Food for a Large Birthday Party at Our Home.

A friend got a chick-fila nugget tray and it as a great hit. Then you could get some fruit and veggies trays also. What ever you decide to do keep it simple and the party short. If your daughter's birthday is not actually at meal time I would just do something small, like cake, fruit, veggies, and chip and dip.

I've done that, and the easy cooking road is the best to take. I go to Sam's and get deli spirals (just thaw and serve and they're good, kids like the turkey ones), and the petite quiches (quick in the oven). Then, there's always taquitos, cook and serve, too.

Many of the friend chicken places will sell large containers of their chicken and vegetables. It's always a favorite. Kids love it and so do the adults. Get mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and green beans as the sides. Forget the cole slaw. You may wish to make your own large salad to go with it - but mostly only adults will eat that.
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I had 42 people in my house in January. I am not the best hostess so I went easy: Chili. Estimate about two cups per person, then some. I added cheese and sour cream, chives and jalapenos, crackers, pickles, cornbread (Jiffy was not preferred - everyone ate up the crackers and not the cornbread) on the side. I did make a pot of chili using rotell tomatoes and the guys woofed that down - should have made two.

for every:
2.5lbs hamburger - diced onion, chili powder, garlic, salt, pepper
1 large can diced tomatoes
1/2 to 2/3 tomato paste (when water thickens)
1/2 to 1 can water
2 cans kidney beans
chili powder (careful or too spicy) dash of sugar to take the sting out of the tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper

Allow to cook 24 hours. You can also add a can of beer instead of water, cook then refrigerate over night (skim off all fat).

Yum. Worked out great. I even bought some take home containers for guests and used gallon freezer bags to save some for us later. Freezes very well.

Good luck (ps - to help your costs ask guests to bring items for your chili). Don;t forget desert!
Banana pudding, cake, cookies, etc.

i did finger sandwiches for my daughters party & it was great i did ham & cheese & also chicken salad. it was great, easy & no fuss. everyone complimented me on how great they looked stacked up & how good they were, even thought it was something very simple!

You cannot underestimate the value of help. I strongly encourage you to ask close family to help by pitching in a dish, whether it's beans or potato salad (whatever their "specialty" is), or just helping chop tomatoes or shred cheese. Etc. If you can provide hot dogs, but let someone else worry about keeping them warm or refilling the chip bowls, then you are ahead of the game. Whenever my sister has a party, I covertly watch the ice chests and refill them with drinks when they get low. Make it fun. Bake cupcakes (so much cheaper and more fun than storebought sheetcake) and ask nephew & nieces to help decorate them. Or, make it a party activity.

If it's unlikely that you will find help like that, make it easy on yourself. Order pizza. Hot dogs are ridiculously easy (my cousin does hot dogs and chili every time) too. If you do it right, you should not have to "cook" anything at the party. Pick food that can be prepared a day ahead, &/or heated up on the day-of.
Try not to stress too much. Nobody will complain about your food. And have fun!

We also had a big party for our sons 1st birthday. I put my husband and a few buddies in charge of the grill. We had hamburgers and hot dogs. The rest of the meal is easy to make before hand: chips, dips, potato salad, baked beans, fixin's for the burgers and dogs - these can all be prepped or bought the day before. All you have to do is set them out, and then let the men do the cooking! We had ours outside, so the "cooks" were still part of the party. But either way, the men loved standing by the grill and drinking beer, and the women were free to do their thing! Good luck - and congrats on surviving the first year; it's your celebration too! :)

(oh, and let friends and family help out! i had two friends that took over things like making sure the food bowls stayed full, people got drinks and whatever they needed, and other hostessing duties. I was able to totally focus on my son; it was the best gift ever!)

I made Chicken Kiev for my daughter's first bday and everyone loved it.

If you don't want to be in the kitchen all the time...either hire someone to maintain the kitchen and food for you..OR make several heavy appetizers. Be creative with the appetizers....maybe, chicken or beef skewers, veggies, fruits, Costco does have a lot of good food to use for appetizers.

Have fun and Happy Birthday!

We did barbeque last year and will do it again this year because it was easy and a hit with our crowd. We were feeding at least 50. I bought brisket, potato salad and cole slaw from Dickey's. I kept the brisket warm in a crockpot. I also made baked beans and kept those in a second crockpot. You certainly wouldn't need all those sides, though. And, you could probably get potato salad cheaper at the deli in the grocery store as well as make your own cole slaw with a bag mix from the produce section.

Hot dogs & chili are easy - put the hot dogs in the crock pot with water and let the crock pot keep them warm. Use a smaller crock pot to put the chili. You can also make finger sandwiches yourself and just leave them out. Another idea is to not have the party at a food time (not at noon or 5:00, have it at like 2 and then you don't have to feed anyone!) Another idea is sloppy joes (again, put it in the crock pot).

All good ideas, but I have to ask all of you, why do you want to turn your baby's 1st birthday into an adult dinner party? I know it is popular now, but is it really necessary? Especially now in the middle of a recession. One mama needs to be strong enough to have a childs birthday party with just cake and punch! Who wants to be first?!?! :)

I believe it should be just family and centered around the baby. Keep it short as she will tire quickly.

I have another radical, old fashioned idea for older children's birthdays!!! No more Bounce Houses, Chuckie Cheese etc. Bake a cake, make punch or Kool-ade--maybe home made ice cream. Stay at home and play games. Or go to the park.

I know a lot of mamas don't want the kids to tear up the house. The answer to that is small groups, the back yard or the park, supervised games. No hot dogs with mustard to drop on the LR carpet. Don't have time to clean house for the party? (I understand that! I used to shampoo carpet and paint the bathroom cabinets before a childs party! Well after all my MIL was coming.)

But if you don't invite a bunch of adults you don't have to do anything but hit the surface. Kids don't notice or care.
Keep it short, but be considerate of guest's travel time. My niece had her first baby's first BD on the actual day which happened to be a Friday. Some of us lived 45 min away under ordinary circumstances. The party started at 6 pm. Ah-ha ---those of you who try to travel at that time on Friday know where this is going!! Right? It took some of us and over an hour to get there and as we didn't allow enough time , we were late. At 8pm, Daddy says, "We sure do thank you all for coming and you can stay awhile if you like, but 8 oclock is Rebecca's bedtime."

I was a first time mama too, but thank God my mama was there to keep me from doing anything like that!

Please don't take offense at this. It is intended to just offer some new (old) ideas. God love you all.
D.

Hello !! When we did one of my sons parties, we had it at 10:00 in the morning. I have muffins, fruit, animal crackers (for the kids who might be there) and bagels with a few cream cheeses. Drinks were OJ, tea, white grape juice for the kids. No cooking and just needed to check to make sure when food was getting low.

HAve a great day !!

Sams has a delicious pre-cooked pre-sliced brisket. You just throw it in the oven for a little bit (as directions indicate). Have hot dogs for the kids. Maybe grill some sausage (very quick and easy). Lots of BBQ sauce, potato salad, colslaw...

A good pulled pork or beef that is made the day before would be perfect. You can make (or buy) some potato salad, cole slaw etc..and all of that can be done the day before too. Keep the meat heated in the crock pot, and place all of the sides buffet style. I would also do chips, a simple veggie and dip tray,some deviled eggs, and maybe some fruit..either salad, or a fruit tray. We love grapes and strawberries with a cream cheese/marhmallow fruit dip! Literally everything can be done the day before and set out for people to serve themselves. Clearly it is dinner time...Im with Carmen..getting a bit hungry here:) I hope you have a great first birthday, you deserve to be able to enjoy it with the whole family!! ~A.~

For under 150.00 you can have it catered by Dickeys or ElCHicos or most other Mexican rests.

Or go to SAMS and get some finger foods!

Have fun and if you need any invitations, thank yous or party favors give me a shout.

A. J
www.celebritypartyfavors.com

Hit costco or Target or something and see what they can do. They usually have sandwich trays that they can make and you pick up. Also, costco usually has lots of finger food things that you just bake. I hope that helps :)

Hi,
You have received a variety of good ideas. If you decide on pizza I recommend CiCi's pizza packages. You can get 2 pizza's with one topping and 1 dessert pizza for about $15.00. A friend told me about this good price for a pizza party and we had CiCi's pizza at my daughters 15th birthday party in January. We bought a lot of pizza and had left overs. I think you would enjoy CiCi pizza for a large group if you choose pizza.

My advice is to keep it simple. I think pizza and some salad would be the most simple.

Hello S.,

Congratulations on your daughter's birthday! well, my first suggestion will be in terms of drinks. don't serve any red drinks if you have carpets. I hope I'm not repeating what others already mentioned. You can have pizza along with other things like potato salad (can be purchased/prepared ahead of time) how about chicken wings? or chick fillet nuggets, party trays from sam's club, costco, etc. Taquitos sound good. I'm getting hungry.... Have fun! ~C.~

My sons 2nd birthday is tomorrow, we too will have about 50 people coming. We are doing hot dogs, hamburgers and chips and dip. We bought the frozen hamburger patties from Walmart they cook fast on the grill.

For his 1st birthday we did Little Caesars $5 large pizzas, that worked out great as well!!

Good luck!

SO OUR PARTY WAS YESTERDAY, THE HOT DOGS AND HAMBURGERS WERE OF COURSE A HIT.. MY HUSBAND HAD THEM READY ABOUT 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE PARTY STARTED AND STUCK THEM IN THE OVEN TO KEEP THEM WARM.. ALL WAS GREAT!!

I did a taco bar for my son's last birthday which was a big hit. I was able to do most of the prep work the day before. The day before, I made the guacamole, chopped all the toppings for the tacos, even browned the taco meat. The next day, I all I had to do was put the cooked meat in a crock pot to heat up, put velveeta and rotel in a small crock pot to melt, another small crock pot with refried beans (which is just opening a can :), then heat the tortillas and shells. All that took maybe 30 minutes before the guests arrived. I'm sure the same could be done with fajitas as well, but I find taco meat to be MUCH cheaper!

We also did hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill one year when the weather was nice and everyone was out back anyway. All that prep work was done the day before too, and the cooking that day was done by my husband!

If you decide to go with pizza, Little Ceasar's has super cheap pizza. We got 10 pepperoni and cheese pizzas for my son's birthday in February and the total bill was only $60.10.

COSTCo great huge sheet cake for @ $17 each-- they are delicious too!
cater la hacienda fajitas chicken/beef and fixings...
chips hot sauce queso in cockpot
or PIZZA is great too

I catered fajitas and did cupcakes. It was great.

This is another vote for hot dogs and burgers. Even the little ones can eat cut up hot dogs and it s so easy!

Dear S.,
I think we have all been in that same predicament, at least i was when my kids were little. My best advice would be hot dogs and burgers, because all the veggies and accoutrements can be prepared the day before giving you time to visit the day of the party. I would suggest also a little cake for your daughter and cup cakes for everyone else, that way you don't have to worry about extra stuff, just napkins!! Hope you and your daughter have lost of fun on your party!!

I've used Market Street before. You can go in advance and request a meat and cheese platter (or a whole sandwich tray, but I prefer to let people build their own sandwiches), bakery fresh bread/rolls that they will slice in half for you by request. Request specific chips and any other items you will need last minute for your party (think bottle of mustard, etc) and they will gather them all for you in bags and have it ready for you at their catering drive through. All you have to do is swing by the drive through and they will put it in your car for you and take your credit card to pay. There is no service fee, but their trays are not inexpensive. It made things easy enough for me that I didn't mind splurging for convenience.

Awesome!

If you have a large crockpot you can warm up hot dogs for the kids in that. For the adults I make a Large crockpot of sloppy joes,
for every one pound of cooked ground beef you add one cup of mild salsa and i can of tomato soup.

let it simmer until warm.

It is sooooo good.

K.

What about a bakedpotato bar? The prep is easy and wouldn't cost too much. We've used this idea at several parties. It always goes over well because people aren't expecting it. Best of luck!