Need cheap menu ideas for sheva brochos

amother

Gold

Tue, May 17 2016, 12:55 pm

so we are having BH a wedding coming up, and me and my siblings would love to offer a sheva brochos as we know it means allot to the chosons mom, as we are the only fam from her side.

problem is we all kind of dont have too much $ to spend towards it.

so I am looking for nice but cheap sheva brochos menu ideas.

any suggestions?

ill get the papergood iyh in dollar tree so that wont be too much.

how can I make a chicken dish without having to serve full peaces of chicken to each? that will be too expensive as we are over 60 BH.

we will make it ourselves.

sky

Tue, May 17 2016, 1:24 pm

Is there an amazing savings near you. I find many times their paper goods come out cheaper. the Dollar Tree paper goods come very few in a package. The packages in amazing savings are more than a dollar but have triple the number of plates per package.

YoYo

Tue, May 17 2016, 1:28 pm

Would you serve dairy? Bread and dips, Lasgna, salads, maybe some salmon, and a nice dessert can be budget friendly.

Otherwise how about stuffing thin pieces of chicken breast with a ground chicken mixture, then rolling in bread crumbs and baking. I like filling with chicken, basil, sundried tomatoes and pistachio nuts. Very fancy but not too expensive.

Mazal tov!

thunderstorm

Tue, May 17 2016, 1:29 pm

If you buy big family packs of chicken cutlets (my store sells them for 3.69 a lb) you can thin the cutlets by slicing them thinly and one package usually yields about 18 thin cutlets. At about 13.00 per package you would need 3-4 packages which would be about $50.00.

I had made a simcha in my home, but we were only 30 people and minute steak was on sale at that time. I got more than 30 slices of minute steak for $90

amother

Gold

Tue, May 17 2016, 1:31 pm

YoYo wrote:

tx, but chicken breast and ground way too $ per pound.

I ususlay only buy regular chicken cut in 4 or 8.

milk: someone posted in a different thread that cheese stuff comes out very expensive. also 2 of siblings cant have it, so prefer parve or chicken.

N'sMom

Tue, May 17 2016, 1:39 pm

What worries me about dairy is it is a lot more trouble. I made a sheva brochos where I served lemon chicken, a rice salad (I don't remember which one but something like rice with craisins, scallions etc) and green beans, plus a little carrot muffin that I baked in a mini bundt pan to be pretty. We started with cut up fruit on the table. For dessert we had a buffet. I made a huge apple pie, one daughter made brownies (you have to have chocolate!!) and the other made pretty cookies. In addition to being not so expensive this menu was really easy to do.

observer

Tue, May 17 2016, 1:41 pm

If you are doing fleishig, I don't think you can get any cheaper than doing 1/4 chicken piece for each adult.

You may want to be open to milchigs, as well. Yes, cheese costs money, but so does everything.

Also, if you and your siblings are splitting the cost, that helps a lot.

Amarante

Tue, May 17 2016, 5:22 pm

There are good dishes that are rice based or pasta based which stretch the protein. I have recipes if interested. You could make stuff like chicken biryani or Morrocan dishes. What about a delicious stew. Call it a cassoulet and go gourmet.

In my experience, dairy is often more expensive than meat.

pause

Tue, May 17 2016, 5:27 pm

I would do a stir fry with the chicken pieces mixed into vegetables so you can serve less chicken per person.

Also chicken roll-ups are a great way to stretch a cutlet. You can serve it in slices and get away with serving 3-5 slices per person rather than a whole roll-up.

ra_mom

Tue, May 17 2016, 5:39 pm

I once had these awesome mini chickpea cigars at an event. You can start with 3 of those stacked nicely with some sort of dip or sauce. Not sure if that's too time consuming with making a pastry dough and then rolling and frying the cigars.

Then serve a filling split pea soup with chunky homemade croutons.

Chicken stir fry, high volume of vegetables, in a bread bowl to stretch the plating further, with a nice side of rice and a lightly sautéed bunch of carrot sticks tied in a scallion.

End with scoops of sorbet or homemade lemon granita garnished with a mint leaf.

tichellady

Tue, May 17 2016, 5:46 pm

Is ther anyway you can host less than 60 people or is that not negotiable?

Dairy/ pareve can be cheaper if you go light on the cheese and skip fish. serve vegetable soup with pesto garnish ( you can use walnuts instead of pine nuts) garlic bread or fresh bread, hummus with Zaatar and olive oil garnish with baby carrots and sliced cucumbers, a few different types of quiche ( go light on the cheese), Caesar salad or Greek salad, spinach salad with mushrooms, and green beans. For dessert you can have apple crisp and brownies or apple cake and chocolate chip bars and some fresh fruit.

mummiedearest

Tue, May 17 2016, 5:49 pm

see if you can get whole chickens (which may be cheaper than broken down chicken) and ask if you can get a bulk rate.

make a spice rub, be generous, rub it into all the crevices on the chicken. keep the skin on. bake them breast side down. I do this for two hours for one chicken, you will have to go longer for many at a time. you can break up the legs into separate drumsticks and thighs, cut off the wings to serve as separate pieces, even cut the breasts in half. I have done this for a crowd of about thirty, we had leftovers. people don't always go for more if you have enough side dishes.

have an egg-based side dish: vegetable frittata or eggy kugel will do. make them in cupcake papers so they look fancy.

fresh salad is always nice.

string beans are cheerful and pretty cheap.

I don't know the prices on cold cuts in your area, but deli roll is a crowd pleaser, and you can skimp on the actual deli. the puff pastry dough is not expensive.

moroccan carrots are delicious and easy to make for a large crowd.

have a pasta or rice dish.

I like to cook squash and serve it sliced.

dessert can be homemade cookies with either parve ice cream or fresh fruit.

don't make too varied a menu, it will cost you more.

Raisin

Tue, May 17 2016, 5:59 pm

Bread and dips are pretty cheap. You can do breadsticks, foccacia, etc. You can do scoops of pate - like vegetarian chopped liver.

What about meatballs? Or something else made from ground beef. Stuffed vegetables of some type.

Last edited by Raisin on Tue, May 17 2016, 6:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

tichellady

Tue, May 17 2016, 6:21 pm

Raisin wrote:

.

Was just thinking meatballs could work. How about this menu? Plate of Chinese chicken salad waiting on table when guests arrive then meatballs and rice, green beans, purple cabbage salad or Asian slaw , roasted sweet potatoes or carrot or squash muffin or soufflé.

happyhub

Tue, May 17 2016, 7:14 pm

For an appetizer you can do mini potato barekas with sauce
And feta salad with hot garlic bread.
As a main you can do a plate of flattened orzo with two skewers on top either with a few pieces of teriyaki salmon or chicken on each that are separated by vegetables such as yellow and green zucchini, and chunks of roasted red pepper. You can also have on the table extra bowls of orzo and vegetables, or a different side.
For dessert you could do hot apple crumble will a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate brownies with whip cream and some sliced fruit. Viola

amother

Ginger

Wed, May 18 2016, 12:57 am

First of all it's really nice of you to make a Sheva b. This is what I was thinking: potato berauke with mushroom sauce. Zucchini soup . Main. Chicken roll up ( chicken cutlets - slice them very thin) or a 1/4 of chicken it can be stuffed with kishke filling. Or a shish Kabob with pieces of chicken and onion and veggies - uses much less chicken cutlets . Orzo. Very reasonable and well liked. ( with sautéed veggies. ) and grilled vegetable. And carrot muffin. Dessert. bake choc chip cookie and serve w arm with a scoop of ice cream- recipe. 16 oz whip 1/2 c sugar 2 tap vanilla sugar. Whip up 1/2 bag cashews. Chop coarsely roast in oven took a drop brown. Let cool then add to whip mixture. Freeze When serving sprinkle a drop of cinnamon for added flavor. Good luck!!