Cheap meals that feed LOTS of people?
Jamie wrote:
> um hi, i was just curious to ask if you have any ideas for big meals (10-12 people) that would cost less than 20-25$ at the most? or a way to reinvent pasta or rice based foods? i have a meet with my teen group every week and though i love cooking i’m just running outta ideas…
> do i dare? …yup. HELP!
> p.s i love reading your blog, it’s the only interesting one they feature.T
Thank you! I just love reading comments when I get back from a weekend!
If you have a grill, you can bring the whole group outdoors and ask them to bring some meat that they would prefer. If each person bring a little something, all you’ll need is BBQ sauce. You can variate what you put on as a glaze - I love orange marmalade chicken wings, by the way. 
Roast beef is cheaper than you’d think: the cheaper, fattier cuts will put you back less than $20 - just pick whatever’s on sale! The last time I went to a market to pick up roast beef, I scored a pot roast for $7.99, 4 lbs. That fed 8. So just double it and you can feed 16, and still have $ left over for the trimmings. The traditional chinese congee is a proverbial crowd pleaser. People that’s NEVER heard of congee loves it. It’s time consuming, but one pot of congee can easily feed 10+, and costs less than $10 to make. Sheperd’s pie made with lamb and beef is another favorite - costs less than $15 to make and easily feeds 10+ with leftovers.
If you’re used to cooking spaghetti and serving as is, may I suggest a baked spaghetti dish with cheese, cream, and salt? You can accent pasta & cheese with pretty much anything. Salmon? Chunks of meat? Surimi? The sky’s the limit.
Take a walk in a chinese supermarket and pick up some chinese sausages, preserved meats, green onions. You might end up with $50 worth of stuff, but the preserved meats really keep, and you only need a bit of each. Get some glutinous rice (chinese sticky rice) and cook WITH chopped bits of preserved meats and green onions, and a dash of soysauce for color. If you have a rice cooker, this is a snap to make. With a pot, you’re going to have to brush the sides and bottom down with oil, and it’s still going to stick. But the results are well worth it. (order "sticky rice" with chinese sausages at dim sum and find out)
Rules of thumb:
- Choose cheaper cuts of meat. When you’re buying beef steaks, you may find that the cheaper cuts of meat has better marbling and fat distrubution, and actually taste better than its leaner counterpart. Chicken thighs are cheaper than chicken breasts, and depending on the recipe, tastes practically the same.
- Flank steaks are relatively cheap, the size of a flattened soccer ball, and when sliced, feeds plenty of people.
- Congee is magical. It keeps atomically hot for hours, it cooks on its own on the most part, and whatever cheap ingredients you throw into it at the beginning, you’d have a wonderfully thick soup at the end.
- You can serve a meaty (meat bone soup!) soup over a scoop of rice to make it more hearty.
- Mac and cheese doesn’t just have to contain mac and cheese - you can add whatever you want!
- Seek out recipes than can be easily doubled / tripled / quardrupled, with common ingredients. It’d take you just a bit more time to prep, but just as long to cook.
- Slowcookers are great for big batches. Bouillabaisse, anyone?
March 27th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Some things I make for family gatherings are a big batch of homemade lasagna with a side cesear salad. It usually costs me just about $25, but can be cheaper if you get the cheese on sale or buy a big block and grate it yourself.
Like Sally said, I use the noodles that are similar to the ones in mac & cheese and add a big can of diced tomatoes (don’t drain), ground beef, onion and garlic. You can make a ton REALLY cheap ($15) but the trick is to not overcook the noodles, or it gets mushy.
Another cheap dish is to buy a big package of fresh frozen white fish. I like to saute it in olive oil and then add chopped onions, garlic and, yes again…a can of chopped tomatoes. You can also use fresh if you would rather. I drain about half of the liquid off the can ones before I add them. Add some spices, basil, fennel,etc.. I serve with a piece of fish over top of a plate of rice and place the colorful tomatoes mixture on top of the fish. It looks professional and tastes great!
March 28th, 2006 at 8:48 am
yay! thanks for getting back to me… i was racking my barin all over gain trying to find something different to serve this time… i’ll definetly try congee… dunno what it is but when i go home for vactions in the Phils, i always hear of it.
and i’ll go for the different sorts of pasta again… thanks a bunch!!!
March 28th, 2006 at 8:54 am
p.s
carbonnara sauce is made with bechamel sauce right? then i got it wrong since childhood.
pasta carbonnara my way is made with cream, philadelphia cheese and sundried and fresh cherry tomatoes… creative cooking? accidents i say!
March 28th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Jamie/ that sounds like leftover ingredients thrown into the same pot. Traditional carbonara: panchetta, cheese, cream, eggs, shallot? It does sound like bachemel doesn’t it. But it isn’t.
Bachamel is a “sweet” white sauce - spiced with nutmeg and cloves, while carbonara is a “savory” white sauce (since it has panchetta in it). The preparation, I guess, would be the same.
Jennifer/ I’ve heard that some chefs actually opt for canned tomatoes (from italy) over fresh (local) tomatoes, because it’s actually canned ripe at much better quality.
I just like it since I HATE peeling and seeding tomatoes.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:04 am
Me to Sally. Anything to save time on the boring tasks and have more time for the fun stuff! Plus, canned tomatoes are usually much cheaper.
Do you happen to know of a good white sauce for salmon?
Also, I used to have this great recipe for a baked squash dish that I misplaced. I have found similar recipes online and in cookbooks, but nothing exactly the same. It had squash, either sour cream or cream cheese, maybe eggs, milk or cream, etc. It was a sweet, creamy mixture that I topped with bread crumbs & a little melted butter and baked in the oven. It had the texture of cheesecake or pumpkin pie when it was done. Any ideas? I used to make it every Christmas. I miss it!
March 30th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Jennifer/ the French tarragon mild white sauce is PERFECT with salmon. Here you go:
http://frenchfood.about.com/od/frenchcuisinebasics/r/sauceravigote.htm
I find it really hard to be creative with french sauces - they’re so EXACT and mild, well balanced. Any attempts to add spices tend to overpower them.
Squash - why not get all those ingredients and experiment? The eggs bit seem iffy though. I wouldn’t put that in the oven.