Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

I am not a cook...dont like cooking...stresses me out. So we are having guests stay with us for 5 days and I am stressing out about what to feed them. Two adults plus a teenager.

BBQ is an option....

Breakfast is fine but lunch and dinner are going to be constantly on my mind over the 5 days.....I wish I was naturally inclined to feed people but I would happily eat toast and jam for dinner!!

SO if you had to entertain for 5 days straight what sort of things would you be planning on feeding your guests?

Ps hoping to eat out for one of the dinners to take the pressure off

Thank you.

Re: Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

Have cereals, muffins, bagels on hand for breakfast. Quiches are easy to make too and last a few days.

For lunch I'd just keep some cold cuts in the fridge along with some salads.

For dinners I would BBQ burgers one day, make pulled chicken in the Crock Pot another day (SO easy), make a pot of sauce and have pasta one night, order a pizza one of the days and maybe do another BBQ but instead of burgers do sausage. You can also throw together a light summer salad and have some crusty bread to go along with the meal. A nice ball of fresh mozzarella is always awesome with grilled sausage. Slice some of that up too.

Re: Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

lunch cold cut sandwiches/make your own sandwiches type platters and side salads or leftovers from the dinners before if there are any. dinners... order pizza one night and bbq other nights (chicken breasts, sausages, hamburgers). you can also do a casserole type thing another night so it's not all BBQ.

Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

If you don't like cooking, I would say keep things very simple and definitely add in some take out type stuff. Entertaining stresses me out so no way I would want to do a ton of cooking while they're there and I love to cook!

For lunches, definitely lots of cold cuts and salads. Just get a good variety so people don't get bored of them. You could do BLTs one day too.

For dinners, definitely a pizza night and another take out night like chinese, thai, italian heros. For cooking, you can grill chicken, burgers, hot dogs one night, sausage burgers one night, steak another night. Sides like corn on the cob, baked potatoes, green salad, italian bread, tomato and fresh mozz drizzled with balsamic are all pretty easy. Pulled pork or chicken in the crockpot is another easy one for a crowd. Maybe a taco night. I would also consider cheating the first night and picking up something prepared from a good butcher or supermarket to just heat up.

Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

Those suggestions are great. everyone's ideas are so good. Hopefully in exchange for your hospitality, they'll offer to take you out for dinner more than one night

Re: Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

I agree that you can make breakfast easy and don't need to make a full-out hot breakfast every day. Bagels with fixings, some cereal options, muffins/pastries, fruit, yogurt, granola, etc. on hand should be good most days. Do you know if they are big breakfast eaters? If there is a day that you know you will be lingering over breakfast more than others (like a weekend), maybe plan to do a more elaborate breakfast that day... but there are a lot of make ahead breakfast casseroles (egg bakes, French toast bakes, etc.) that you can assemble in advance so you are not slaving over a stove in the morning. You can also do things like microwave frozen sausage. Whenever I have to do a big batch of bacon, I just bake it in the oven on a broiler plan (so the grease drips down into the tray) rather than dealing with standing at a hot stove, making a mess!

For lunch, are you sure you will be at home most days? I would think lunch you can plan on being out a lot. But I agree that having cold cuts and rolls on hand, maybe some prepared salads (pasta salad, potato salad, etc.), a quiche would be great, and you can buy all of that if you don't want to make it.

With dinners, if you feel most comfortable grilling, I'd try to do different theme nights that involve grilling and assembling, not so much "cooking." So one night could be hot dogs and hamburgers with chips or fries, baked beans, etc. Another night could be taco night (grill up some chicken, and/or steak, and/or shrimp, or make some ground beef) and have everyone top their own tacos with various toppings (chips and salsa, rice and beans on side, etc.). One night you can do a nice steak dinner -- steaks on grill, baked potatoes, nice salad on the side. We've done pizzas on the grill with store bought pizza dough -- you could do mini pizzas and have everyone add their own toppings.

And everyone does like pasta - so something you can make ahead like lasagna or baked ziti could be a good option. And if you don't need to use it, then you can freeze it.

But I think you may wind up going out more than you think.

Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

Take out

Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

Tacos are easy. I would also do take out at least one or two nights. Definitely agree for lunch cold cuts are the way to go. ANd you can also make a big green salad or a pasta salad.

Re: Entertaining for 5 days!!! What to feed them!

Everyone has had good suggestions so far. Here is probably what I would do. Easy breakfasts like cereal, frozen waffles, eggs and bacon, toast, bagels. For lunches I would definitely stock up on cold cuts, bread and pickles and you will probably be out for lunch most other days. For dinner I would probably do steak and grilled veggies and baked/mashed potatoes. Second night do some sort of pasta dish and salad. Third night order pizza. Fourth night grill hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken and then have some easy/store bought sides like tomato and mozzarella, potato salad, cold pasta salad. The fifth night I would take them out for their last night. You could easily substitute a rotisserie chicken and some sides one night and then take them out for pizza the last night.