Sad news ISO family friendly snacks/meals ideas/recipes to feed a crowd…

Unfortunately the twins mom took an unexpected turn for the worse yesterday morning and passed last night.
While some pp were signed up to bring the family of four meals mid week during mom’s chemo, with family in from out of town now here, all staying in a small 3/2 house, they’ve now got 5 adults (one gluten free) and 5, mostly mid teenagers, in the house to feed. (They haven’t shared her passing w all yet as they aren’t ready to deal with pp.)

I’m thinking in such a high stress time, good grazing foods might be best. So thinking for today, a tray of deviled eggs (protein), a bowl of cuties (mandarin oranges), and a batch of cookies (some junk food req for stress) today, but what else? They’ve been eating fast food and I’d like to get them away from that.

Oh, how very, very sad.

• My Publix has charcuterie platters already made up (lots of tourists in condos up here).
• Rao's/California Kitchen/Newman's Own frozen pizza...plus a gluten free version.
• Rao's family size meatball package (6 LARGE in sauce). They are already cooked, so I cut each into four pieces, add an extra jar of Rao's spaghetti sauce (I like tomato/basil) for a pound of pasta or rigatoni. Add a container of good grated Parmesan and a loaf of frozen garlic bread.
• Veggie platter
• Coffee/tea/decaf/half&half/sugar/stevia
• Rotisserie chicken, good loaf of bread sliced, cheese, sandwich lettuce

mariadnoca said:

Unfortunately the twins mom took an unexpected turn for the worse yesterday morning and passed last night.
While some pp were signed up to bring the family of four meals mid week during mom’s chemo, with family in from out of town now here, all staying in a small 3/2 house, they’ve now got 5 adults (one gluten free) and 5, mostly mid teenagers, in the house to feed. (They haven’t shared her passing w all yet as they aren’t ready to deal with pp.)

I’m thinking in such a high stress time, good grazing foods might be best. So thinking for today, a tray of deviled eggs (protein), a bowl of cuties (mandarin oranges), and a batch of cookies (some junk food req for stress) today, but what else? They’ve been eating fast food and I’d like to get them away from that.

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Oh this is awful news, I am so sorry for your loss.

Breakfast strada, (sausage, spinach, cheese--can be eaten any time of day

These looked interesting and gluten free: Polenta and sausage; chicken and pesto rice


This chicken dish is delicious, serves 6. OK to skip prosciutto.

Tetrazzini recipe under T&T.
Hugs and hang in there.
M

I ended up bringing over every type of disposable picnic paper goods/plastic silverware, boxes of Kleenex, sleepytime and calming tea, a huge bowl of fruit/nuts and made that 1970s potluck staple: overnight ramen chicken salad, which I stuffed an entire shredded rotisserie chicken into.

mariadnoca said:

I ended up bringing over every type of disposable picnic paper goods/plastic silverware, boxes of Kleenex, sleepytime and calming tea, a huge bowl of fruit/nuts and made that 1970s potluck staple: overnight ramen chicken salad, which I stuffed an entire shredded rotisserie chicken into.

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I had to google overnight ramen chicken salad, never heard of it! It sounds delicious and a good gluten free choice.

monj said:

I had to google overnight ramen chicken salad, never heard of it! It sounds delicious and a good gluten free choice.

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It’s really good and since it’s cabbage, lasts for days in the fridge. Thought it would be easy as protein snack.

ah, I remember that salad. Doesn't it have slivered almonds in it as well? You're kindness is a blessing during this awful time.

marilynfl said:

ah, I remember that salad. Doesn't it have slivered almonds in it as well? You're kindness is a blessing during this awful time.

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Yes. Toasted sesame seeds and slivered almonds.

I like to add mandarin orange slices to that ramen salad - I don't know why but it just hit me once and I almost always do it now.

Except when my daughter specifically asked me to make a big batch of my chicken and dumplings for her coworker's repast, I almost always make grazing/finger foods. I had always been brought up fixing casseroles, ham, fried chicken and such but about 30 years when the wife of a sort of friend of my husbands from his alumni game watch group died, I had company so I picked up a shrimp tray and fixed other quick finger foods. For months after that, they raved and talked about how those were perfect because nobody really felt like sitting down and eating a meal or even having to fix plates. They loved walking by and picking up a little something especially as people dropped by to visit.

When my former coworker passed away unexpectedly year before last, I made a bunch of finger foods for what was supposed to be 13 family members including one with celiac, one that avoided gluten, and one that was vegan. I really didn't make all that much but then everyone found their way back to the kitchen at the funeral home and I started to panic. I went back there and it felt like Jesus feeding the multitudes. I would guess that close to 50 people ate what was prepared for 13 and this was one of the only times I didn't cook to feed the multitudes.

I did butterbean humus stuffed in little cherry tomatoes topped with grilled corn kernels, grilled ribbon zucchini rolls, smokey confit royal corona beans (gigantes, extra large limas, etc.), poppyseed ham rolls (aka funeral rolls), black pepper almonds (old Gail's tried and true), smoked salmon spread, pimento cheese, pork tenderloin with a citrus honey mustard, little parker house rolls, assorted chips and crackers including gluten free multigrain crackers, chess squares, and butterscotch brownies. But shrimp trays really seem to go over well and I have done those multiple times. Also, little rolls - Sister Schubert's, homemade or whatever really go over good with things like chicken salad, pimento cheese, pork tenderloin, even cut chicken tenders into 1/2s or 1/3s depending on the size of the tenders and rolls.

I discourage anyone who can cook or give it a little thought, not to resort to vegetable trays. When my father died about the only thing people brought over were vegetables trays. I tried making some soup for mom but she didn't eat it, froze some, you name and and there were still bags of vegetables in the freezer 5 years later when mom died. And every time we go to a visitation or funeral and there is food, it's like everyone takes shortcuts and picks up vegetable trays that barely get nibbled on. Fruit trays do get eaten particularly if you include a dip with them. OH, one of my husband's best friends died last year and they got chicken tenders from Publix which are really good and a couple of the bottles of Chic-fil-a sauces.

Yeah, that ramen salad was a hit, they brought the container back the next day even though they had trays of casseroles in the fridge. I think you’re right, bc it’s snackable and not a heavy meal. It’s good for lunch too. Need to think of more things like that to bring. Ham rolls are a good idea. More lunch type foods.