Ideas for a buffet please?

Question

Hi, i have just been asked to do a buffet for a christening (40 people ish) Shes only a young girl and is on a tight budget. I'm doing it for free but shes buying food. Any cheap but cheerful ideas? Thanks.

disco you freak!

Answer 1

what about the following

Assorted sandwiches and rolls
Breaded Mini Lobster Tails
Chicken Drumsticks - Roasted or Chilli Roast
Chicken, Bacon & Brie Wraps
Crisps & Nuts
Indian & Thai Savoury Selection
King Prawn & Chilli Roll
Lime & Coriander Chicken Mini Kebab
Lincolnshire Cocktail Sausages
Mediterranean Bruschetta
Mini Danish Selection
Mini Doughnuts & Muffins
Mini Quiche Tartlets
Fruit

These should all be nice but at the same time cheap and cheerful

Answer 2

If it is a dinner-style buffet, you will need a meat ,meat, starch, veggie, dessert.
Cheapest meat is chicken and it is most versatile. Usually you would have a second option of meat, such as fish, or beef. Maybe do a beef satay with a teriaky & Chicken satay w/ peanut sauce. Skewers are pretty cheap.
Rice, potatoes or pasta for the starch- make sure there is a sauce of some kind for pasta.
Veggies- frozen is CHEAP- and can easily be spruced up with butter and seasonings ( try a packet of ranch powder. Like you get to make salad dressing) Remember not to cook too long or the veggies look awful- only cook til just hot- not tender as they will continue cooking.
Dessert- if they have a cake- just a small plater of mixed cookies & chocolates as an option.
Salad -mixed greens, tomatoes & cucumbers should sufice, rolls (or baguette sliced diagonally), any condiments could be put into a bowl with a spoon to save $. It's alot of stuff, but shouldn't bee too expensive. You can find excellent recipies for sauces and other things on www.allrecipes.com
Have fun & good luck.

Answer 3

Chicken is probably the cheaper meat to use, make sure you provide a few pasta dishes for any vegetarians, you can do some cheap fruit plates up with things like apples, melon, pineapple and also get some generic brand of cheeses (cheapest at Walmart) and make some cheese trays up. If you go crazy on cheaper appetizers, they will be too full to care so much what the main course is! Also, home-made cakes can be made pretty when iced, you can do cheap jello molds - spend a bit on the flowers on the table and people won't notice the food so much. Also, a lunch time thing is easier to do cheap than a dinner, people don't eat as much at lunch.

Answer 4

How about home made onion bhajis, just chili, gram flour and onions, crisp dip: Mayo, 6 hard boiled eggs (mashed), pinch sugar and ketchup, home made sausage rolls frozen pastry and Cumberland, Lincoln or other spicy sausage, home made Banana Bread (simple and there is loads of recipes on the web) I went to a Jamaican Christening recently and all the Grannies had cooked big pots of their favorite dishes and brought them along curries and spiced chicken, rice dishes etc and the food was the best I ever had at an occassion like this, try the website www.epicurious.com for some good ideas Just thought Pasta Salads are easy and cheap and garlic bread

Answer 5

Wow. Sounds like quite a task!
1) Easy finger sandwiches.
You can get creative with presentation (maybe roll some up, for example). Or use a baguette, cut it in half lengthwise, then remove some of the bread to make a small "ditch" in the middle, and spread a filling in it (I like cream cheese, roasted red peppers, and shredded chicken, but it can be anything soft), then reassemble the loaf, put plastic wrap around it and stick it in the fridge for a few hours. When you are ready to plate it, take it out of the fridge, unwrap it, and use a bread knife to slice it into small sandwiches.
2) Fruit tray and veggie tray
3) Meat and cheese tray - you can also roast a couple of chickens and carve them up.
And of course, the rest of the standard stuff - dips, salads, etc - pasta salads are great because they are cheap and there are so many interesting and flavorful recipes out there.
Have fun and all the best!

Answer 6

Here are some thoughts:

1. Chicken tenders (you can buy large bags of frozen, unbreaded tenders for very little money. Defrost and marinate overnight in Italian dressing. On the day of the christening, you can either grill them or broil them and serve on a platter)
2. Salads: fresh spinach salad, chinese chicken salad, green salad with dressings, pasta salad
3. Breads and sweet butter
4. Cheese platter: Spanish Manchenga, gouda, brie, grapes
5. Sweets: cupcakes, brownies, cookies

Because of the warm weather, salads are a nice option and are easy to make. If you go to places like Sam's Club or Costco, you can find larger bags of what you need and save on the money. If worse comes to worse, could her family help chip in and bring potluck dishes? Also, making a simple punch will save money on drinks. You can do so by blending:

1 can frozen lemonade
1 can frozen margarita mix
1 can frozen hawaiian punch
1 can frozen pineapple juice
2 liters of chilled ginger ale
2 bottles of lemon flavored sparkling water

Answer 7

~Veggies~
A nice little salad bar would be nice. Just simple salads with two dressing choices (ranch or italian), nothing too fancy.

~Meat~
Chicken will be the cheapest no? And young people like chicken. :) Hot wings, fried...

~Potato~
Potatoes fill up quickly and you won't run out of food quickly. Mashed potatoes! No french fries, because people can never get enough of those.

~Dessert~
Cheap pies and other desserts! YOu can get them from Costco, etc. They even have tiramisu for pretty cheap. Or you can simply get one of those ready-to-go batch of cookie dough, toss them in the oven, and you have delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Hope this helped! Good luck!

-edit-

I forgot sandwiches!
You can make them easy. Here's a recipe for this roll I made once:

1. Get fresh apples and cucumbers and chop them up
2. Mix them in mayonaise with chopped up ham
3. Roll it into a crust-less piece of bread

DONE! It's deeeeelicious.

If you want to save the crusts, here's an economic idea:

1. Gather the crusts
2. On a pan, but a little bit of oil, and place the crusts, sprinkling sugar.

You get delicious desserts for (almost) free!

Answer 8

You don't need anything too fancy for a Christening. It can all be done really cheap.

The most expensive thing would be a Christening cake if you're buying it but you could make one just as easily (or buy one plain from M&S and ice on the name yourself).

Iceland is great for party food and cheap too.

Sandwiches, sausage rolls (from frozen), quiche, potato salad, coleslaw, crisps and dips, plastic forks, paper plates and napkins (saves on washing up). Green salad, sliced ham, chicken drumsticks, cheesecake, wine, beer and apple and orange juice for the non drinkers and kids.

Answer 9

well if you are in the Uk you could shop at tesco and purchase a lot of the value foods such as pizzas, sausage rolls, chicken pieces, tortillas, dips, quiche, make some cheese and tomato sarnies and some ham ones.

Buy some cheap bucks fizz to toast.
I catered for my sisters party for 90 people for about a pound per head. reckon you could keep this under 60 pounds.

If you need a christening cake just buy a plain iced madeira or fruit cake from Tesco and then decorate with your own ideas. lets face it you can buy all sorts of pre-made cake decorations now,

Answer 10

do all hor'deurves (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and little sandwiches or a lunch meat tray. Go to a restaurant supply store and you can get large quantities of appetizers. Offer a variety of dips and cheeses and nuts. Also, you could get cookies, and mini cheesecakes, and other desserts and a smaller cake if you have one. I've been to a wedding that did this and this is also how we celebrated last X-mas and it ended up being way more than enough food for everyone and more variety.