Vacation Cooking for a Crowd

[DebinD]

We are headed for a family trip -three families kids ranging from 3-25 to a vacation home in Orlando. We plan to have quick breakfasts, lunch out and dinner at home. Of course we will all be tired and I am looking for menus that are crowd pleasers, and easy to make for 12-20.

We have a crockpot and no grill
We have limitations of no shellfish, fish and only limited dairy (nothing doused in cream but something with
We can only use pork a couple times.

So far I have the following possibilities:

Spaghetti Sauce (Crock Pot) + Spaghetti, Garlic Bread and Salad
BBQ Pork Sandwiches (Crock Pot) + Corn + Salad
Loaded Baked Potatoes (using leftover BBQ pork)
Italian Beef Sandwiches ( Crock-pot or oven)
Beef Broccoli Steak (crockpot) + Rice
Tacos
Roasted Chicken + Sweet Potatoes

Any other ideas??

[Philly Ray]

You could do chili in the crockpot. If you want to stretch it, serve it over rice.

[Cynsa]

with Cheddar cheese.
or over spaghetti for Cincinnati Chili
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beef/C...

[jeanmarieok]

We do frogmore stew, something for everyone in that, and I've done the shrimp separate for the few who can't or don't do seafood. Not sure if that's an option for you, but it's a real crowd pleaser......

[Querencia]

This is the easiest dish I know and you can make it in any quantity if you have a big enough baking dish or use several---Instant Chicken & Dumplings: In a deep baking dish or small roasting pan put frozen pierogies (the brand I use is Mrs T's, filled with mashed potato, and I prefer the Mini size) and boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into a few chunks. Over this pour enough chicken broth (from carton) to cover everything. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350* long enough to cook the chicken---for two packages of pierogies, a package of chicken, and a quart of stock I bake this for an hour and a half so that the chicken is really tender. The pierogies will absorb most of the stock.

[mamachef]

You can always do kabobs in the oven for a bunch of people. The key is stringing like meats and vegetables instead of alternating them on skewers, for even cooking time; then just take them off the skewer and serve on a bed of rice. Another crowd-pleaser, especially for the kids, is the bean casserole (Pork and beans (undrained) mixed with drained kidney beans, wax beans, and butter or lima beans, doctored with bacon, onion, ketchup, brown sugar, mustard and a dash of hot sauce, browned ground beef (drained, seasoned) mixed in. Bake; serve with cornbread. You can make a pot of gravy w/ crumbled chicken sausage and bake biscuits (pre-make a mix, so that you only need add milk or yogurt) for a less-fast breakfast - or a dinner, should you feel up to scrambling some eggs as well. Think about a huge taco salad (crockpot taco meat or chicken) topping a platter of shredded lettuce, beans, cubed tomatoes, avocado, shredded cheese, crushed chips, salsa and sour cream. Sloppy joes or chicken, w/ a potato salad, goes over big. And you can always do a teriyaki marinade and serve with rice and a big cucumber/celery salad.

[LaLa]

Homemade pizza with a salad...if you have leftover bacon or sausage from breakfast you could use it on the pizza
Chicken and rice in the crockpot

[LaureltQ]

Chicken piccata isn't terribly time consuming and not very ingredient intensive. You could serve it with a green salad and over spaghetti.