How To Meal Plan To Feed A Large Crowd

Last month I had an extra 10 people on my house. So that meant we had 15 people to feed. (Yes, all those people in that picture were staying at my house for 4 days! And my house is only about 2200 sq ft!) It was crazy but we had a lot of fun. I feel like our days were centered around food. I guess when you have that many mouths to feed – you need to plan out the meals.

Now that everyone is back home I thought I would share with you some of the meals we had. It wasn’t too much work and it was enough food for everyone.

Breakfast:

On the first morning I made Belgium waffles. I made a box version and they were really good. We stored the leftovers in the fridge and the kids had them available eat whenever they were hungry. I also made about 2 pounds of thick bacon and eggs. (My favorite bacon is Wright Bacon. It comes in 1-1/2 pound packages. It’s thick and delicious and not too salty. Plus it comes in a resealable bag in case you don’t use it all at once.

On the second day we had some eggs and chorizo. I used a pound of chorizo and fried it until it was completely cooked. Then I scrambled 18 eggs and poured it over the chorizo and cooked it. It made a lot of eggs and everyone could take what they wanted.

Another day we had bagels, Bays English muffins, and cereal. I also made another 2 pounds of bacon for everyone to eat. Some people ate it on their bagel and others just ate them alongside their breakfast.

Make sure you have plenty of coffee! We went through a few pounds while everyone was here. Also grab some half and half and any sugar substitute your guests make like to have with their coffee.

Lunch

This is usually one meal we skip or grab on the go. We are usually so full from breakfast that we dont want to eat again. On Sunday after church we went to the grocery store and grabbed a few pounds of cold cuts, bread, and chips so we could make our own sandwiches. It was really fast and everyone could make what they wanted.

Dinners

We like to make big family dinners. On the first night we made about 6 pounds of roast beef (eye round) with 10 pounds of mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding,corn, and pan gravy. (We had some veggies too but I dont waste my time on them!) This is our family’s favorite meal so we always make sure we have this when they visit. You can find more details here about how to make this meal.

On the second night, we ate a spiral-cut ham. We got a 13-pound ham that was already cooked and ate it with the leftover mashed potatoes and then we got a lot of vegetables like corn, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. I cut all the ham off the bone and put it on a single layer on a cookie sheet to het it up in the oven while we cooked some rolls. We also had a side salad. It was super easy to throw together.

On the third night we were celebrating my sister’s graduation so we made a huge meal with chicken parmesan, spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. I made about 7 pounds of chicken for this meal for all of us.

The last night we wanted something really simple. So I put about 5 pounds of chicken breasts in a slow cooker with 2 jars of salsa and let it cook for 4 hours on high. Then we shred it up and put it on tortillas with all the fixings like lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, etc. It was really easy to throw together and clean up was easy!

We also took some corn tortillas and heated them and then filled them with the chicken. We rolled them up and fried them and topped them with Mexican cream, lettuce, and queso fresco. These are tacos dorados and they are so good! They are more work and make a mess with the oil but they are totally worth it!

You can’t have company without dessert so I made my Ultimate Chocolate Bundt Cake and my Strawberry Shortcake With Chocolate Mousse!

For my sister’s graduation celebration I made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and and chocolate ganache. I also topped it with some chopped up peanut butter cups.

One of the best things you can do when you have that many people visiting your house is to have paper products. I get a giant pack of paper plates (Make sure they are the sturdier ones) and small plastic cups. You can also have a marker handy so everyone can make their own cups. Also make sure you stock up on napkins, garbage bags, and dishwasher detergents. Below are my Amazon affiliate links to some of my favorite products: