Sunday Roast for 8 - Help!

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Does it have to be a roast? You could do a big lasagne and jackets spuds and salad, make sure you pad out the mince sauce with oats, lentils, veg etc to spin out the mince.

Soup is a good idea, I made some cauli cheese soup the other day (sounds rank but was gorgeous) and we were full! Couldn't eat another thing!

BTW if you have to do a pud next time, make bread and butter pud, dead cheap if you use up all the leftover bread!

purpleivy

I sometimes serve chipolata sausages with a chicken. DD ws never keen on chicken, but liked sausages. She's vegi now : )

purpleivy

Don't stress out too much about it. People will really just appreciate having a home made meal. I know when I go to someone's house for a meal it's such a treat. I don't even have to decide what to have, I just turn up and someone feeds me.

Can you put someone in charge of pouring drinks? That would ease things for you a little. Can you set the table earlier on so that you aren't trying to do it at the last minute?

soappie

Purpleivy's suggestion of chipolatas is a good one. If you could stretch to a bit of streaky bacon as well, you could to pigs in blankets which will mean you can get away with a smaller chicken.

Also, I know Tesco were doing two chickens for £5 odd - you could buy a pair, cook them both then there's plenty of meat for your Sunday lunch guests and some left over for you for the next day or two.

Pennylane

Does it have to be a roast?

I'd do Curried Parsnip soup (REALLY cheap) to start.

Then I'd do a BIG sausage casserole (a lot of the supermarkets Lidl, Co-op, Tesco for example are selling 2 packs of NICE quality sausages for £3. So you'd have 14 sausages at least. You can choose Cumberland, Lincolnshire or Pork & Leek and more)

Chuck in some diced potatoes, peppers, carrots, celery, leeks, onions, mushrooms ... whatever takes your fancy. Add some stock or use stock cubes or a can of condensed soup.

Stick it in and forget it - if you're not too used too catering for that number of people, I think you'd find it less stressful.

purpleivy

I love curried parsnip soup. I did some the other week, lobbed in some left over carrots etc as well.

Pennylane wrote: »

Does it have to be a roast?

I'd do Curried Parsnip soup (REALLY cheap) to start.

Then I'd do a BIG sausage casserole (a lot of the supermarkets Lidl, Co-op, Tesco for example are selling 2 packs of NICE quality sausages for £3. So you'd have 14 sausages at least. You can choose Cumberland, Lincolnshire or Pork & Leek and more)

Chuck in some diced potatoes, peppers, carrots, celery, leeks, onions, mushrooms ... whatever takes your fancy. Add some stock or use stock cubes or a can of condensed soup.

Stick it in and forget it - if you're not too used too catering for that number of people, I think you'd find it less stressful.

GardenMillie

If it doesn't have to be a roast maybe you could do a big cottage pie - easy to prepare in advance and to spoon out and serve at the table particularly if you serve some nice savoy cabbage or other veggies with it.

I love roast but struggle with the getting everything to the table piping hot at the same time. I do find though that most people are just delighted to be served a nice meal and enjoy the company.

Happy cooking:j

Pennylane

GardenMillie wrote: »

If it doesn't have to be a roast maybe you could do a big cottage pie - easy to prepare in advance and to spoon out and serve at the table particularly if you serve some nice savoy cabbage or other veggies with it.

I love roast but struggle with the getting everything to the table piping hot at the same time. I do find though that most people are just delighted to be served a nice meal and enjoy the company.

Happy cooking:j

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Gardenmillie - you are SO right - even a sandwich tastes better when someone else has made it!!

anonymousie

A roast would be an expensive way of feeding lots of people.

THe money saving (and relaxing as it can all be done in advance) would be a big pot of chilli con carne (say with just 450g mince, but bulked out with green lentils-very good mince stretcher! veg and a couple of tins kidney beans). Cook it the night before as it will ve all the better the next day.

Get dirty spuds from the market or green grocer if you can- cheaper than supermarked washed one (don't worry about them not being do big or being mixed sizes- folks like to have the choice to have a bigger/smaller or even 2 spuds!).

Any of the veg soups mentioned would be a good budget option as a started.

Agree with a "sausage pot" but I'd brown the sausages off and chop them into 3 as well, plus, again I put pulses with this (Chick peas would be my fave but green lentils would be easy too) to stretch it. With cut up sausages it looks more that just2 bangers and the "ration" looks less stingy if you only want to allocate say 4 pieces per adult it still seems agood meal (lots of chopped veggies in it too).

Also agree with lasagne- again, 450g mince is plenty for 8 portions as long as a handful of lentil and a handful of barley or oats goes in- loads of veg, loads of herbs and garlic and ou wont know it isn't just beef in there!

sammiboo

I would say a roast is a meal that generally pleases everyone though. I know others have made other suggestion but things like chilli con carne etc but these are down to personal taste, i know i couldnt get my mum to eat it. As with cottage pie, that makes me physically sick So things start to get complicated. Whenever we go to my parents we always have a roast and there are never any complaints

A roast is a safe bet. It doesnt have to be expensive, especially if you stick to chicken. I find with roasts you tend to make too much and thats why the cost can be high. If you stick to roast pots, roast parsnips are really lovely. carrot and green veg you cant go far wrong.

Good luck!! I remember when I made xmas dinner for 7 people and it worked out fine. Stressful but it was fine!