Top Ten Make-Ahead-Meals

I love to cook and I really love to have biggish get togethers with friends and family.  Since we moved I’ve been a little slow to get back into the swing of it–one of my goals for 2013 is to have more dinners with friends.

Here is my top ten list of dinner ideas to feed a crew:

1. Baked Potato Bar.  I love this because everything can be prepped ahead of time and can meet a wide range of dietary restrictions.
2. Taco Bar.  Again almost everything can be prepped in advance.
3. French Toast Bake.  I use the recipe from Great Harvest Bread Company.
4. Egg Bake.  I make the Egg Bake in the crock pot and it turns out very well.
5. Macaroni and Cheese in the crock pot paired with Applesauce (in a crock pot).
6. Chili–I make two different kinds and then have a million different kinds of crackers and shredded cheese, and a couple of types of bread for the people who like to dunk (that would be me).
7. BBQ and Watermelon–simple but I think several watermelons and all different kinds of BBQ on a table is beautiful.  I love the colors and the smells–the coolness of the watermelon and the spicy of the sauce.
8. Lasagna–a ton of work to make a really good one but when I make lasagna I really make 5 and freeze them.  I serve this with a few different kinds of green salad–so the base is the same but the toppings are all different–so you look like you’ve been working for days but really–NOT.  I also make homemade bread–it could be “real” or frozen bread dough–it is all good.
9. BLT.  This is another do ahead but who doesn’t love a great BLT?  I’m a fan of coleslaw with my BLT but any cold salads would work.
10. Quesadillas–I like the build your own option–different cheeses, mushrooms, every different pepper you can find, different beans, chicken, beef, shrimp . . . this is my favorite.

We play with our food quite a bit in our house.  I want my kids to have fun figuring out new things and playing with new recipes and ideas.  They do have to eat what they create–I do have some limits.