We are going on a 10 day trip with my husband's family in June. We're staying at a huge "cabin" with a kitchen and are planning to take turns making dinner for everyone. We'll have between 16-22 people. The problems: There's only one fridge, and the grocery stores will be very expensive up there.

Any ideas for what we can make that will be easy to feed a crowd, and not need too much fridge space? Also, we'll be eating a lot of sandwiches for lunch, so we don't want anything like that. Maybe I'm asking too much. Here's what we've thought of so far.

Potato Bar
hamburgers/hotdogs
frozen lasagne

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On our ski trip over spring break, we had 30, so some of these may be a bit much for you (and may not fit in the fridge), but here's what we did...

day 1: Spaghetti Red (spaghetti with chili on top)

day 2: Roast, Potatoes & Baby Carrots (plus salad) - Leftover roast was used for sandwhiches.

day 3: Turkey

day 4: Taco soup (this uses a lot of cans, not much meat)

day 5: Turkey tettrazini - using leftover turkey

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WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

We always took cereal for breakfast, which was easier. And, always have eggs too...

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If your were going to make any casseroles using meat(chicken or Hamburger)you can cook it up and can it for a few minutes in jars sealed and take it that way or cook it up and put in freezer bags for the freezer and that would use less space.Big cans of chicken for casseroles,Cans of chili dog sauce for chili dogs(and don't use meat),Boy that is a tough one since it is so many people!I am thinking massive amounts of food and thinking of a tiny freezer above a fridge.Some of the vegetables you can leave in a cooler out side with out ice if it is cool enough or I would leave them on the counter until you had enough fridge space for them.They keep a few days outside the fridge fine before needing to be refrigerated.

What idea's does your family have so far?

Our family always makes these for our big family dinner.

Party Potatos
Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes
5 # potaotes, cook-let cool and peel-dice
Add 1 onion, 1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 # or more of Velvetta cheese, diced
small jar of red pimentos
Salt & Pepper to taste.
Mix he above & add following 3 items mixed together- 2 slices of toasted & cubed bread, 1/2 cup milted butter, 1 1/2c milk.
You won't need to refrigerate anything prior to cooking.

If you have a portable roaster, throw a ham or something in it to cook too. Will save space in the oven and also won't heat the kitchen up like an oven will

For your vegetable, take some heads of cabbage with you, they can be left out of the refrigerator for a few days and make coleslaw.

Don't forget to use your coolers. Save your empty milk jugs and fill 3/4 of the way up with water and freeze. These are great to use in coolers that you don't want the stuff inside to get wet as the ice melts. The water stays in the jug. Just don't overfill the jugs cause water expands when frozen.

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Whenever we go camping with family (limited to coolers), we make tacos for at least one dinner and breakfast burritos for at least two breakfasts.

Not much has to be refrigerated: just the ground beef, eggs and cheese (and lettuce if you use it, or you could use shredded cabbage instead, it lasts a couple days out of the fridge). The other ingredients are good on the shelf: canned beans, tomatoes, avocados, bags of spanish rice, hot sauce, tortillas.

Those two meals can feed so many people and most folks really like tacos and burritos, so they don't mind eating them more than once.

I second bringing coolers along too, it will keep the sodas, juice, etc out of the fridge making room for truly perishable foods.