What’s a party without delicious food? If you love to entertain and have friends over, the food can really enhance the experience of catching up with old acquaintances, friends, and family. Feeding multiple people on a budget does not have to be an expensive endeavor; there are many ways to feed big crowds while still saving money. While a reasonably priced catering company can help deliver the goods, sometimes the gathering does not call for a professional catering company (10 people or less). Here are a few party food ideas to get the ball rolling.

Fruit Salad

This is a tried-and-true classic. It’s May already and with summer right around the corner, a fruit salad is a refreshing option for the warm summer months. Shopping for produce on sale or at the farmer’s market can help save you some cash while still delivering a hearty fruit salad. Try buying watermelon, honeydew, sliced bananas, mandarin oranges, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. A wide variety of fruits will light up the table and put a smile on your guest’s faces. Grapes are great to use as a base for any fruit salad.

Taco Bar

A taco bar or taco station always goes over great. It allows your guests the opportunity to pick and choose the flavors that they desire, in the amounts that they find suitable. Serve the tacos in a buffet-style and watch the culinary creativity unfold around you. A few key ingredients for a successful taco bar include:

• Proteins: finely sliced chicken breast, steak, and seasoned ground beef.
• Hard and soft taco shells. If someone has a gluten intolerance, there are many gluten free options for both hard and soft shells.
• Salsa. Homemade or store-bought are equally as effective.
• Sour cream and shredded cheese. Try buying a few bags of different flavors of cheese.
• Shredded lettuce. This is typically used as the base of any taco.
• Guacamole. Who doesn’t love this avocado-based spread?

There are a few other toppings that you can use depending on your taste preferences, such as diced jalapeños, banana peppers, onions, and chopped herbs such as cilantro.

Sloppy Joes

This is a great option for party food on a budget. Depending on the amount of people attending the party, use this recipe to plan accordingly.

Ground beef. For each LB of ground beef, mix the following ingredients in a large bowl:

• ½ cup of onions (finely diced or chopped)
• A pinch of salt and pepper
• ¼ cup of water
• 1/3 cup of ketchup
• 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

Homemade Pizzas

This in itself is a great excuse to get-together with friends. For the dough, many stores will sell fresh pizza dough. If you can’t find any at your local grocery store, there are many frozen and fresh pre-packaged options as well. For the pizza sauce, you can buy premade sauces or make your own! To make your own pizza sauce, we recommend these ingredients per 1 can (15 oz.) of tomato sauce:

• ½ tsp. crushed red pepper
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. basil (dried)
• 1 tbsp. crushed garlic
• ¼ cup of shredded cheese (parmesan works great)
• 1 tsp. oregano

Now for the toppings; this is where you and your guests can get very creative. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

• Grape tomatoes
• Red bell peppers
• Sweet onions
• Baby spinach
• Caramelized onions
• Steak, chicken, and other proteins
• Mozzarella, feta, or blue cheese
• Olive oil
• Pineapple
• Garlic
• Mushrooms
• Kalamata olives
• Specialty pizza sauces, such as barbeque, white sauce, or pesto

Remember that your eyes are often bigger than your stomach, so keep that in mind when placing all the ingredients on top of the pizza! Generally, you’ll want to bake the pizzas for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees, or until desired crispiness.

Party Catering Boca Raton

If you love to plan parties but don’t have the time to prepare the food for the event, Catering CC offers many food items and menus for every occasion. Just take a look at our hors d’oeuvres page! We offer new takes on classic party food items such as guacamole deviled eggs, olive tapenade on crostini, mini lobster rolls, watermelon & prosciutto, turkey BLT lettuce wraps with avocado cream, bacon wrapped shrimp, mini beef empanadas, and so much more!

We serve the entire South Florida area, including (but not limited to) Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Wellington, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Give us a call at (561) 704-5217 for your next event today!