Can I tell you how much I enjoy feeding a large crowd?!  And can I tell you how easy it is?!  I had a busy weekend…things to do with the family both Saturday and Sunday…but both days I was able to serve a meal to 15-20 people without missing a beat or an acitivity! (Even threw in a birthday party for my 14 year old Friday night!)

On Saturday, we had the normal ‘Saturday’ family things to do. Kid stuff, a week of laundry and general house cleaning.  That night I knew I had about 20 people to feed and I had not been to the grocery store since last Sunday!  In fact…I had not even given the meal a second thought until Saturday morning, at which time I went over to my freezer to pick a meal!  I settled on a chili buffet!  I used my precooked ground beef from the freezer and made a double batch of 2 HG chilis (Bonnie’s Blue Ribbon for those that like it hot and No Alarm for our less adventurous guests!).  Because I keep the pantry filled with the standard canned goods needed to make HG mixes..I was set to go.  I put the chili in two slow cookers after lunch and went about the tasks of the day.  At dinner time…I made a quick batch of HG Texas Cornbread, a large pot of instant rice, tossed a quick salad and dinner was served.  I was able to relax and enjoy the company without fussing over the meal!  The bonus was that with the chili left over…I was able to add to my freezer inventory for another day. 

On Sunday we were all out the door by 7am for church and not home till lunch time ~ which was when the group of 15 was due for the next meal.  I had already decided what the  meal would be when I looked into the freezer on Saturday.  I saw that I had 2 packages of stew meat and the Beef Tips from our slow cooker cook book sounded like a great Sunday lunch.  I knew I would be making rice for the chili…so I made an extra large batch to have some to serve the beef tips over on Sunday.  Sunday morning…it took me about 5 minutes to put all the ingredients into the slow cooker so it could simmer till 1:00.  I looked into that pot and thought ‘this just isn’t going to be enough…what can I do?’.  I went to the freezer and pulled the 2 bags of Italian Mozerella Round Steak from the freezer and started another slow cooker.  Now my guests came home to a Sunday buffet with the choice of Beef Tips or Italian Steak and Peppers over rice!  To round it out…I served it with an Orange and Red Pepper Salad tossed with HG Orange Vinaigrette (my last package till it comes back!!).  While we ate, I popped a triple batch HG Texas Cobbler in the oven.  I used my giant baking pan, putting one each of apple, peach and cherry pie filling in rows so that the guests could have their favorite cobbler hot out of the oven for dessert and I would only have one dirty dish!  When I got home from church…I realized I had a tub of Cool Whip in the freezer, so I defrosted it in the microwave real quick and added a pack of HG Spiced Dip to it so that we would have Spiced Cool Whip to top our cobbler.  Not a bite left!

I wish I could say I had meals left in the freezer from this day as well…but they devoured ALL but one serving of the Italian Steak and Peppers…which made a great sandwich today! 

Tonight my youngest asked if we had dinner ready at home (he was here at the office with me this afternoon) and I told him I had not put anything on before I left…but how did Taco Soup sound?  BIG SMILE FROM THE PICKY EATER…confirmation that dinner will not be a challenge tonight! 

What are you having for dinner?!

God Bless and Keep You,

Tami

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 7:08 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.