Near the end of July, we traveled to Bull Shoals Lake near Mountain Home, Arkansas for our annual extended family vacation at the lake with my side of the family. We’ve done this every year for 20 years!
We all stay in small individual cabins, but then we eat our meals all together and spend a lot of time together in the larger house that my parents stay in.
In addition to spending lots of time skiing, boating, swimming, and hanging out, we ate a lot of yummy meals. In order to feed 31 people without it being too much work, we stuck with cheap meals for large groups and we also all pitched in and helped with the food.
How We Planned and Divvied Things Up
My sister planned the menu with easy meals that would feed a crowd and sent out a sign-up form using Perfect Potluck (it’s free and so easy to use!). Each family signed up for the main dishes and side dishes they wanted to be in charge of.
Whatever meals or parts of meals you signed up for, you were in charge of bringing the ingredients for and cooking/baking.
Here were the meals we had…
Be sure to also check out these Recipes for a Crowd of People on Vacation and these Cheap Meals for Large Groups and Easy Meals for 20+ People.
What We Made for Breakfast
- Cinnamon Sugar Bagels, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Orange Juice
- Baked Oatmeal, Sausage, Orange Juice
- French Toast, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Orange Juice
- Pancakes, Sausage, Eggs, Orange Juice
What We Made for Lunch
For lunch, we had a huge Build-Your-Own Salad Bar (most all of my family loves salads!). We also had bread and meat/cheese and peanut butter/jelly/honey for sandwiches for the kids and any adults who didn’t just want a salad. In addition, we set out any leftovers from breakfast or dinner.
Having a Build-Your-Own Salad Bar is such an easy meal idea for 25+ people — and frugal, too! All the ingredients can be stretched a really long way, since you’re only using a little bit of each ingredient on your salad.
Build-Your-Own Salad Bar Ingredient Ideas: A variety of Greens and Lettuce, Canned Tuna/Salmon, Boiled Eggs, Raisins, Carrots, Celery, Seeds/Nuts, Feta Cheese, Avocados, Bell Peppers, Cucumbers, Chickpeas, Cherry Tomatoes, Dressings
What We Made for Dinner
If you’re looking for some really easy recipes for large groups, here’s what we made for the dinners:
- Spaghetti, Green Beans, Garlic Bread, Tossed Salad, Fruit
- Build-Your-Own Haystacks, Homemade Guacamole, Rice
- Grilled Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, French Fries, Tossed Salad, Biscuits, Watermelon
- Hamburgers/Hot Dogs, Tater Tots, Corn on the Cob, Steamed Veggies
- Papa John’s Pizza, Breadsticks + leftover salad and fruit
A taco bar with hard shells and tortillas, ground beef or turkey taco filling, beans, rice and all the fixings is great, as picky eaters as well as vegetarian/vegans can customize as well, or even make it into a salad. Leftover bits are great additions to frittatas, a baked breakfast strata casserole, or egg muffin bites, or even added to scrambles or omelettes. A baked potato bar is similar, with traditional toppings as well as canned chili and shredded cheese. Leftovers can become fried potatoes or even potato soup! Serve with watermelon or a cut fruit salad.
Those are great ideas! Thanks so much for sharing! -Olivia, MSM Team
I love to do a sandwich-type meal for family reunions, often pulled pork, with coleslaw, potato chips, pickles and fruit. I travel with my crock pot so I can cook the pork all day while I’m out having fun! Since we found out my daughter has Celiac, I can easily make this meal gluten and dairy free as well.
We love to do a “mexican fiasco” as Dad calls it.
We put out taco chips, tortillas, taco meat, refried beans and all the toppings that we can think of and let everyone create as they please. they can make taco’s burritos, taco salad, nachos etc. Everyone gets what they want. It is super easy and fun.
The other we do when we get together is a hawiian haystack although I have discovered it is more a regional thing. There are many who havent heard of it before. You start with white rice on a plate and top it with the chicken sauce (diced chicken sour cream and cream of chicken soup mix) Then you top it with all sorts of vegetables and other bits of stuff. Onion, peppers, tomatoes, peas, etc. Be sure to add something like pineapple, mandarian oranges or coconut (to make it Hawiian) and then you top it with the crunchy chow mein noodles to create the haystack. super yum and once again easy for everyone to create how they want.
Such great ideas! Thank you for sharing!
How do you make pancakes for that many people? Does someone flip pancakes for hours, do you take turns, make ahead? Just making pancakes for the 12 of us feels like it takes all day lol
If you have two of the large griddles, you can make 12 at a time!
I used to do funeral ministry, and we’ve done: 1. Spiral sliced ham, calico beans, coleslaw, fruit salad, rolls. 2. A sandwich bar with small rolls and a couple types of bread, lunchmeat and sliced cheese, with spreads and toppings various salads. 3. Chili with toppings including chopped cucumber, onions, sour cream, shredded cheese, crackers, cornbread, raw vegetables.
Thank you for sharing!
We vacation with a group of 31 for a whole week at the beach. Breakfast and lunches are available whenever from stuff that we buy. We do get together every night for dinner…. And we eat!
– pulled pork with macaroni & cheese
– steaks with baked potatoes
– grilled chicken with Parmesan crusted potatoes
– Mexican night
– Italian night
– cook out for July 4th
– pizza
We even have a dessert challenge to spark the creativity of everyone.
The whole week ends up being about $55 per person.
Makes for the best week of the year!
I love it! Thank you for sharing!