Help! Christening Party- Food Menu Required

Floxxie

Hello all,

I need some help with planning a christening party - they will be approximately 20 adults and 10 children. I want to keep it simple, cheap but tasty.

My thoughts are:

children - sandwiches, pizza slices, fresh fruit, raisins, cheese portions and yogurts

adults - pizza, salad, sandwiches, fresh fruit, biscuits & cheese

What does everybody think? Too boring? Not enough? Other ideas for the menu?

The other things I need to take into account are that the majority of people are on diets, some are vegetarian and my M-i-L thinks royalty are coming; she wants fresh salmon and watercress sandwiches there!

I don't want to make it look dull but I don't want foods that nobody can eat and I don't want to go mad on the spending.

Welcome your thoughts...

LydiaSophia

I always find that things like large green salads, french breads, cheeses all go down well with adults.

Cooking a some hams and slice them (much cheaper than buying pre packed sliced meats).

Dips like humous and taziki (taziki is sooooo easy to make).

Bread stick etc.

Much nicer than pizzas and sarnies that (not being rude) can look quite boring.

Why not go for a theme like Greek food or Spanish so there a few things that maybe people haven't tried before. That always adds to the entertainment.

Tescos (and I'm sure all other leading supermarkets) have loads of stuff in there "Food from around the world" sections.

Just makes it all abit more interestu=ing and fun and doesn't by all means need to cost the earth.

Try (if you live near enough) going up to Angel north London, they have some fab Turkish and Greek shops that do the proper authentic stuff and is sooooooooooooo cheap and yummy!

Pink.

Hi Floxxie,

The replies on these older threads might give you some ideas:

Christening Buffet ideas?

Buffet Ideas

Help ! Planning small buffet birthday party for 17, NEVER done anything like this ? !

Pink

Lillibet_2

This is what I did for my sons baptism earlier this year :

7 bird roast : we had more people than your having so you could ask your butcher for a 3 or 4 bird roast. Served warm (but could be cold if you don't have the facilities/time) & carved straight into pitta breads with dishes of sliced tomatos, cucumber, watercress to add to the pitta bread & sliced posh cheeses instead of meat for the veggies, plus various relishes. Pudding was cake, you could also offer a bowl of fruit if you like. Drinks were wine, OJ, sparkling mineral water & then tea/coffee with pudding. Everyone, including children down to a 3 year old, loved it, there was minumum fuss & washing up, it was economical (food & drinks for 50 for £3 a head & pleanty of leftovers) & it looked really really impressive! (enough to silence my MiL which I have never done before or since:p)

I would recommend it!;)

Counting_Pennies_2

For my son's Christening, we did much the same, a cold buffet. We also put in a few treats for sweet snacks afterwards.

Waitrose do some wonderful pop in your mouth cakes. Mini Cherry Bakewells go down a treat, also they do some strawberry and chocolate cups. Also on their cake counter they do mini florentines which are wonderful too.

Alternatively you could make several large trays of Cottage Pie, or Lasagne and serve with peas and garlic bread. Then do several desserts, or get some of your close friends/relatives to bring a dessert with them, that always rallies people. A good trifle, meringues, pavlovas, mixture of berries, etc.

Eagle_1

I would go for a simple buffet and that way everyone will be catered for. Go with the normal :
Corned Beef Pie, Quiche, Pasta salad, Sandwiches, nibbly bits, Chicken Drumsticks (use tin foil to wrap where you hold the drumstick, it looks nice and aslo no sticky fingers), Bowl of Salad, Veggie fingers with a dip, Chicken nibbly things with dip, Pizza, cake bars, iced fingers or jammie fingers (for the kids) and maybe a couple of Gateaus (Iceland for £3.00 and they are gorgeous).
If you have any veggies they are catered for, you have the mixture of different foods and nobody will starve and if we have full bellies we are all happy souls.........especially the kids

Floxxie

Yum, yum...thankyou everybody for the ideas and there are plenty to choose from!

I would love to have cakes and quiches and other high fat foods but as several of the people coming have high cholesterol (including my husband) as well as other problems (!), the food would end up in the waste bag.

However I love the idea of a themed meal - Greek sounds really good and I know that there are a lot of lower fat recipes including the dips but also a bird carvery.

Plenty of things to think about now but you have all put me on the right tracks so many thanks!