I need help planning a large family dinner...?

Question

I had a family dinner a few months ago. I cooked a turkey & all that
goes with it. There will be 18 people this time and I need a large main dish. I don't want spaghetti or any thing with high carbohydrates as several of us are diabetic. Can you help me out?

Answer 1

you can never go wrong with baked chicken or a pot roast with potatoes and carrots...with that many people you will need something that you can just bake in the oven..good luck..

Answer 2

Rosemary Roasted Turkey
This recipe makes your turkey moist and full of flavor. You can also use this recipe for Cornish game hens, chicken breasts, or roasting chicken. The size of the turkey you select should depend wholly on the amount of guests you are cooking for

INGREDIENTS
12 pounds whole turkey
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt to taste
DIRECTIONS
Combine the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, basil, Italian seasoning, black pepper and salt. Set aside.
Wash the turkey, inside and out, pat dry. Remove any large fat deposits. Loosen the skin from the breast. This is done by slowly working your fingers between the breast and the skin. Work it loose to the end of the drumstick being careful not to tear the skin.
Using your hand, spread a generous amount of the rosemary mixture under the breast skin and down the thigh and leg. Rub the remainder of the rosemary mixture over the outside of the breast. Use toothpicks to seal skin over any exposed breast meat.
Place the turkey on a rack in a roasting pan. Add about 1/4 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Roast according to the number of pounds your turkey weighs. This is usually 20 minutes per pound in a 325 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven. A meat thermometer inserted in the thigh should read 180 degrees F (82 degrees C) and the juices should run clear when pierced with a fork.

Answer 3

Coke Brisket
Submitted by: dlife
Source: Recipe from MealLeaniYumm! 800 Fast, Fabulous & Healthy Recipes, ©1998, 2002 by Norene Gilletz. Recipe submitted by Marilyn Helton.

Ingredients:3 onions, sliced
4-1/2 to 5-pound beef brisket, well-trimmed
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 tsp dried basil
1 tbsp paprika
1/4 cup apricot jam
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup diet cola


Instructions:Spray a large roasting pan with nonstick spray. Place onions in pan; place brisket on top of onions. Rub meat on all sides with garlic, seasonings, jam and lemon juice. Pour cola over and around brisket. Marinate for an hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Cook covered. Allow 45 minutes per pound as the cooking time, until meat is fork tender. Uncover meat for the last hour and baste it occasionally. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate overnight, if possible. Discard hardened fat which congeals on the surface. Slice brisket thinly across the grain, trimming away any fat. Reheat slices in the defatted pan juices. Reheats and/or freezes well. Yield: 12 Servings.
From Marilyn: "Brisket is quite high in fat, so serve it on special occasions. Cola makes the meat very tender."

Nutritional Information:Nutritional Information (Per Serving): 293 Cal; 14 g Total Fat (6 g Sat Fat); 6 g Carb; 103 mg Cholesterol; 84 mg Sodium; 385 mg Potassium; 19 mg Calcium; 33 g Protein; <1 g Fiber.

Dietary Exchanges: 4-1/2 Med Fat Meat; 1 Veg; 3 Fat.

Answer 4

How about a huge pot of chili. Check out epicurious.com for their "road kill" chili. Then set out a lot of dishes for side stuff to to in it like shredded cheddar, chopped green onions, mini corn muffins. Also, to make it really cool, go to your local bakery and buy the bread bowls. Chili is really good from the bread bowls. Of course the bread is a carb, but it's a reasonably small amount for a diabetic (and yes, I am diabetic so I understand the importance of wanting healthy AND tastey), especially considering your chili has little or no carbs at all.

Also, try Breyer's low carb ice cream. It's really pretty good, especially if you sprinkle it with chopped walnuts or fresh fruit. Even if you use a chocolate syrup, with the chili for dinner, your guests will still be under the recommended carb intake for diabetics for dinner.

Answer 5

How about roasted pork? Not as expensive as beef, and easy to cook. Could make mashed sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus with it - they go great...

A 5 lb. pork roast chould serve 18 people; you may want to get 5 1/2 or 6 lb though, depending on the size of the portions you know your family to eat...
(4 oz. of pork per serving - 5 lb roast = 20 servings)
(4 oz. of pork per serving - 6 lb roast = 24 servings)

Get a crown pork roast... I just rub the roast with olive oil and garlic and sprinkle salt, pepper and thyme on it, and then roast it in a shallow pan with some cut up onions or small whole onions. 20 minutes per pound... For a crisp surface on your roast, be sure the oven is fully preheated before you place the roast in it and do not cover the meat while roasting. Meat thermometer should read 160F - 165F when the roast is done.

A good website for tips on cooking pork roast is: http://www.hormel.com/templates/knowledge/knowledge.asp?catitemid=32&id=444

Good Luck!

Answer 6

Get a couple large beef roasts, and make italian beef sandwiches (per 3# roast---1 T Italian seasoning, 1 T garlic powder, 1 tsp oregano). Use a couple (or more) crockpots if you don't have a "nesco" type roaster. Get a bunch of crusty rolls, serve with a crockpot full of baked beans and some potato salad or cheesy hash browns. It can be eaten with no bun for less carbs...

Make a mixed green lettuce/cuke/tomato salad for the diabetic or dieters. Have plenty of fat free dressing choices!

Answer 7

One of the last times we had a party here I made cashew chicken... it was so good. I went to Costco and bought a lot of chicken... spent some time cutting into little squares. Then I researched, and actually wound up going with a store bought terrayaki/asian sauce. For every 2 cups I added a cup of Heinz 57, it makes the sauce thicker and tastier... and a dash of soy sauce.
I let it marinade over night. Then I cooked the chicken, and added tons of veggies. you can even buy the frozen bags of stir fry veggies, nobody will know the difference.
When it was done. I added cashew nuts.
I made it early and then heated it up on low when people got there...
I did serve it with white rice. but since there are so many veggies, people eat less rice.
The party came out really nice. You can always buy small portions of these ingredients and do a dry run ahead of time...

We decorated the yard with chineese lanterns. It came out really pretty and classy....

We had a bar set up with a variety of drinks and a drink recipe book that even my grandmother was having fun with...

For appetizers, we actually did the following: our grocery store takes orders for sushi, we bought a tray of sushi (don't buy too much, b/c it'll go to waste) I bought these amazing tiny egg rolls, and we also had mini quiches.

I also researched asian salad ideas, and bought asian dressing.

Also egg drop soup isn't difficult to make.. research on foodnetwork.com

Speaking from experience, I've done tons of family parties, and really wanted to do something unexpected and different.

Answer 8

If you want to eat truly healthy, lose body fat consistently, normalize your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, prevent cancer, and even boost your brain health and energy levels, you may have heard all over the news that the Paleo Diet has been found to be one of the best methods of achieving all of these benefits compared to any other popular "fad" diets out there. Go here https://bitly.im/aNDg9

The truth is that the Paleo Diet will never be considered a fad because it's just simply the way that humans evolved to eat over approximately 2 million years. And eating in a similar fashion to our ancestors has been proven time and time again to offer amazing health benefits, including prevention of most diseases of civilization such as cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, and other chronic conditions that are mostly caused by poor diet and lifestyle. One of the biggest misunderstandings about the Paleo Diet is that it's a meat-eating diet, or a super low-carb diet. This is not true

Answer 9

You'll need to have a good diabetic food calculator for when you prepare foods for a crowd! Sounds like you have a large family and that you need to be able to have a decent menu without breaking the carbohydrate bank! What comes to mind for me is some lean protein and some side dishes. Here's a thought:

Roast Pork with Dijon Wine Sauce

1 3 -4 pound Pork Roast
2 T Kosher Salt
1 T Fresh Ground Pepper
2 T Rubbed Sage

Rub the pork roast with the above mixture of salt, pepper, and sage and put in 375 degree oven As roast cooks,mix a little white wine with water and add to the pan. Roast for approximately 1 1/2 hours or until a meat thermometor reads 160 degrees. Remove roast from pan and deglace with more white wine. Remove bits from the bottom of the roasting pan and put liquid in a small sauce pan. Add wine, water or chicken broth to increase liquid to 2 cups. Bring to a boil and add 1 T dijon mustard and 1 T butter. Simmer until mixture has thickened slightly. Season to taste. Serve this dish with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes:

15 large Yukon Gold potatoes, semi-peeled and cut into chunks
1 large box Organic Chicken Broth
Water to cover
1 T salt
1 cube margarine
1 tub non-fat sour cream
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp kosher salt (to taste)
1 tsp fresh ground pepper (to taste)

Cook potatoes in chicken broth, water and salt. When tender, drain liquid and return to pan. Add margarine and sour cream. Mix and add garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. If mixture is too dry, add milk or chicken broth to thin.

Fresh Green Beans with lemon butter:

1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, picked over and trimmed
Chicken broth
2 T lemon juice
1 tsp lemon rind, grated
1/4 cup margarine

Cook beans in chicken broth until crisp tender. Remove and drain. In pan, melt margarine and add lemon juice and rind. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes an elegant but fairly low fat dinner for a crowd. You can substitute your margarine for a different spread.

Answer 10

Pot Roast with Carrots and Green Beans

Pork Tenderloin or Pork Roast

Lamb

Salmon

Answer 11

A whole pork loin will yield 24 one inch slices or there abouts. Depending on your skill you could;
Leave it alone and roast it or you could stuff it
using a a sage/ bread/ apple stuffing
Serve sliced on braised red cabbage w/ sweated apple rounds- nice cold weather comfort food that pretty much cooks itself.