if you want to stick with the breakfast for dinner idea, what about french toast sticks, sausage, hash browns, and fruit? We did that for school lunch the other day and served 110 kids for $82 with the syrup and 1/2 pint of milk.
(I love Aldi's and GFS)
Stuffed potatoes are another idea. You can stuff them with chicken stew, chili and cheese, whatever sounds good and the stuffing stays nice in a crock pot.
We did this as well, for a 8th grade dinner we had chili, chicken stew, and the like for options
Venzmama, wow, 300 people with $500. I feel like I should bow in your presence. $1.67 a person is great. Sounds like you picked fairly simple things to make as well.
Momto4j's, there is one real bonus of pizza - if you start running low, you can more pretty quick.
Adding a salad to the pizza like JHB said does lighten it up. If you have some bread on the side, those who want to could make that the meal and not bother with pizza.
We had hot dogs at our bingo night, but we also had "walking tacos" which appealed to the adults (and some kids). You start with a small individual bag of doritoes, and crush it slightly. Then the worker opens the bag, adds a spoon of taco meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and salsa. The portions are small, but the variety makes it tasty. You eat the "taco" right out of the bag with a spoon. It's some work to make up the meat and chop the veggies,but it's been a big hit the two years we've done it.
For the hotdogs, they are cooked up a little ahead of time, put in buns and then lined up on a big cafeteria tray. The whole tray is slipped into a large plastic bag which steams the buns and keeps the dogs hot.
I agree with the others---it's a fun night, not nutrition education night. If you announce your menu ahead of time, families who really don't want "kid food" can eat at home first.
What would you want at your kids school, what would your kids eat? Back to the original question.... make it easy. Pizza, salad, baby carrots and juice or bottled water. From numerous refreshment stands that I've manned I have found kids often choose bottled water over soda. Most pizza places will give you a volume discount and someone probably belongs to a wholesale warehouse store like BJ's or Sam's club where you can get small bottles of water or two liter bottles of soda. I can gurantee you that the majority of people have pizza once or twice a month, this can be one of those nights! Have fun and don't stress on the food.
If you're up for a casual meal, we've always had good luck with Subway. They usually give us $50 worth of free subs and charge half price for anything after that. We usually stick to a veggie, a turkey and a ham. McDonald's provides free iced tea and we supplement from PTO funds with veggies and dip and chips. Brownies are furnished by our hospitality committee.
I have to stop checking this thread now. I am doing Atkins and now I'm dreaming of mashed potatoes and chili dogs (OMG that sounds sooooo good!)!!!!!
Good Luck and remember to ask SEVERAL local merchants for donations of food or money to buy the food (I love the car dealerships for this. They are usually good for $50-$150 cash to help out with events, depending on how often they are asked to help). Don't be afraid to assign them parts of the dinner. Don't forget to invite the merchants who donate to the party!!!
