help with amounts please?

amother

Sun, Oct 16 2011, 11:42 pm

I'm newlymarried and having guests over. I am having 7 adults and 3 babies.

The soup, I'll make a pot/one recipe and that will be fine. I don't know if everyone will want soup anyway.

How much salad?

If I make one tray of meat lasagna is that enough? 2 seems too much but they are mostly men so big eaters.

I also want to make mushroom pie (in a pie shell - DH's favorite)- is one pie enough? (makes 8 wedges let's say).

Also do I need to make dessert? Any ideas? I don't want to go overboard but I want people to feel taken care of.

notshanarishona

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 3:26 am

First, I would assume that babies will maybe eat a little piece of s/t from their parent's plate but not a full portion of anything. Maybe I would count 3 babies as 1 adult portion.
In general, I always prefer to make more than less.
1 or 2 trays depends on the size of the trays.

However, if you are having soup, salad, side, and main, you can safely assume that not everyone will have a full portion of each thing.
Normally if I am having lets say 6 people , I will make 4-5 full portions of everything and we always have left overs.

Raisin

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 4:46 am

1 bowl of salad is uaually enough for up to 10 people.

1 pie should be fine.

Is lasagna the only main dish? If so I would maybe make 2. You could always freeze the extra if it doesn't get eaten. You can make 1 big one and 2 small ones.

yes, serve some sort of dessert. If you don't like baking buy some sorbet and fruit.

ora_43

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 5:26 am

Imagine how much it will come out to per plate. Once each imaginary plate has a piece of challah, some salad, about 2/3 a bowl of soup, etc, you should be set.

When it comes to the main course I usually assume men will eat 1.5-2 portions each, women just over 1 each. That's erring on the side of caution though.

Like Raisin said, consider what can be frozen (and/or what you'd eat as leftovers), and then go ahead and risk making a bit extra of that.

CatLady

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 8:22 am

Save the mushroom pie for another meal and make garlic bread instead. It's more in keeping with the Italian theme, and much less expensive.

For dessert, a fruit platter and cookies to go with the tea and coffee would be nice. No matter how full everyone is, they always manage to snarf down a few cookies!

Raisin

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 8:55 am

CatLady wrote:

I don't beleive food has to "go" together for a regular meal. mushrooms are plenty italian anyway and her dh likes them, so let her make it. Smile

I made sweet chili chicken nuggets and potato kugel and it went together great.

Barbara

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 9:34 am

amother wrote:

My lasagna pan neatly cuts into 12 pieces. So if the 7 adults include you and your husband, and assuming 1-1/2 to 2 pieces per man, and 1 per woman, you'd probably be OK. If, OTOH, its 7 adults plus you and your DH, plus the kids, I think you're short.

BTW, if the babies are of an age where they may be eating solids, make a box of plain pasta, in chunky shapes (not spaghetti or linguine) as well.

Is the mushroom pie intended as a second main dish, or as a side? Again, if you are 9 adults, I don't think its enough to make 8 portions of something, particularly not something that may be difficult to cut into smaller portions.

And yes, you need to make dessert. We almost never have dessert if its just family, but for others, it would look strange not to have anything.

Simple1

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 9:43 am

For dessert you can buy parve ice cream or ices from the store and serve with fruit.

9x13 lasagna should be enough if you serve it with another main dish like chicken. Generally if you serve more variety, each dish can be smaller; for less variety, the portions needed will be larger.

Amital

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 12:19 pm

If you are 9 adults, I'd go with two trays of lasagna and two mushroom pies. The lasagna can always be frozen, and your dh can eat it another time or two. Guys may not be such big salad eaters, so I think a bowl is a good size.

You do need dessert IMO. If you want to buy, you can, but you can also get away with some pretty easy desserts. I just posted about the really easy brownies (from a mix) I made from the first days--they were devoured quickly and I had several requests for the recipe. You could also do something like a fixed up mix cake (google for recipes, there are tons!) or a pudding pie. Or how about rice crispy squares? I did that for a meal, and they were gone quickly, too.

Hatzlacha!

mha3484

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 1:26 pm

Raisin wrote:

CatLady wrote:

I don't beleive food has to "go" together for a regular meal. mushrooms are plenty italian anyway and her dh likes them, so let her make it. Smile

I made sweet chili chicken nuggets and potato kugel and it went together great.

What are sweet chili chicken nuggets?

Raisin

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 4:03 pm

mha3484 wrote:

Raisin wrote:

CatLady wrote:

I don't beleive food has to "go" together for a regular meal. mushrooms are plenty italian anyway and her dh likes them, so let her make it. Smile

I made sweet chili chicken nuggets and potato kugel and it went together great.

What are sweet chili chicken nuggets?

breaded chicken nuggets with sweet chili sauce.

ra_mom

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 5:31 pm

I would make another main dish option besides for the lasagna. If you want only 1 main dish, then go with one 9x13 pan, and one 7x10 deep pan (1 1/2 recipes.)

We love salad here, and would serve 2 bowls or 1 large bowl.

1 mushroom pie should be enough if you are serving enough of the other dishes. If you'd rather make less of the above, make more of the pie.

I find that dessert is important when guests are in the picture. You can serve something easy like cubed melon, or ice cream with a drizzle of something, sorbet, poached pears, baked apple, fruit crumble, etc.

Mrs Bissli

Mon, Oct 17 2011, 6:15 pm

Another vote for making 2 lasagna pans. Also I assume 1 cup per adult for soup, plus 2-3cups to allow evaporation and possibly someone asking for seconds. If serving as a side dish, 1 pie would do but this depends largely on the size of the pan. It's definitely safer to allow extra potions--maybe unexpected guests, guests asking for seconds etc than worry about not having enough food to go around. Dessert--if you have hearty meals, I think just fruits and cookies would be fine.