Birthday Party Food Ideas

We did pulled pork. It was cooked in a crockpot. If you can get two crockpots, and some sides, it should feed everyone. We used Alton Brown's recipe and one friend liked it so much that he requested it when we brought them dinner after their son was born.

How about a taco bar. Goes a long ways. Looks great displayed. Easy to do and everyone loves it. Add some chips and salsa and offer bags of Dorritos for walking tacos. Yummm.....

How about a taco buffet. You can add to it a huge green salad and a pot of chilli (I can e-mail you the recipe if needed).This way guests can make a taco salad or tacos.I would also put peanut butter and jelly and bread on the end of the table for the little ones. Corn bread or muffins fill out the table and go nicely with the menu.( I have a good recipe for a large batch of those too)
A pinnata and maybe some margaritas or sangria for the adults punch consisting of juice mixed with seltzer for the kids.

Hi R.,
The first birthday is always the hardest to plan for everyone. What a nice size party, so one has to be economical but also proud of their food presentation.
I have a few ideas that helped me with this balance of price and variety.
I utilized some catering, we have a fairway market which is a specialty food market and ordered some trays of food and/or we filled in with a local italian restaurant that had great eggplant rollattini (people love it almost as much as pigs in a blanket). The rest I made with the help of Costco. Get round bread or a beautiful cabbage, clean out the center and fill with any type of dip or seafood spread. Around the bread use crackers around the cabbage use vegetables. They have the big boxes of hors d'oeuves with great assortments. Make trays of chicken nuggets and a tray of mac&cheese for the kids. It costs considerably less if you, your husband and a friend make many of the appetizers. Perhaps look on line or in magazines, they can offer some great tasting and inexpensive ideas.
Oh, lets not forget, big salads go a long way. Perhaps a caesar or one with goat cheese, raisins and walnuts, any type but the women will eat away.

Lastly the cake. I have boy/girl twins and believe it or not children do not like to share their birthday cakes even a twin. Each child wants their own cake. We do a cupcake cake where the cupcakes can be shaped in each one of their initials. They can do so many things, print a baby picture or any type of decoration. My son cake was shaped in a D, it had a chocolate cake with vanilla icing and blue trim with thomas the train decor. My daughter was shaped in a C, it had vanilla cake with chocolate icing and pink trim with princess as the decor. It is a win win scenario all around as each child gets their own personalized cake, the guest get a choice of cake and you do not need to cut it, just break off each cupcake so everyone gets a piece. It is so great, they do it at Walbaums grocery store or any I suppose.

I hope some of my ideas were helpful. Good luck I am sure you will have a great party.
All the best,
D.

do a baked pasta thing. I make them all the time. Cheap and easy and so good. and people love them. Go to a party store and get the big foil baking pans and lids. each big deep pan holds about 3lbs of cooked pasta a couple pounds of ground beef in one of the pans (none in the other so the people who don't eat beef will be ok lol) some big jars of pasta sauce and a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese and your good to go. get some sliced bread and a big salad and your good to go. if you want a more detailed recipe for the pasta thing call me. its my go to thing for big family parties

Have you ever considered doing 6 ft subs? Whenever I have a large crowd like that and need to feed lots of people, I order 6 ft subs...American and Italian... and then I do a couple of trays of baked ziti and salad. It's very economical and goes a long way. Good luck & Have fun!

You have a lot of great ideas!

For our sons birthday party, some family wanted to bring food, so we just made sure it went with what we were planning. My grandfather loves to make sausage and peppers, and scalloped potatoes, so we planned some other food aruond that. My mother-in-law made bbq pulled pork sandwiches (pulled pork in crockpot with extra bbq sauce). We had green salad, pasta type dish, fruit salad. Appetizers - simple things like veggie/dip tray, olives, feta, hummus, etc. I can't remember everything even though it was a couple of months ago! :) The thing we do buy is the birthday cake - friends of ours have a bakery, so we try to support them when we can. And they make great cakes, so we just plan our budget to include it. Cupcakes are a great idea too. (They actually made a cake and surrounded it with cupcakes for the kids).

Could you turn it into a contest and have people bring they're best dish for some kind of a prize? like someone brings a chili dish or sausage and peppers. I would think siblings would be happy to help out.

HI R.,
For my son's first we did the cold cut platter, rolls, ziti and fruit (I think) lol.
If you can ask your in laws and siblings for help ask them to bring a dish. Everyone has something they make well and are always proud to share it. I found that my SIL and I have been sharing the holiday menus and is a great help every get together. Anyway, have fun and enjoy. Good luck!!

I cater lots of parties at home. Baked Ziti is always a fan favorite! So easy to make, and you can prepare a day ahead. Make a large salad, and order a hero from a good sandwich shop. This will feed a large amount of people, and is affordable. Cupcakes have become the wave of the future, too. No wasting of lagre cakes, and rather than eating a large piece of cake, a cupcake is nicer to the waistline. I have an 8 yr old, a 7 yr old, and a 22 month old. Good luck and Happy 1st Birthday!! Enjoy!

How about trays of pasta (lasagne, baked ziti, penne vodka) w/ salad & rolls? They're relatively inexpensive, easy to do ahead and very satisfying!

Since it sounds like most of the guests are family members, maybe you could suggest making it a potluck birthday party? Between 10 adults, I think you would be able to wrangle up enough food for 50 people?

You could use things like rice and pasta that go a long way , have some cold rice dishes , pasta salad , get a few large pizza's from Costco and cut the slices in half again so they go further , cook a couple of bags of Tyson chicken or similar , a selection of chips and dip , raw carrot/peppers and a desert of some description.

Pulled Pork sandwhiches, or sliced marinated skirt steak, cucumber salad and/or one of my favorites, make a very large tossed salad, - one container, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, green peppers (onions optional) and next to that have a tray/dish of taco meat, beef, or chicken chopmeat with the store bought taco seasoning and red kidney beans, also have a side of shredded (I do jack and cheddar) , a side of plain corn nacho chips such as tostitios, lastly sounds strange but Thousand Island Dressing, you can mix it all together your self or allow your guests to...and yes the tostitos mix right in with the salad, it's delicious. (Optional, have soft taco shells available and sour cream, so that you can do a taco or salad. Sweet corn on the cobb, and hushpuppies- you can search for a mix and I like to make maple butter for them (they are sort of cornbread) oh, and or tater tots and chicken fingers, and don't forget the watermelon, the big triangle slices, eveyone loves.

Pizza for the kids. Cold cut sandwiches for the adults.

We had had large summer party and I didn't want hotdogs/hamburgers either so I did pulled pork in the crockpot. Cheap and really no effort. I used a "pork picnic shoulder" with the bone. Put in a bottle of beer and a half a jar of BBQ sauce. Cook on low 8 hours. Shred and serve.
Good luck!

giant sub sandwiches from a sandwich shop and make at home pasta salad or potato salad. Bags of chips and dip from costco and watermelon and grapes. Cheap, good, easy. Except the kids won't eat the sandwiches so get hot dogs or chicken nuggets from costco for them.

If there will be a lot of children, I would go with good chicken tenders,
mac and cheese, basically kid friendly foods. For the adults you could
get a 3 ft. wedge or larger, there is always sausage and peppers,
lasagne (you really can't make it for what an italian deli would charge)
so I would order than. A big tossed salad with lots in it, dinner rolls.
I have found that people just do not eat like they used to. For appetizers,
you can just have some nachos, chips, pot. chips and dip maybe some
cheese and crackers. Of course can't forget that birthday cake! Enjoy.

I had the Big Green Pizza Truck from New Haven come for my daughters 1st brithday party. They supply everything from the pizza to the Cappuccino and gelato. The only thing you need to buy is the drinks and the cake. It's a little bit of a sticker shock when you first look at it but when you start to add up all the plates, fork, knives, salad etc that you would buy anyway it comes out the same and you can relax at your party, they take care of everything. People are still talking abou the party a year later. Good luck!

A local grocery store here sells mini sandwich trays that are great. They have about 36 sandwichs for $30. You could get a couple sandwich trays then make a couple side dishes.
For my son's first bday, we made sloppy joes. It was easy and cheap.

There's always lasagne or sausage and peppers as the good old standby, with a garden salad, and some fresh bread.

You could do sandwiches, platters of cold cuts, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes with rolls, along with a salad or two (potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad) and some chiips. You could buy the big 6ft subs and cut it up or make sandwiches or wraps yourself.

I went to a party last month, and they had a huge pork roast (on a bone) and everyone just cut off what they wanted. There were rolls available if you wanted a sandwich. There were also a few side dishes.

I ordered pizza for my daughter's 1st birthday party.

I agree with the Taco/nacho bar suggestion. I had a friend who did this and it was great. For my son's first birthday I considered catering but didn't :(. The same friend suggested the Taco bar but I didn't do that either. I made all kinds of food. Baked ziti, pasta for kids, a roast pork etc. and it drove me CRAZY. In fact it's something I deeply regret. I was supposed to have help but the help was not really helpful and I spent the time before and in the early portion of the party all stressed out about food. I really wasn't able to enjoy his 1st birthday party the way I would have liked to. I understand the financial concern with catering. In hindsight I would have done the taco bar. Relatively low cost and easy set up and people get to eat what they want. In the end my advice is that no matter what don't bite off so much that you can't enjoy your kids' birthday. You won't be able to get that 1st Birthday back and if that means catering with pizza then so be it!

For one of my children's 1st birthdays I did mexican food. Goes a long way, easy to make and everyone loved it. You could go that route?

You can do:
6ft hero sandwiches (slice them of course)
Taco/burrito/nacho buffet
chinese food
Italian (baked ziti, meatballs, Sausage, peppers &onions, chicken parm)
Finger foods such as;
chicken wingettes, mozzarella sticks, mini pizza, finger sandwiches, salads, burger sliders.

Keep it simple! Pizza!

if you have the party in the early afternoon (like between 2-4 pm) you could have an assortment of things like fruit and veggie trays, cheese/crackers, chips/dip, hummus/pita bread and of course the b-day cake.

For my daughter's last birthday party we did open-faced sandwiches. I did cream cheese with grated cucumbers on it, hummus with grated carrots, and pb&j for the kids. I just spread a piece of bread with it (I did white and wheat, very lightly toasted in the oven), cut it into quarters and put it out. Everyone seemed to love it and it was super easy. We did fruit salad and veggies with dip - easy, refreshing!

i recommend having the party between meal times, like say, 1-3, that way you dont have to provide a meal. Just some snacky foods (maybe veggies or chips and dip or something) and cake.

When we have our daugther's parties, if they're near a meal time, we get little sandwich rolls from our grocery store, it comes in an assortment of roast beef, turkey, and ham and they always go over well.

Two meals that I have done for parties with 30 people are ham/roast beef/turkey sandwiches and shredded beef/pulled pork/sloppy joe sandwiches. I make them ahead of time and freeze them. I put them in the fridge the day before the party to start thawing then on the day of the party I simply heat them to the desired temp and put them in crock pots to keep warm. I serve a variety of buns and add a couple sides. Most of this can be done ahead of time, making it easier for me to enjoy the party.