Breakfast For A Crowd

Here’s how I progress with knowledge. First, I do something terribly wrong. Then, after brooding about it, I do it again, sometimes with a mild improvement in the results. I continue this pattern of brooding and mild improvement until I have a passable result. I usually stop progressing there. If you want to read about how I hosted a crowd the first time, read my post on Horrible Hosting. If you want to read about how you can host a crowd without all the logistics mistakes and emotional hiccups, continue on!

Let’s say you’ve got 20 people coming to your home for a breakfast. I’m talking about a sustainable breakfast. The type you can create with minimal extra effort and repeat as needed, as often as needed. It might seem easy to calculate that 20 people = 20 eggs + 20 pieces of toast and 20 cups of tea or coffee. DONE! This equation is incorrect, especially if your 20 people are in their teens or twenties. If you make your own breakfast, you may indeed be satisfied with 1 scrambled egg. Odds are high though, that if you are passed a bowl of scrambled eggs to dish out of, you will ladle out 2.5-5 eggs for yourself (as long as you like eggs). I have seen a woman, who told me clearly that she only eats 1 egg each morning, sit down happily to eat an entire plate of 6 scrambled eggs that had been set out for people to share from. (It was a simple misunderstanding; the plate was set directly in front of her and she didn’t know our system.) Likewise, a single egg sandwich wedged into a piece of toast may be just perfect for a breakfast on the go, but the mindset of a person grabbing something while in motion (or headed quickly toward motion) and the mindset of a person coming into a home to be served food are very different.

Make your meal with three categories and choose simple ways to fill them. Your breakfast categories are carbs, protein and sweets. Yep, sweets. You want to have plenty of heavy carbs on hand to make people feel full. Give them protein to help them stay full and have something juicy and sweet on hand to satisfy that constant craving.

The Sustainable Hosting Breakfast: This is the sort of breakfast you could accomplish with no sweat, several times a month. If you want to make a habit of serving large groups, Go For IT!

Bagels– This dense carb is self-serve and comes in so many varieties, from sweet to savory, that people generally have an easy time filling themselves up with their favorite flavor. There are even Gluten Free Bagels.

Hard boiled eggs (still in shells)- This is a major time saver for you, both in cooking and clean-up. The individual serving is so clear with a boiled egg that people don’t lose track of what they’re consuming. If they need more than one egg, they get it. If they know they only want one, they know when they’ve accomplished that. Make one egg for each person you expect. Not everyone will take one and some people will take more.

Whole fruit– Do not waste your precious time chopping fruit. If you want to leave out knives and some cutting boards for people to chop their own apples, go for it. Choose three different fruits and set them out in bowls or baskets. Apples, bananas and oranges make most people very happy.

Provide hot water and a basket of tea to choose from, a pot of hot coffee and a gallon of milk. Set out two types of cream cheese, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jam. Plates are paper, knives are plastic and there are no forks. Use small, insulated, disposable cups that will work for both hot and cold drinks. If you use big cups, people will pour themselves lots and not drink it all. Put out a roll of paper towels. People will know what to do.

Pat yourself on the back. You can do this with no sweat. This is sustainable hosting, but I realize that it doesn’t meet the standards of every hostess. You may feel that any guest who enters your home needs a hot dish. I sympathize with that. Because I care about people so much, I let them use my toaster to heat up their bagels. But you can do better if you like.

The Homemade Touch: You may not mind a little extra time needed for prep and clean-up. If that’s the case, consider what you want most for your guests to take away with them. Make sure that you still have time to talk to the people who come into your home.

Breakfast Casserole– Nothing says homemade like a breakfast casserole. Make two! Use a four-ingredient recipe from Pinterest. Choose one that uses eggs, sausage, cheese and some sort of carb. The one above used spinach instead of sausage, but still had four main ingredients. If you are hosting college age people, cut the casserole BEFORE you serve it. Just make suggestive lines in it. People are funny, they can forget that 20 others might want some. Save yourself a headache and prep the entire casserole the night before. You can even cook it and reheat it in the morning… if you like. This will save you the blood pressure issues caused by underdone food and impatient guests.

Yogurt Cups– Choose your favorite three or four flavors and nestle them into a tray of ice.

Small Whole Fruit– Just wash your fruit. Continue to avoid chopping. You’re saving time, but looking quite a bit fancier than your fruit bowl of apples and bananas.

Stick with coffee, tea and milk, but add some sort of juice option. Still use paper plates and plastic forks and knives, but now you’ve got cute napkins! Pat yourself on the back, you’ve made your house smell wonderful and you probably have some nice leftovers for lunch. You have fairly simple clean-up, so you can move on quickly when the company leaves. The only risk with a meal like this, is that if you have a dairy intolerant person show up, they will eat only fruit. You’ll want to make sure your guests can eat what you’re making, because you’re such a good host. A good way to do this is simply to send out an email blast and ask anyone with special diet needs to send you a quick note to let you know what they are. They won’t mention it otherwise; they’ll just quietly go hungry.

You may not feel comfortable giving your honored guests paper and plastic to eat with. Your standards are high and perfection is something worth striving for. In that case, you might want to consider this…

You Dream Of Running A Bed And Breakfast– This is the sort of lovely occasion meal that any person with some time on their hands would love to start their day with. You however, would need to start a couple  days in advance to have this properly prepared for breakfast. Unless of course, you actually do run a bed and breakfast. In which case, we’d all love to learn your tricks and tips. Please write a post for us!

Quiche– Make at least two different kinds. For 20 people, you might go through three.

Bacon– Bake it in the oven and you can get loads done at the same time. I actually buy mine at the breakfast bar of WholeFoods and reheat it. That may not meet your standards, but if it does, go for it!

Breakfast Potatoes– Buy two frozen bags and save yourself some time.

 

Get out the china plates and tea cups and silverware and make it beautiful. Why? Because YOU are beautiful and a wonderful host like you should show off! Have a great time prepping and cleaning up. In three to five years, when you consider doing this again, please invite me! I’ll be happy to bring along a box of bacon.