sounds like you have a smoker--if you don't want to do the pork butt, how about brisket? Or really, whatever beef is cheapest. Good with little baked potatoes and any kind of salad.

If you want something that is always popular, and dead easy, there's the coke brisket. It was devised as a way to make kosher convenience food. :) Trim and score the fat cap and put it in a roasting pan, cover with a bottle of Heinz chili sauce, sprinkle with a packet of leek or onion soup mix, and pour a can of caffeine free coke (with sugar) in the bottom of the pan. Cover (use foil if you don't have a lid) and cook for about five hours at 275°. Chill. Remove the layer of fat congealed around the meat. Take the meat out and slice it, then return it to the pan, basting between slices with the pan juice. If there isn't enough juice, add more coke and/or chili sauce. Return to the oven at 325° for 2-3 hours. The times are dependent on the size, etc., so are approximate as given. This scales up well if you need to make more than one. Just fill the coke to about halfway up and make sure the chili sauce and soup mix cover the tops.

I'm guessing that barbecue chicken lasagna is out, even though it has a name?

Chicken and dumplings? Or chicken and biscuits? Grandma used to make chicken stew or beef stew and drop the biscuits on top of the hot stew, then bake to brown the biscuits. Scalloped potatoes baked with ham and green beans as a side?

Baked potato bar is a good idea, and I like the "breakfast for dinner" idea too, although I think I'd probably do pancakes in lieu of waffles because they reheat and don't have to be crunchy. Scrambled eggs, maybe sausage because it's easier than bacon, and you're set. Or scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, sausage and biscuits....

Brisket or beef stew is pretty pricey for a group of people, but I like the meatloaf idea and cheese potatoes or scalloped potatoes go well with it.

A big pot of soup or chili is easy enough, and a sandwich bar to go with it, make your own.

Have fun!

Annie

For a waffle bar, if you bring a couple of irons or see who has one to bring, then you can prep the batter before hand and then they could be cooked fresh on site. You could even go with regular waffles and chocolate waffles. It is amazing how many kids are unaware that waffles are something you can do yourself.

Haha, you can see how limited it becomes once most everything is eliminated.

All beef except hamburger, is too expensive. All seafood is too, but more important, there are too many people who don't eat seafood. Yep.

And then there are things like Chicken waffles which is not common here at all. I have never seen them served or on a menu anywhere. Meat pastries are not eaten here either. To put it in perspective, the pot of black beans received some interest, many did not know what they were or had never had black beans before.

Now bbq, and everything served at a bbq restaurant, this is what many people eat all the time. People go out to eat, it's a bbq place. Ugh, ughh.

So this leaves chicken, pork and hamburger.

The novel idea that you can make your waffles, yes, that is what the group is like! I will do the breakfast at night once, maybe ham and cheese quiches, spinach salads, so it is more brunch, but I'll do waffles too. I have two irons.

And I want to make Swedish meatballs once, I was telling someone at the group about those but they had never heard of them.

Another cheap meal I have done for a large group is "hot chicken sandwiches"....made from turkey. for years we used chicken until we found that turkey was cheaper....so we cooked turkey and called it chicken....no idea why! Now we cook turkey and call it turkey.
Roast a turkey or 2 or a couple of turkey breasts or breasts and a hind quarter....whatever you can afford. Roast them and cut the meat off the bone and slice it. Save the juice in the pan and all the skin and the bones and put that all in a pot, with an onion just cut into quarters, skinand all, a few stalks of celery or the green tops of a bunch. Cover it all with water, salt lightly, if the turkey has solution added it will be salty so go gently with the salt at first....boil it all up for a couple of hours, cook and strain,,,,,and thicken with flour. Add to the cut up turkey meat...enough to moisten nicely and either serve like a sloppy Joe on a bun, or over biscuits, or noodles or as is popular here...over mashed potatoes.
Add a salad or a vegetable and you have your meal......and if you find a deal....it works with chicken too!

I totally get your dilemma. What you're basically asking is how do you vary from barbecue without varying. That's a very fine line, and hard to walk. Perhaps have a discussion once everybody is fed and happy about what they really want. Who just looks forward to barbecue and salad and doesn't want anything different if it's not spaghetti, pizza or tacos? Who wants to try something new so long as it's sort of like something they already like? Who wants to be adventuresome? Maybe they'll all vote for barbecue and pizza, but perhaps a majority want to try something new but are hesitant to jump into something they think they won't like, and just need some advanced warning to get themselves geared up for teriyaki night, or sweet and sour meatballs, or enchilada pie.

There are a zillion things you can make with chicken or ground beef. Many of them can be found somewhere at a meat and three place or fast food joint. If chicken and waffles is too exotic, however, which is just fried chicken served on a waffle with maple syrup or honey, considering I'm sure they're all familiar with both fried chicken and waffles, I think it's time to resign yourself to making the same old thing. And maybe find a soup kitchen or a family in need that could really use leftover smoked pork butt, so you don't have to take it home.

BTW, the story behind chicken and waffles goes back to New York, though it's usually regarded as "Southern" because it caught on in the South quickly. When the theater folks got out after work, some say specifically the musicians, it was the middle of the night, like 3-4 a.m. They said too late for dinner and too soon for breakfast, but they were hungry. It was also after the diners had shut down their big grills and ovens, so something from the deep fryer or electric waffle iron was more easily made. Fried chicken or waffles became chicken and waffles, and people loved it. I bet your crowd would too, if they had some advance warning. What's not to love? :)

If the weather is good, could someone bring in a grill for a burger night, with a toppings bar and some potato salad?

Pulled pork or pulled chicken with buns, smothered pork steaks (cheaper than chops) with mashed potatoes, American goulash and hamburger stroganoff with egg noodles.

Make the Swedish meatballs, but call them meatballs in cream sauce and take the mystery out of it. And don't be put off by the one kid or adult that doesn't like what is served. There is always someone in the crowd.......

Good for you for taking on this daunting project!!! Is chicken spaghetti a possibility? Here is my T&T recipe. Under Yield, my recipe says "washtub." I truly think it will feed 12.

Chicken Spaghetti

• 2 chickens
• 14 oz uncooked spaghetti
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
• 1 large can chopped mushrooms
• 2 large green bell peppers, chopped
• 1 largish can pimentos, chopped
• 1 1/2 lbs American cheese
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine (optional)
• Boil chicken until tender. Cool and debone, reserving broth. Chop chicken into bite sized pieces. Remove 1 cup broth, cook spaghetti in remaining broth. Dilute soup with reserved broth. Saute veggies lightly in butter. Cut cheese into small pieces and add along with diluted soup. Mix in chicken and continue cooking over low heat until cheese is melted. Add chicken, spaghetti, and wine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour into casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
• It can be made ahead and frozen, if you have the freezer space.

Pulled pork sandwiches with collards and mac n cheese.

At our monthly church dinners, the first to be gone are the chicken and noodles and the mashed potatoes. That can be fairly inexpensive to make and fills the tummy too! Add whatever else you want, a vegetable, a salad and dessert.

Sue in Central Indiana

Sue, here it's the chicken and rice that's always gone first. Chicken is more expensive here than pork, I can get a big ham for less than $1 a pound and right now pork steak is about $1.19 a pound, but chicken (because of that avian flu thing) is pushing $2 a pound or more. Ground beef is even higher, $2.99 a pound for the cheap stuff, so pork seems to be the "go to" meat for large groups, particularly ham because you can do one big ham and feed everyone and all the kids seem to love it for some reason. Rolls on the side for those who want sandwiches, and all the "scraps" either go into scalloped potatoes or bean soup.

Annie

Would a hamburger and macaroni dish like this work? It is comfort food for me. Although the recipe below is adapted from Simply Recipes, it is very similar to something my grandmother used to make.

Hamburger and Macaroni (Serves 4)

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• oil
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed (optional)
• 1 large can (28 oz) of diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups uncooked macaroni
• • Cook the macaroni according to the package directions
• In a skillet, brown the ground beef in a tablespoon of oil on medium-high heat. Stir infrequently so that the ground beef has an opportunity to brown.
• In a large skillet, sauté chopped onion with a tablespoon of oil on medium high heat. Add the ground beef and lower the heat to medium. Add seasoned salt. Add celery seed, if using. Add canned tomatoes. Add Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes. Mix in the drained, cooked macaroni. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

bbstx, that's what my Grandma used to call "goulash". I loved it. Sometimes when we were very broke, it didn't have hamburger, just the other stuff. I loved that too, although my brother insisted on sprinkling his with sugar.

I suppose cabbage rolls or stuffed peppers would not be well received by the youngsters and fajitas are much like the taco bar. If you could get the pork steaks cheap enough, Grandma used to make a big pan of dressing and bake pork steaks on top, like stuffed pork chops but cheap.

Annie

I like the idea of sloppy joes. When our children were teens, I always kept a container or two of it in the freezer for unplanned meals when they had guests. I served it in hot dog rolls rather than hamburger rolls because they were easier to handle and the mixture didn't spill out of the sides.

For a meat and potatoes group, our church makes what we call meat loaf and potato squares. It's not exactly a casserole. We put about two inches of very THINLY sliced potatoes (seasoned with s & p) into 9 X 13 inch pans. We have a classic meat loaf mixture with bread crumbs, eggs, minced onions, etc. and spread about 1 1/2 inches thick on top of the potatoes. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about an hour and 15 minutes; then uncover, spread thinly with bottled barbecue sauce and bake for another 15 minutes. Cut into squares to serve. The fat and seasonings from the meat drips down through the potatoes and makes it quite filling. We serve it with corn and coleslaw. It's not totally make-ahead but we usually mix up the meatloaf and sliced the potatoes and soak in water the night before and refrigerate until assembly the next day.

I agree that a good host or hostess plays to his/her audience and it sounds like you're exactly on the right track.

If pork is that much less, and they like Mexican, you can do carnitas (Mexican pulled pork). A different version of tacos, or rolled into burritos.

You could do crockpot pulled pork BBQ.

Place onion slices on bottom of crockpot. Fill crockpot with pork cut into 2" chunks.

Sprinkle liberally with creole seasoning. Add water until pork is covered. Heat on high overnight.

In the morning remove chunks of meat to separate bowl, discard onions and most of the water (reserve 2 cups in case the meat starts drying out.)

Shred pork to pieces with two forks, and return it to crockpot. Add vinegar-based BBQ sauce and heat on low until ready to serve.

I made a really tasty pasta salad with an Asian sesame ginger sauce with mandarin oranges, grape tomatoes, toasted almonds, other things and it did not go over well although I had many "surprised" compliments on it.

I am only sort of a good hostess, I frankly can't bring myself to make some of the casserole type things, they just do not appeal to me!

I am thinking of whole pork loins roasted with maple apple cider glaze, with sauteed apples, roasted potatoes, sauerkraut, undermined green something, yeast rolls. Everything in it's own serving pan, btw, don't want to contaminate something!

I hear you on not "contaminating" things! I have done roasted potatoes for the group and they didn't go over as well as scalloped potatoes or, heaven forbid!, that awful cheesy potato thing with the frozen hash browns, canned soup and velveeta>
And frankly, Kraft Mac and cheese went over very well several times. For a funeral lunch, if I know there will be 6 or 7 kids present and the main course not kid friendly, I will make some Kraft Mac and Cheese. I have learned I better make lots or put it at a special kids table....because the adults will chow down on it!

It does not take much chicken for chicken and noodles, it is mostly chicken broth the noodles are cooked in. Right now pork and chicken are about the same price. Around $1.99 for boneless chicken breasts, but I like legs and thighs to make broth for noodles. Much cheaper. I have not noticed a price hike in chicken because of the "flu" but have seen the price of eggs increase a lot. I have my own eggs so that does not bother me at all. I recently bought pork loin for $1.47 I think. It was probably because of the 4-H pork that was on the market. A few weeks before that I got ten pound bags of chicken legs and thighs for $.40 a pound. They were the frozen ones.

We never serve rice here with chicken and noodles. :) It is always mashed potatoes. You seldom see rice at all at the church's pitch in dinners. Lots of other good foods though.

Sue in Central Indiana

The pasta sounds good to me, Bumblebeez, and so does the pork loin.

I had to smile at the "contamination" issue. My brother and my mother are both people who don't want any of their food to touch another food.

LindaC, I'll make Velveeta Shells and Cheese for the grandkids, and Elery, Ashley, Dave and the dog always eat it too, so I always have to make extra. Of course, they'll eat my homemade stuff too, doesn't matter to them, and they shake their heads at me, because I don't care for mac and cheese at all, LOL.

Annie

Is a beef stew too much like a casserole? With rye bread to soak up the gravy...yum.

I have made beef stew a number of times for various groups and while I thought it was excellent (chuck, deep browned, the right number of vegetables, seasonings, consistency, etc ), it was never super popular. To me, it seems old fashioned a little, although tasty. This is not a rye group either! Pretty sure Reuben's would be considered exotic.

Beef stew is not served in meat and threes or fast food restaurants so it is unfamiliar to many. Which means they won't like it.

Beanie Weenies

Chicken (oven) fried hamburger steak

Roast turkey

Smoked turkey

A turkey dinner is appealing, I have been thinking about turkey breast.

I could, of course, do a taco bar for the rest of eternity and they would all be happy.

I have a hot dog bean topped with sauerkraut recipe.

Sausage, peppers and onions over rice.

Well, I've been enamored with a Blue Apron recipe lately, Chicken Cacciatore, I'm making it tonight again for a friend. I think it has possibility's, it is so good.

I did the free trial, and this is the best thing I've had in awhile.

recipe

That sounds good, I'd like it over rice. Would you serve it with grits, or with something else? And what for sides? Something green? (I have green on the brain, I have a garden full of collards that I haven't used up yet, LOL)

Annie

Chicken cacciatore is Chicken "hunter's style"...braised chicken cooked with onions, garlic, tomatoes and herbs. You don't serve it "on" anything, but with a side of pasta> Sides? BIG green salad and some crusty bread.

I am not a fan of braised chicken, but this particular recipe uses sauteed thighs and I serve them in slices on top of the grits or pasta and sauce. The seasonings are not traditional but that is why it is so tasty. It is a specially created recipe for BA by a chef from Texas. I will serve a salad with it.

LindaC, I know it doesn't traditionally get served ON anything, but I like rice to soak up the sauce, I don't care for pasta. The recipe she linked, though, had it served over grits, which is why I asked.

I think slicing the chicken thighs is a good idea, easier to eat and to have a small portion, some of today's chicken thighs are HUGE.

Annie

Didn't read the recipe....but just thinking of calling something Chicken Cacciatore....and serving it over grits??? LOL!

TACO BAR!!!!!

Seriously easy and always a hit since you can customize. Brown some ground beef add some jarred salsa (I like pace) and some taco seasoning. Then it's as simple as laying out the toppings and baking the shells or heating the tortillas. Or you can do half beef and half shredded chicken with a little chili powder or cumin so there's more choices. Toppings are classics : cheese...lots of cheese,tomatoes, diced red onion, salsa, sour cream, jarred taco sauce or nacho cheese sauce if you feel fancy, maybe guacamole..that's it. Almost everything can be done in advance. Make some Spanish or Mexican rice to go with it.

For dessert for a big group....take it from me...the beloved spinster aunt of 15 nieces and nephews the only way to make a huge group happy (kids and adults) is a ice cream sundae bar. Get 2 or 3 different types of ice cream and some toppings. Favorites at my house are crushed up oreos and chips ahoy, mms, bananas, butterscotch chips, nuts, strawberries , hot fudge and caramel sauce and cool whip...that's right people cool whip...no shame in liking the fake stuff. I usually do 10 or 15 topping choices but for your situation I wouldn't go to the expense. Just a few classics will do. Hope this inspires!