Meals for Feeding Football Players and Large Group

Are you tasked with feeding a hundred hungry players at two a days? Trying to feed a large crowd of people for an event? Having a hard time coming up with meals that can feed large crowds of people?

We've got the solution for you today!

CLICK HERE FOR MEALS FOR LUNCH AND DINNER FOR FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND LARGE CROWDS!!!

Tips:

Enlist Help

Signups make sharing the burden of feeding a large crowd much easier. Allow parents and guardians to sign up for items they can bring. If you're doing breakfast casseroles, have people sign up to bring a few casseroles each. If you are doing something like a crepe bar you can vary the items like have one parent bring the crepes (a larger item) while other parents can bring smaller items like strawberries, syrups, etc.

Cut Costs Where You Can

Feeding large crowds is EXPENSIVE! To cut costs where you can buy in bulk. You can also avoid unnecessary expenses like buying expensive water bottles and sports drinks. Instead you can serve water with lemons and limes cut up, or even make your own coconut water to help hydrate players!

Plan on Feeding MORE Than Less!

I've fed cross country runners, football players, soccer players, and even the drama and choir department. I've learned to always plan on feeding more than less! BUT football players are the exception. I've often had to plan on feeding two to three times more the amount of food. They EAT!! There are a couple of exceptions. I'd plan on feeding only twice the amount for two a day breakfasts. I find they don't eat as much at breakfast as they do later in the day because they want to eat lighter knowing they have another workout coming. Heat acclimation days too I find players eat less.

Baking and Moving

When you are shoving ten casseroles into an oven plan on increased baking time...sometimes two to three times more baking time! I've also found that there are times during baking time I need to switch the placement of the casseroles around in the oven periodically during baking as some casseroles may bake faster than others.

Tried and True

Unfortunately, we've tried frittatas, quiches, and even fancy syrups for breakfasts with no luck. Most of the time I'm feeding junior high through college students and I've just found that tried and true basics seem to do the best when feeding large crowds.

More Tips...

Get more food tips in our part 1 of feeding football players and large crowds article!

Breakfast Ideas:

Casseroles:

Biscuit Egg Casserole: Lil Luna
Cheesy Breakfast Casserole, Damn Delicious HINT: we sub southern hashbrowns for the diced Russett potatoes for ease
Cheesy Sausage Croissant Casserole, Southern Living
Crockpot Breakfast Casserole, BurntApple.com
Creme Brulee Casserole, BurntApple.com
Mexican Breakfast Casserole, Paleo Grubs HINT: we use frozen hashbrowns instead of shredding our own sweet potato
Mexican Lasagna Breakfast Casserole, The Slow Roasted Italian
Sausage and Gravy Casserole, Can't Stay Out of the Kitchen
Spam (or Ham), Eggs and Rice, Eating Richly

Cheesy Breakfast Casserole, Recipe Damn Delicious, Photo BurntApple

CLICK HERE FOR MEALS FOR LUNCH AND DINNER FOR FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND LARGE CROWDS!!!

Bars:

Bars are perfect for allowing players and crowds a few choices. They can also be a lot of fun for a banquet as you can dress them up and make them more elegant, or a grab and go player breakfast.

Bagel Bar Brunch, Skinnytaste
Breakfast Burrito Bar, Beauty and Bedlam
Breakfast Cereal Bar, Aloha Dreams HINT: Buy cereal when specials hit! Cereal often goes on sale and you can combine coupons for even more savings. We find cereal goes on sale around back to school time or shortly after.
Parfait Bar, Aloha Dreams
Peanut Butter & Jelly Eggo Waffle Bar, Staying Close to Home
Sparkling Cider Bar, Burnt Apple
Waffle Bar, Design, Eat Repeat

CLICK HERE FOR MEALS FOR LUNCH AND DINNER FOR FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND LARGE CROWDS!!!

Cheesy Sausage Croissant Casserole, Recipe Southern Living, Photo Burnt Apple

Protein:

Protein helps rebuild and repair tissue. It also is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage and skin. When players are pushing their limits in workouts, having a more protein based breakfast is a great option! We have even had some coaches REQUEST higher protein options because they get a lot of parents bring donuts, pastries, and muffins for breakfast and their players crash.

Baked Scrambled Eggs, All Recipes HINT: These eggs are easy to prep and prepare. They are a simple and easy inexpensive protein option.
Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins, Big Man's World
Double Chocolate Protein Muffins, Wholesome Yum
High Protein Sheet Pan Breakfast, The Hungry Elephant HINT: you can substitute less expensive canadian bacon for priscutto.
High Protein Snickerdoodle Muffins: Mason Fit
Oven Baked Bacon or Sausage for a Crowd, Tasty Kitchen HINT: we found cooking times may need to be longer if making larger amounts
Pancakes, King Arthur Flour HINT: we made these King Arthur Flour pancakes and subbed half greek yogurt and butter and added some unflavored collagen protein powder. We served our pancakes with maple syrup and this yummy Magleby's Buttermilk Syrup from Family Cookbook Project.

Sheet Pan:

Sheet pan meals are easy to make, usually require less cooking time than a casserole and are simple for serving crowds.

Breakfast Biscuit Sliders, My Recipes.com
Breakfast Disco Fries, My Recipes.com
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Sheet Pan Pancakes, Rabbit and Wolves
Sheet Pan Breakfast Sandwiches, Macheesmo
Sheet Pan Eggs and Bacon, Taste of Home
Sheet Pan Pancakes, Dinner then Dessert

What Meals Do You Recommend for Feeding Large Crowds?

Love and Casseroles Forever, Traci

Meals for Feeding Football Players and Large Groups: The Breakfast Edition