Birthday Party Food-need Help!

EVERYONE loves this and I don't know why but, I buy Costco (not Sam's) meatballs in the forest green bag. Add your favorite cheap or expensive BBQ sauce and half an onion and about a half cup of water. It will make the sauce a gravy rather than thick sauce. You can put them in the oven or crockpot. Either way I haven't met anyone who doesn't want the recipe and I just smile. So add a batch of chicken wings and some salads, that should be fine.

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I have done Taco Soup: 1 lb. Ground Beef cooked with one onion, 1 can each of: black beans, kidney bean, pinto beans, corn, and a jar of salsa. Throw it all in the crock pot and cook 8 hrs or so. That may serve 12, so I would double. Serve with chips and cheese. Might cost you $20 or so.

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Something that my family loves when we get together are pigs-in-a-blanket. Buy some hotdogs and the croissants from Pillsbury. I have found that it is better to cut the hot dogs in half and then cut the croissant pastries in half and then wrap them. It is simple to make and tasty to eat. (I cook them for about 10 minutes on one side and then 2-3 minutes on the other just to brown it a bit). You can also use english muffins to let everyone make their own personal pizzas.

Someone already mentioned meatballs, but we do it a little differently. We buy the bag of frozen "Homestyle Meatballs" and throw them in the crockpot with spaghetti sauce. There is a crockpot recipe on the back of the bag to follow. Then we just buy sub buns or hotdog buns at Walmart and add a slice of mozzerella or provolone cheese for a meatball sub sandwich. Have chips, veggies, fruit for the sides.

We also buy pork roasts to throw in the crockpot with bbq sauce to have pulled pork sandwiches with chips, veggies and fruit.

Both of these meals can be cooked the day before and re-heated in the crockpot for the day of the party.

Hope this helps!

Someone mentioned a potato bar. You can cook the potatoes directly in the crock pot. Wash and wrap-don't add water. They were really good when we had them. It is now my son's favorite meal.

Make pizza! Make a basic crust, put sauce on it, and then provide a variety of toppings. Let each child put the toppings of his/her choice on his portion of the pizza, bake, and serve. I did this for my son's eighth birthday, and it went over very, very well with the kids. Oh, and don't forget the garlic bread, salad, punch, and birthday cake.

Most good cookbooks have a recipe for pizza crust. It is easy to make and, if you prepare in advance, does not take much time or money.

If you do pizza, I always ask the pizza company to cut the pizza slices even smaller if it is young kids.

You could consider Pigs in a blanket, we make them with house brand "little smokies" for sauces we have mustard, ketchup or BBQ sauce.

Tortilla wraps with cheese or sausage.

Veggie tray and fruit tray

Snack mix, that you put together with Pretzel sticks, yogurt covered raisins, almonds or mixed nuts non sugar cereal.

Just did my son's second birthday.....we had as our main dish, we just baked a ham and sliced it up, and then had sides like baked beans, fruit tray veg tray, a couple of party salads, and chips and salsa, with cake and ice cream, there's tons of great ideas here! Hope your son's Birthday is a hit!!! They grow up way too fast!

We quit serving dinner at the my kids' parties. It was too expensive for almost 30 people! I just started having the party at an off time, like 7pm or 2pm.

My sister does feed everyone. She just does maid-rites(loose meat sandwiches). Just use your crock pot or brown a bunch of hamburger on the stove and dump it in the crock pot to keep it warm and moist as it is served. This way you have control over the price too because you can go cheap and buy the 75% lean or go up to 90% lean ground beef. Pick up some packages of wal-mart buns for a buck each and grab a few bags of cheap potato chips and you are set! Both easy and inexpensive. I have actually considered serving dinner again! I think if you bought the 80% lean, it is about 2$/lb (here anyway). Depending on how many adults vs kids, you could pry buy 4-5lbs for a total of 8-10$ and feed all 20!

I always think the stuff that adds up is the plates/cups/napkins! So I started just buying plain plates and cups, but splurging on the napkins that have the images the kids want on them. I even started making my own birthday cakes since 2 of my kids' birthdays are 7 days apart. Too expensive to buy 2 cakes!! Good luck!

We just had a party and bought the mini meatballs and filled the crock pot, made the ( sounds strange) grape jelly and chili sauce. Then I had fruit, chips, veggies. I also got a bag of chicken nuggets for my picky eater daughter. It seemed to go over well and it wasn't too expensive. Good luck.

Since you mentioned pizza, you might check your area -- here in Texas the Little Ceasar's do their "HOT N READY" pizzas for $5 or $5.55 .. They advertise Cheese or Pepperoni. That way, even four pizzas will only cost you a little over $20. Pretty cheap!

For my son's last birthday I cooked a pork shoulder roast the day before and did pulled pork sandwiches with potato chips. The roasts aren't very expensive and will give you a ton of shredded meat. You can make your own BBQ sauce or buy a bottle. All you have to do is heat the meat back up (I did it in my crock pot) and set out the buns and people can make their own sandwiches.

We have a large family. This is some of the things we have done that went over well.
Hot dogs , chips & pork & beans
or
Nacho's - Sam's has big can of nacho cheese for cheap . And then just cut up toppings ( peppers,tomatoes, black olives) And we like meat so we just cook up some kind of meat (taco or chicken) and put it in a crock pot to keep warm. Then every one builds thier own.
or
Taco bar- Again crock pot meat's & toppings .Maybe a side of spanish rice( also keep warm in crock pot).Then they can build thier own when ever they are ready to eat. And still warm for snacking left overs later and you dont have to serve!

What my mom always did for my birthday dinners was fun for the kids, too. It's cheap and easy. You get a whole bunch of hamburger buns, pizza sauce, and toppings. Put the buns on a cookie sheet, open. Each half is a pizza crust. You put the tomato sauce on each half and let everyone deck their own "pizza". Then you shove them in the oven until the cheese melts and they look done. That way everyone can have the kind of pizza they lke, with nothing they don't, and they make it themselves, so you don't have to.

We bought inexpensive frozen pizzas at the grocery store. They were the ones that are about $2 each - really cheap, but the kids didn't care! And of course, everyone will want cake. I usually make my own (from a box) but that only gives each person a small amount. If it's mostly kids that's okay. Or make cupcakes, each kid gets one and a box makes about 24. The other good option is to go somewhere like Costco or Sam's Club where they have big sheet cakes for not too much.

Nacho bar?

Big bag of tortilla chips at costco, the big can of nacho cheese ( in a crock pot) and a big can of stagg chili (in a second crock pot) Put some thinned sour cream in a mayo squirter bottle. Bowl of diced tomatoies, bowl of lettuce.

Or a similar idea could be a baked potato bar. A 10 lb bag of baked potatoes can go a long way. I like to spray my washed potatoes with pam, wrap in foil, bake until done, then put them in a crock pot. (you can even cut them in hlaf before putting in).

I make my pigs n blankets from bridgeford bread dough, found in the frozen section usually near the frozen pie area. That would be much cheaper than using the canned biscuit dough.It's probably 3 bucks for the 3 loaf pack. A 3 pk of loaves, made up with hot dogs inside would certainly feed 20, but more likely double to triple that, depending on how much dough you use for each dog.

A big bowl of home made popcorn is inexpensive. I put alot of oil int he bottom of a pan, (double the depth of the kernels) then put it on almost high andf let it go. I dont even have to shake it. I know it's done when it starts really slowing down. Pour it in a bowl and season with salt and sugar only. (no butter). You can even mix a bit of cinnamon in the sugar if you want. Yummy stuff.

The Wal-Mart deli Pizza's are good and about 10.00 for the biggest ones you just have to bake them at your home. Papa Murphy's also does good take and bake inexpensive. We usually do burgers and brats and grill out as it is part of the fun.

Hi, don't know what your budget is but you can actually do Dominicks pizza for cheap. I do it every year about $5-6 a pizza for like a large round and it serves a ton of people. And it tastes awesome! Or you can do something like mostacholi or spaghetti.

For bday parties I go and hit Sam's Club. If you are a member of one of those they have great things for parties---- little spiral deli sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, veggie platters, egg rolls, etc. If you're not a member of one of those bulk store places...they do sell stuff like that at the grocery store. Since it's 20 people you can still do it fairly economically.

We made the mistake of ordering pizza last year and it WAS pricey. We'll stick to the variety of things we can get at Sam's.

Or you can always make this stuff and make a dip and have a bag of chips or something. I do this queso dip that is EASY and everyone loves. It's velveeta with a can of rotel. soooooooooooooo easy.

Last year, we did the pulled pork too. If you look at foodnetwork.com, Alton Brown has a simple crock pot recipe that is really yummy. Then we got hamburger buns and some BBQ sauce. Really cheap.

For birthday parties, I always do hot dogs and hamburgers. Kids love them and it's cheap! Go to Sam's club and buy them in bulk. Another thought is, if you did want to do pizza, Little Ceasar's has their pizzas for $5 a piece. Buy 4 and that is $20! Super cheap.

Good luck and have fun!

For my son's birthday parties where I'm feeding 20-30 people I've done both sandwiches and pizza on different years.

The pizzas were from the Costco deli, where it's $10 for a large. They're really more like an extra large - we had at least 30 people last year and 4 pizzas was enough to feed everyone. I think we had 1/2 a pizza left.

When I did sandwiches I got a couple of footlong subs from the Safeway deli for about $6 each that I cut up into smaller pieces, and then bought one big box of those frozen pb&j sandwiches for the kids.

I also got fruit (something like bananas or watermelon - things the kids will eat, but I buy as regular produce and cut up myself to save on money), and a veggie tray.

Both years everyone seemed happy with the food, there were leftovers, and I didn't have to spend a fortune or a lot of time in the kitchen getting ready.

Good luck!