Every Easter I cook for 50 or so people at a Work Party for a christian charities outward bound camp (http://www.greatwood.org.uk/).  I’m getting a bit bored of doing the same old recipes and I’m looking for alternative ideas.  Everyone is working outside and doing pretty physical work, they need filling meals.  We are on a pretty tight budget and time is also an issue so we need meals that don’t take too much work.  We make our own quiche and pizza from scratch and are all experienced cooks, but we need some time off to take care children and rest (2 of the kitchen staff have battled mild ME for a long time).

We do 3 meals a day, lunch normally being hot as well a full hot dinner in the evening.  I also need pudding ideas.

Thus far I have
Baked potatoes
Beef in Beer
Roast pork
Soup
burritos
Pasta and pesto with salad

Puddings I really struggle with.  Crumbles and pies are great but I like to have a bit of variety.

Any ideas would be great.  I’m trying to do a few more veggie meals, so sneaking some of those in would be great!

Thanks,

Emma

caulk and broccoli bake
a friend made me a dinner with sweet potato black eyed beans a little cumin tinned tomatoes and any other veg added and some bacon. it was a chuck it in and bake thingy wonderful too and nice and filling with the beans and tatoes

I can help with puddings…

Rice pudding
Cheesecake
Steamed puddings (lots of time for other stuff while they steam!)

Thinking about veggie stuff, chilli, veggie curry with lots of squashes in.

that’s a wonderful thing to do

How about sausage and bean casserole? - fry onions, cut sausages into chunks and fry to seal, add cannelli/ kidney/ other beans, add tin toms cook in oven or on hob top until sausages are done. We usually serve with mash or bread.

I have a recipe for squash stew which is good too, I’ll pass it on if I can dig it out…. it’s basically squash, chickpeas and coriander and some other veggies.

Fruit upside down cakes are good dessert and banana custard too.

Large traybake sponges with custard is always nice. 
I can’t remember who it was now, but at the first GP meet I went to, someone made a gorgeous chocolate sponge with a caramelly sauce, can’t remember if that was part of the sponge or poured on afterwards…either way the sponge was deliciously moist. 
Bread pudding.

A large batch of brownies tend to go down well too, and very easy to knock up.  Easy to replace the nuts with berries.
Muffins are also great, and easy to make large batches quickly, as they only take about 20 mins to cook.

Some filling meals I grew up with (we lived on a farm in Yorkshire)

Round yorkshire puds with a huge dollop of mash potato in the middle and then mince, onion and mushrooms in gravy piled over… sometimes it was made with corn beef too.
Mash with white fish baked in the oven in a parsley sauce and real mushy peas. 
Corn Beef Hash.
Meat and potatoe pie with veggies…the pastry was made with suet, so it goes beautifully crunchy.
Meat and potatoe pasties (or any variety… my dad use to make a lovely pasty using corn beef, onion, mushrooms, carrot and swede)
Sausage plait, with vegetables and gravy.  (seasoned sausage meat with onion,, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes etc)  spread out along pastry that is sliced along the slides to create a plait. 
Stew with dumplings… either cooked in the stew on the stove, or done in the oven so the dumplings are crunchy on top. 
Spaghetti cabonara with lots of garlic bread and salad.
Thick soups with fresh breads.

Hope that helps.