£15 budget for mini buffet

TIME2GROWUP_2

bluestarrz wrote: »

thanks again guys,

Think there will be about 20-25 coming - spread out through the day hopefully! Will look into idea of making fairy cakes to decorate etc but I'm not very good at baking.
How long can buffet food be left out for? if people are coming throughout the day will it be ok or will i need to keep making fresh?

Best to put small amounts out regularly, take particularly care with any meat products, don't leave out for more than 4 hours, all those children touching the food will be a great breeding ground for bacteria and you don't want people to remember your party for the wrong reasons...!!!

jacand

bluestarrz wrote: »

thanks again guys,

Think there will be about 20-25 coming - spread out through the day hopefully! Will look into idea of making fairy cakes to decorate etc but I'm not very good at baking.
How long can buffet food be left out for? if people are coming throughout the day will it be ok or will i need to keep making fresh?

You don't have to make them, check out the value one in Tesco, really cheap, but don't know about how good the ingredients will be!!

radiohelen

Just had this crisis for my lo's first birthday party - we had 20 hungry rellies in the garden.

We had egg and cress sandwiches - tuna sandwiches, hot cocktail sausages with honey and mustard, biscuits, veg crudites and dips, crisps, hm sausage rolls (pastry and cheap sausages), potato salad and a huge sponge cake in the shape of a one covered in masses of vanilla buttercream.

Hope you have a lovely party.

greenbee

mrbrightside842 wrote: »

Cucumber and carrot cut into sticks shouldn't cost much.

And you could make some dips to go with them very cheaply. Houmus (chickpeas, oil, lemon juice, garlic and maybe a little chilli powder and turmeric); tzaziki - yogurt & spring onion; baba ganoush (bake an aubergine whole, scoop and the flesh and whiz/mash with olive oil, seasoning and cumin seeds); cooked, peeled broad beans mashed/whizzed with olive oil and cumin seeds.

The quiche & spanish omelette ideas are great too (home-made shortcrust for quiche). Make big ones and slice up to make them go further - and the really great thing is that you can use up leftovers in them too! These are nicer cold than pizza too.

Cocktail sausages - make sure you provide sticks and serve with a saucer of mustard to dip them into.

If you're doing cheese & pineapple it may be cheaper to buy slices of pineapple and cut them into chunks.

Cakes - I'm with the fairy cake idea for this, as you're not really going to have a 'cake cutting' moment and they're easy for littlies to eat. Make a batch of them, make a batch of pink icing for them, and then bung on sprinkles/silver balls etc so they're pretty and stack them on a plate. If you're not confident baking from scratch, then go with the betty crocker mix as it's pretty fail safe. If you want chocolate, the Devil's Food cake is light and not overly sweet.

How about a few sandwiches (marmite/egg & cress/cheese & tomato) cut into triangles? Easy enough to have some extra ingredients stashed away in case you do need more.

You can leave stuff out for a few hours as it's not too hot and sunny, but I'd keep the carrot & cucumber in water (stand them up in a mug) to stop them drying out, and you'll need to cover stuff to keep the flies off.

bluestarrz

Been sitting here trying to work this out and think i will try:

cucumber/ carrot sticks - £1 ish?
puff pastry (for cheese straws/ maybe have a go at cheese onion puffs) - 86p
eggs (for cakes/ quiche and maybe boil some for sandwiches?) -£1 for 6 x2
cheese - £2
red onion - 20p???
garlic 20p???
pineapple - £1 (whole one on offer just now - maybe cut up for fruit salad too)
salsa dip - 50p
garlic bread -50p
crisps -£1
Juice -£3
Bread- 70p

=£12.96 so far - if my calculations are right - don't know if I've priced veg right!
what am i missing?

greenbee

bluestarrz wrote: »

Been sitting here trying to work this out and think i will try:

cucumber/ carrot sticks - £1 ish?
puff pastry (for cheese straws/ maybe have a go at cheese onion puffs) - 86p If you roll your puff pastry very thin, you can put a layer of cheese/cheese & onion/chopped olives or anything else you fancy on top of it, and then fold it over, roll again (not too hard) and repeat. You can then either cut into strips or roll up the pastry and cut in thin circles (or roll from both sides to meet in the middle, and cut into palmiers/heart shapes), which always looks impressive when baked. They can be done in advance and kept in a tin
eggs (for cakes/ quiche and maybe boil some for sandwiches?) -£1 for 6 x2 You should be able to get these cheaper...
cheese - £2
red onion - 20p???
garlic 20p???
pineapple - £1 (whole one on offer just now - maybe cut up for fruit salad too)
salsa dip - 50p If you are buying onion & tomato, it may be cheaper to make
garlic bread -50p - are you making your own?
crisps -£1
Juice -£3
Bread- 70p

=£12.96 so far - if my calculations are right - don't know if I've priced veg right! check the prices online to be on the safe side (you can also check which of your local supermarkets are cheapest). You may get a better deal at a local market. And remember, eggs can be bought in advance, they don't have to be fresh (in fact, for baking, it's better that they're a little older, and make sure you don't use them straight from the fridge)
what am i missing?

Do you have butter/marg, flour and sugar for the cake?

Olliebeak

You may need 2 loaves or perhaps one loaf and either some bread finger rolls or some barm cakes (soft flat bread rolls) - any left-over bread won't go amiss .

LilacPixie

for quick sandwiches just buy value/smartprice bread IMO. Eggs you should be able to get cheaper than £2 a dozen. check your local butcher ours is selling 12 medium for £1.39 locally produced. Another idea would be to buy some bags of new potatoes, wash, half sprinkle with seasoning and a sprtiz of oil and roast in the oven. lovely with a sour cream and chive dip and left overs can be frozen then put in a hot oven for 15 minutes for a cheap meal accompaniment

greenbee

LilacPixie wrote: »

for quick sandwiches just buy value/smartprice bread IMO. Eggs you should be able to get cheaper than £2 a dozen. check your local butcher ours is selling 12 medium for £1.39 locally produced. Another idea would be to buy some bags of new potatoes, wash, half sprinkle with seasoning and a sprtiz of oil and roast in the oven. lovely with a sour cream and chive dip and left overs can be frozen then put in a hot oven for 15 minutes for a cheap meal accompaniment

Or just boil new potatoes to use in dips, or and toss in oil and herbs for potato salad... yummy

Chell

If it isn't a party as such would people expect food? Could you not just have some cakes and biscuits to offer them with a drink?

You could use own brand cornflakes or rice crispies and value chocolatwe to make little cakes.