Humans are social beings, and we all love to spend time with other people. One thing you should never forget when organizing a party is delicious food.
Everyone has already been to a party with boring or not enough food, you get hangry, people start snapping at each other and all the fun is gone in a blink. I am sure we have all left a gathering before, still feeling hungry and going through restaurant options right after walking through the door. Let’s prevent this from happening again and start serving amazing food to our guests.
In this blog post I have some great meal ideas for you which are ideal for a party or simply when feeding any hungry crowd. In addition to serving food to the attendees, I thought about making it the main character of the event and came up with some awesome party-themes which are based around various categories of food.
So, let’s begin, shall we?
Taco night
A taco night is a great way to introduce your family, friends, yourself, or any large crowd to a little Mexican food. One thing about tacos which I love is, everyone can bring their favorite ingredients and assemble them how they like, so you do not have to account for picky eaters. You can also serve it with Salsa and Nachos as sides.
Picknick
Similar to taco nights, picknicks work great for two people or a crowd. Everyone can bring their favorite dishes and ingredients, so you have a nice variety to choose from. You can pick a great spot in nature and bring your own picknick blanket. The great things about having a picknick are its budget-friendliness and spending time in nature, but it might involve a little more planning since you depend on the weather.
Experimenting with special diets
Did you ever take on the challenge to eat only vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, paleo or gluten free? The idea is to broaden your view by eliminating one category of food for one meal.
Try to experiment, discover more about the individual diets, and maybe change your eating habits altogether. Together with other people it can be a lot of fun and meaningful since everyone is contributing their unique knowledge.
Buffet of finger food
Finger food is probably the most common food to be served at a party. What can you do if you run out of ideas or just want to try something new? Invite all your friends, ask them to bring their favorite finger food and get ready to inspire each other with different recipes.
I am from Austria
Even though I live in Austria I do not know half of its national meals. Every region has some sort of special dish. I know some of them and my friends may know different ones.
Why not invite your loved ones and let everyone bring a national dish or family recipe to get to know the exquisite cuisine of your home country? If the people you invite have different origins, the attendees might learn something about other cultures or areas as well.
Anything Asian
I do not know about you, but I love Indian and Chinese food and I would love to try and make some dishes myself. At the Asian night anything Asian can be served, whether we are talking about Curry, Spring Rolls, Fried Rice or Wok. The idea is to enjoy some homemade Asian food with your friends and maybe even learn how to make it yourself.
Buffet of “sweet dreams”
At the Buffet of “sweet dreams” all kinds of sweet dishes and baked goods, like cookies, cakes, cupcakes, brownies, pancakes and so on can be served. You have a favorite cake recipe you make all the time and want to share it with your friends, this is your chance to do it. Maybe your friends find as much value in it as you do.
Tell everyone to bring their go to recipe and get ready to be inspired by many new ideas.
Some more ideas you may love to try out are:
- Barbeque party
- Wrap evening
- Pizza Night
- Burger night
How you organize them is completely up to you. Usually, I ask people to bring a few ingredients to reduce the costs for the host (aka me, currently a full-time student). This also gives me the opportunity to learn new things from my guests, like what else I can fill my tacos with or new recipes in general.
Have you ever tried any of these ideas? Or do you have some more to add to the list? Tell me in the comments or send me an email. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
If you want to read about party ideas in general or just some fun stuff to do with your friends check out this post.
Nothing is stopping you and your friends from enjoying some delicious food together now. So, let’s start planning! I wish you a lot of fun and great memories you will always remember.