Desperate for menu help

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2020, 11:17 pm

I am hosting a meal on motzei shabbos of succos - the 2nd night of yom tov. I can't heat up food before shabbat is over and have a feeling my guests may not be very hungry at that point anyway.
Any ideas of food I can cook for menu people that isn't too elaborate. Not looking to serve 20 things, hoping to find a few one pot meals and that's it.
Thanks!
Oh and its a besari meal. So no dairy.

TravelHearter

Mon, Sep 21 2020, 11:21 pm

I would say some soup, but that might take a while to heat up.
Grilled vegi’s- I put frozen broccoli on a pan and sprinkle garlic powder and roast (uncovered) on 400 f for a while until it has a little bit of a black char. Yum!
Sweet potatoes with cinnamon on top is a light carb
One pan chicken with potatoes
You can do some sort of meat but don’t expect people to eat a lot. Or you can make something like poppers instead so you have two main dishes...
Warm fruit cobbler for desert, maybe with ice cream

amother

Blue

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 12:07 am

Why wouldn't you just cook Thursday/Friday and reheat after licht benching.
I had company last MS, all my cooking was done in advance. I put the food in the oven, put on my mask and went to go set my outdoor SD tables. Came in, made a quick salad cut some fruit and done.
(Not that I didn't kill myself on Thursday night.)

tichellady

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 12:16 am

Challah or bread with roasted garlic, London broil salad and roasted green beans or asparagus served room temperature, maybe a warm chocolate or apple dessert

ChanieMommy

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 12:17 am

Yes, having guests on second yomtov evening stresses me out too, especially if they don't like to start late. I think you need 45 minutes to do your cooking.

I did this with 2 stovetop spots in less than 40 minutes on second R"H evening:

Appetizers:
Smoked Salmon.
salads preparted in advance (cut cabbage salad, zimmes, baba ganush)

Soup:
Pumpkin soup prepared before yom-tov (served also on first evening), heated with water that was already hot

Main course:
White rice (freshly cooked with water that was already hot, alternating the stovetopspot with pumpkin soup
first cook rice, then warm pumpkin soup, once you serve soup put back rice)

sweet stir fry:
sautee onions
add chicken breast cut into small slices
add kurkuma,honey, a drop of white wine, salt, pepper
add fruit: sliced banana, apple, orange, diced almonds

It took only 20 minutes to be ready. That's a really quick fresh main course

Dessert:
apple compote prepared in advance
different kinds of honey cookies prepared in advance
Hot beverages

amother

Sienna

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 1:36 am

Meatballs can be an easy option, either to make them in advance and freeze and warm up in oven or crock pot. I specifically enjoy cranberry sauce meatballs. They come out soft, delicious, sweet, and sour. Let me know if you want the recipe. It takes just a few minutes to put it together.

Hatzlacha!

agreer

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 2:24 am

Challah/dips
Salmon - just take out and serve cold/room temp, or Gefilte fish - supposed to be cold. Can make it "Fancy" by serving over a bed of salad.
Soup - heat it up during kiddush/challah. If you have room, you can store it in its pot in your fridge.
Main course - think small so reheats during fish/soup course: meatballs (as mentioned above), chicken poppers, sliced roasts, etc
Salad as a side - cut up veggies on erev yom tov, just toss together that night with dressing
I don't think you need a starch b/c of challah and soup (may have matzah balls/noodles in it), but if you do, do a cold pasta salad or something as mentioned above
Dessert: ice cream or brownies (or both!)

It should not be that difficult to warm up.

If you need more time, slow down the serving and have people sing, share divrei torah, etc. There are always ways to stretch out the meal.

Good luck!

NotInNJMommy

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 2:14 pm

Challah, dips, cold fish (gefilte/salmon), and then meat course: salad (maybe with chicken on it?), and maybe soup...but if you have a big salad, etc, maybe don't worry about heating up soup.

ChanieMommy

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 3:21 pm

Also for carbs you can think kigel: potatoe kigel, yerushalmi kigel, zucchini kigel, carrot-zucchini-patatoe-kigel.

All of these, you can prepare on erev yomtov and keep in the fridge (not freezer), they will heat up quickly.

Also you can have ready cooked rice and make fried rice out of it... just take it out of the fridge heat a bit oil in pan, and fry rice,the longer it fries, the more crispy it will get.. .(you may or may not want to add an egg or two and veggies)

As I said, stir fry of any kind, specially with chicken or turkey is very quick, takes only 15 minutes to make from scratch... you could also do chicken breast with mushroom sauce...

amother

Pumpkin

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 4:08 pm

Mushroom vol a vont heats up fast and makes a nice starter.
Follow with a grilled chicken salad room temperature, and dips and some warm apple cobbler for desert. If you feel you need more do some sweet potatoe pie too
If people aren't hungry surely that's enough

Scotty

Tue, Sep 22 2020, 4:10 pm

Sometimes I like to marinate cutlets before yom tov and fry them on a grill pan once we can do melacha, and serve over salad with dressing. Add challah and a dessert, and a kugel (any type) warming in the oven, and you've got a perfect meal for when people aren't THAT hungry and that won't create much waste or take too much time!

If you need to 'pad this out' add dips, precooked gefilte fish, cut up salad and BOOM fancy seuda