Quick and Inexpensive Party Meal

Make it your way Pasta

We served our “Make it Your Way” pasta family style but this would rock as a buffet bar as well. Just make sure you have a plan for what will go where and when (an article all it’s own). My buffet console was already set up as a Candy/water bar and it was easier to serve on the table since most of our seating was spread over the living room.

For our “Make it your way Pasta” we decided to have two types of pasta. Two reasons, it was more visually appealing and alfredo sauce doesn’t stick to spaghetti as much as rotini. We had three choices of sauce, Garlic and Butter, Marinara, and Alfredo. The alfredo and marinara were both store bought. We realized we could save about a $1 on each by making it ourselves but our time was worth more than the $1 at that point. The third choice was garlic butter and because it is literally melted butter with garlic we chose to make that. That sauce was also brushed onto the bread sticks.

*As a side note, we made sure the marinara was just tomatoes and seasonings. Our group has some lactose-challenged people and veggie-saurus’s so we take that into account.

Ahhh...fresh homemade bread sticks. Is there anything better? Its better than the smell of comic books, better than beating your own high score, better than...anything! They are easy to make, quick and taste better than anything out of a box or delivered. So, we made them ourselves and saved about $2.

Cupcakes

Now we come to the choose your own adventure portion. Do you save about $5-$25 or do you save 2+ hours? When it comes to cupcakes it’s completely up to you. I truly believe there are some great cupcakes from the grocery store but I know there are AMAZING recipes out there. I have gone in both directions. At our Brick (Lego) Party we went with store bought because I needed bold frosting colors and honestly it's a pain to get true blue, green and red colored frosting.

Total Cost (including water bottles) = $45

And it ended up being a ton of food! Everyone helped set up, bringing bowls out to the table and also helped with cleanup. I couldn’t believe how differently the whole party dynamic ended up being. It turned a meal that felt disposable into a feast or gathering. Our guests had a great time, the kids had so much fun making their own choices (some interesting choices btw) and seriously, it was just an easy, hearty meal. We even had leftovers!

So before you dial in dinner, think about a simple meal that could save you a little moo-lah and elevate your whole party!