My time with my family is coming to an end. But my older daughter’s arrived from Dallas and I could not be more excited!! We’ll all be together at my parents’ house for a blip before my husband and I take our kids on a quick family getaway to Shelter Island. I am already praying for no rain! You may have followed my Instagram to see all the meals my sisters and I prepared for the crew this week. Feel free to message me on social media or leave a comment here if you need any tips about cooking for crowd!
Here’s your dinner planner for the week:
Monday: Veggie fajitas (mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, onions) or make these with steak or chicken, guacamole
Tuesday: Lemon thyme chicken (add to the pan at the end any leftover fajita veggies from the day before), parmesan peppers
Wednesday: Tasty turkey burgers, spinach and apricot salad (I’m going to sub peaches)
Thursday: Chicken shawarma from my cookbook with accompaniments (lavash, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, tahini, yogurt)
Friday: Fish tacos, Mexican corn off the cob
Saturday lunch: Nicoise salad
Sunday: Goodhousekeeping easy shrimp paella, green salad with Everyday Salad Dressing #2
Do Ahead:
Sunday
Make fajita marinade
Prep veggies for fajitas
Squeeze lemon juice for lemon thyme chicken
Prep bell peppers (seed and quarter)
Make spice rub or marinade for fish tacos
Thursday
Make white sauce for fish tacos
Husk corn
Make dressing for nicoise salad
Hard boil eggs for nicoise salad
Blanch green beans for nicoise salad
Make dressing for salad
Here’s a link to all my previous dinner planners.
4 Comments
I would love any tips for feeding a crowd. Welcome dinner for arrival of our Italian exchange coming up with about 20 guests. I have your book and we are loving the recipes!
Some dishes are better than others. Stay away from having to bread anything or things that need to be cooked at the last minute. I love roasting several chickens and serving with chimichurri or the green sauce from the South American roast chicken. Or a couple of sides of salmon with a sauce on the side. Salads are great because everything can be prepped ahead and then assembled before serving. I tend to use the oven and grill more than stovetop. You can grill a big quantity of vegetables ahead and serve them at room temp with or without a basil vinaigrette or the cherry tomato vinaigrette. Gazpacho is also nice because you can easily make it in batches and refrigerate until serving. Lastly, one of the most successful meals I did this week was an adaptation of Ina Garten’s stovetop clam bake. SO easy and such a success!
Thank you! I’ll definitely do the gazpacho to start, roast chickens on the rotisserie, grill some veggies ,and make one of your fantastic sauces!
Perfect!! Enjoy!