Meal ideas for guests?

[LoraLoo]

We have guests stAing Saturday, landing around lunch time and probably leaving around lunch time on the Sunday.

I don't want to spend the entire time cooking. In total there will be 4 of us adults and 7 kids to cook for.

One guest can't eat lactose and the other doesn't eat potatoes. None of us are fussed on fish or seafood.

Any simple but nice ideas for breakfast, 2x lunch and tea that doesn't mean me stood for hours cooking, or that are going to be too expensive ?! Tia xx

 

[missk1989]

Do you have a slow cooker? They are a god send in situations like this! Breakfast I would do pastries as it does not require any prep. Or bacon butties, BLT etc. Lunch I would do a soup. Can be cooked ahead and reheated. Tea I would so something like lasagne or cottage pie. Again can be made ahead and just reheated.

 

[tallybee]

A lot of things can be made lactose free using milk substitute like soya and lactose free margarine etc x

 

[LoraLoo]

The lid on my slow cooker smashed 😣

Hubby suggested cottage pie but it's potatoes again.

What are the substitutes like tally have you tried them?

 

[LoraLoo]

Going to do the pastries for brekkie I think I like minimal effort- ha!

 

[lau86]

Breakfast- tbh I would probably just do cereal and toast/ croissants. Or something like French toast/ pancakes if you've got more time
Lunch- baked potatoes with different fillings laid out. Or sandwiches and crisps
Tea- chili with rice and nachos/ fajitas/ chicken curry/ noodles

Eta forgot you said you have someone who doesn't eat potatoes

 

[wildflower79]

Soup and crusty bread is a good one for lunch
a selection of different sandwiches.
burger and hotdogs

Spag bol for dinner
Stir fry with noodles. You could buy stir fry packs, so no need to chop veggies and a sauce mix. Kids would prob like sweet and sour
Cottage pie topped with suede and carrot mix instead of potatoes
Fajitas with different bits in separate bowls so people can add what they like/or can eat
Have you tried those Maggi so Juicy things? There's a few different flavours and you basically put everything inside the bag and stick it in the oven for an hour. Serve with pasta or rice and some veg on side

 

[vaniilla]

I'm lazy, I would probably buy ready to stick in the oven food for the dinners and make something like soup for one lunch with nice bread and a buffet type thing for the other lunch.

 

[shanny]

Maybe do a roast ham with bread potatoes coleslaw salad s etc

And then use leftovers to have with cheese and biscuits fruit etc for tea

 

[tallybee]

Yeah I use soya milk in tea, and for cooking, it's good for everything except coffee lol. Dairy free margarine is as good as any other kind, there's a brand called Pure which is in most supermarkets. It can be used for spreading and cooking with.

Pastries if they are bought ones may contain butter so could be a problem depending how much of a issue the lactose is, maybe easier to have toast/cereal.

For cottage pie possibly using butternut squash or sweet potato instead of potato. Sweet potatoes aren't actually related to potato so should be ok.

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

For dinner:
-You could use puff pastry on top of the cottage pie instead of potato.
-Chicken legs with sweetcorn and coleslaw
- sausage casserole
- pizza, garlic bread and salad

Lunches:
-soup
-sandwiches
- beans on toast

Breakfast:
- cereal
- toast
- fruit
- yoghurt
- scrambled egg and bacon

 

[x__amour]

I meal plan with a frugal, health, and simplicity thought in mind so here is my index of recipes. I hope you find something to work!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bGMZ2RuZv033y9OCNapzIycjYYA71e7qlkot4dZxyTo/

 

[LoraLoo]

Thanks ladies- they came Saturday just gone!

I did a bit of a mix of your ideas.

They'd already had lunch when they arrived, although we did have a bottle of wine or two 😳

For tea I did sausages, burgers, salad, potatoes, crisps etc- basically cooked a load of stuff and said help yourself! 😄

In the morning the kids had pancakes, toast, cereal etc and hubby did bacon sandwiches for our guests (I wasn't in any state to cook as we had even more wine for our pudding the day before 😂 )

Had a really good time xx

 

[tallybee]

Glad you had a good time Hun xx