Dinner Party with a Broke Budget.... Suggested Pork Roast - What Goes with That?

A good side would be steamed green beans. Toss the steamed beans in a hot skillet with garlic and lemon juice and serve. Steamed carrots are great too.

Potluck ... or

Spaghetti (@ 6 bucks, get the sauce with meat already in it)
Fetticinie (could have chicken on the side)
Stouffer's Large Lassagne (@ $20)
2 loaves of Italian bread (@ 5.00)

i'm with the spaghetti faction. you can stretch it a loooooong way, add some bread and salad and you're good to go.
khairete
S.

Go to a party store and get one of those big silver foil pans. here is my fool proof dinner party menu. (less than about 20 bucks and will feed an army)

3 lbs pasta (l like rigatoni or mosticolli)
2 lbs ground beef browned and drained
4 or 5 cans of hunts pasta sauce we like the marinara one
1 lb mozzarella cheese shredded
make pasta according to directions. drain and put into pan. sprinkle with ground beef. cover with pasta sauce
bake for about 30 minutes or until sauce is bubble and cooked through. add shredded cheese put back in oven till cheese is melted and bubbly.

add a lettuce salad and bread and wala your good to go. this is a cheap meal that tastes amazing. if you need dessert a cake from a mix will be yummy.

Spaghetti, italian bread/rolls and a salad.

Feeds an army and it's cheap!

POT LUCK!

Seriously...ask them each to bring their 'specialty' to share...

Best Luck!
michele/cat

When I have a large crowd and want to feed everyone inexpensively I go Mexican style. I make a large pot of pinto beans, which are so cheap and healthy and tasty. They are super easy to cook (sort, soak, cook for several hours), look it up or message me for more details if you don't know how. My beans are so tasty! In the pot with the beans and water I add a large handful of whole peeled garlic cloves, a coarsely chopped onion, a ton of cumin, little cayenne, and any other favorite southwest seasoning or fresh deseeded chili/jalapeno you may have (just don't make it too spicy). I salt them at the end so the beans don't get brittle.

With the beans you can puree them to make refried beans for tostadas, but I usually serve the big pot of beans kind of like taco salad (growing up we just called it "beans and chips") with everything set out buffet style and people can add what they want to their own bowls. But here's what I have available in addition to the beans: large bag of tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa (I like to make homemade salsa or pico de gallo), diced avacado or homemade guacamole, diced olives if you want (omit things like the avacado and olives to save money or try to find them on sale). You can also have tortillas in case anyone wants to use the ingredients to make a burrito. It's not fancy, but it feeds a huge crowd very easily and inexpensively. Any extra beans I freeze in quart size freezer ziplocks, and they're perfect to accompany enchiladas or fajitas or something later down the road. This all would also go well if you want to incorporate the pork roast. Put the pork in a crockpot with tomatoes and diced green chilis and onions, garlic, cumin, and the shredded pork chili can go with the beans and chips and tortillas, or be served with beans on the side.

Spaghetti or lasagna are always cheap! And a little goes a long way.

Add a salad and bread and you're good to go!

Good luck!

How about a taco bar or chili bar? The ground beef will run you about $20 (Costco!). If any of the couples want to bring a side, they can bring corn bread, chips and salsa, or guacamole. Good luck!

Spaghetti, green salad and bread. Done! :)

I would suggest a loaded Baked Potato Soup with a loaf of good crusty bread and Baked Potato Skins. If you google "Hard Rock Cafe Baked Potato Soup" you will find an excellent recipe. It mostly consists of baked potatoes, some chicken stock, bacon, onions ... nothing too exotic or expensive.

At some stores you can find "bacon ends" or bacon that is not very pretty, in nice slices. I have seen them at Walmart, but you can ask the meat manager in your grocery store. These are much cheaper than regular bacon, and perfectly good. They're perfect for when you're just going to cook the bacon and crumble it up for use in a dish, not for laying a beautiful slice of bacon alongside an egg, for example. Or tell the meat manager that you want a piece of pork belly or something similar that is very inexpensive. You will only be cooking it and crumbling it and adding it to dishes. He may have a good suggestion.

Now, the potatoes can do double duty! After you bake them for the soup, carefully slice them in half. Scoop out the potato, carefully leaving the skins intact. Slice the skins into wedges (if they're big potatoes you can get 4 or 6 wedges per potato). Return the skins to the oven to crisp up, until the insides are golden brown. Then you can make loaded potato skins which the teens will love! Just sprinkle the potato skins with the bacon you were already using for the soup, and some shredded cheddar cheese, some green onions (which are super cheap), and a little sour cream.

So you have 2 dishes, loaded baked potato soup, and stuffed potato skins. That and a skinny long bread baguette and maybe a simple salad of inexpensive lettuce, shredded with just a little carrot for color, and it would be a wonderful meal!

Baked Potatoes. Have shredded bbq in a crockpot for the protein to be put on the potatoes. Have a big salad and some fruit and cornbread.

We had a Christmas work party with this as the menu, and everyone loved it.

Ask the guests to bring a side/dessert/drink.

we have a dinner at least every holiday time and many cook outs in the summer. the solution we have found is pot lucks. we have a friend whos a butcher so in the summer he brings burgers and everyone else brings sides. in the winter we do a ham or turkey and have everyone bring a side. if you arnt up for that just do sketti or chili :)

My "go to" feed a crowd meal is baked ziti. This recipe is great. If kids will be there, I usually skip the onions. Other than that, I follow it exactly. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-i/detail.aspx

It's cheap. It makes a ton (when I make it for just us, I usually freeze half of it and still have enough for our dinner and lunch the next day). Everybody eats spaghetti and lasagna relatively regularly. This is something just a little bit different. I also like that I can completely put it together the day before or morning of my event and then just heat it up when it's time for the dinner. It makes things much easier. Add a caesar salad and bread and you are set.

hamburgers......and or hotdogs.

I don't know your budget, but I recently had a dinner party with a Potato soup, Pot Roast (crock pot), white rice and a salad that was not too expensive and it feeds a lot of people.
You can also make a Pork roast if its cheaper.
Good luck to you!

Pork roast on the barbeque and roasted vegetables is one of our go-to healthy and fairly cheap dinners. If you are a Costco member, they have giant pork loins that are awesome. We do anything and everything roasted - potatoes (sweet and red), carrots, peppers, broccoli, onion, cauliflower, brussel sprouts. Spread out on baking dishes, 400 degrees until done. Do a ton - it cooks down and is great as leftovers.

We cook pork in the crockpot all day, then shred it with green chile sauce on it. Throw it in a tortilla with beans & rice. Yum!

My dad is diabetic, and meat, beans and veggies are his mainstays. He can eat starches (potatoes, pasta, fruit) as long as he has fiber and/or protein to go with it. He always says cook what you want, and I will just eat more of what I can have, and less of the starch. It is so kind of you to consider your guests' diet restrictions!

I like the taco bar, spaghetti suggestions. But if you go with the pork roast - what about pork tacos ? Put it is the crock pot all day until it is falling apart tender. Shred it, add BBQ sauce, and keep warm. Serve with corn tortillas (warmed up & softened), coleslaw (we use the mix with the bottled dressing), Mexicorn (heated), and cheddar cheese. My hubby eats with salsa on top. You can serve with a salad and a nice desert. They are really good !

I second the spaghetti advice you've already been given. Served w/salad
and bread rolls.

or

Tacos, beans & rice. (Self serve bar....just make a lot of meat. The
rice & beans help fill up. Also, serve w/tortilla chips & salsa.)

or

Meatloaf (make 2), mashed potatoes, salad & rolls.

Need a dollar amount. You can do a lot with $100, even a lot with $50 but if you only have $20 the answers could be very different.

I second Lasagna. People think you slave for hours over it, and it feeds an army & tastes awesome. Salad, maybe spinach with strawberries & nuts?, and garlic bread.

Roast a couple of whole chickens (or a turkey), with homemade mac & cheese or cheesy potatoes & a salad.

Check out food Network's $10 dinners. She has lots of European style dinner themes where you can feed 4 adults for $10. She uses rice alot too. There is a pork shoulder carnitas burrito bowl that I make once every few weeks that my kids/husband love. Very inexpensive and fun because everyone makes their own bowl. Very similar to Chipotle...

Have fun

There is an AWESOME seasoning packet for pork roast in the crock pot (this http://tinyurl.com/7jbmudu is what it looks like but I buy it at the grocery store) I use a pork shoulder roast, throw in some potatoes and a head or two of cabbage (you could add carrots too, but I HATE cooked carrots) and Viola! Dinner is done! My dad is a diabetic and potatoes are ok every now and then.

With guests I'd add a nice green salad and/or relish tray

How about baked apples for dessert? Halfway healthy-- and if you have brown sugar splenda for the diabetics, even better. In fact you can make making the apples part of the pre-dinner entertainment, everyone can make their own the way they want (I like mine with red hots and NO raisins!) and they can bake while you eat the main meal

PS the leftover roast is AWESOME shredded with BBQ sauce!

if you eat meat, Pot Roast goes far.. often, they have it on sale.. Additionally, I like the PioneerWoman Website.. she has inexpensive dishes on there (she has to feed a family of six) although she is not on a budget, she is nonetheless a smart shopper/chef.... She has a pot roast recipe on there you can check out. Additionally, potatoes go far and most people enjoy them.. Also, Pizza can be fun.. nowadays, you can buy your own dough for cheap and add whatever toppings you enjoy (could be fun for the kids to make their own)
Lasagne is always a big hit in our house.. with a salad... we make the sauce from scratch and have found that those Barilla THIN lasagne noodles work really well..

also, do a chili feed.. lots of great recipes out there.. a big pot of chilis, drinks (if you drink) ... make your own homemade sundaes.. buy basic toppings. again, it needn't be fancy..

you needn't make it expensive just GOOD... people like good food , no matter if it's fancy or not..

good luck