Recipe(tried): Frugal Party Ideas and Recipes for Diana Illinois

Here are a few ideas for you.

First, have you thought of hotdogs and hamburgers? Easy, inexpensive and kid friendly.

Next, make your own cake. A typical birthday cake will cost you 15-20 bucks. You can make your own for about 5 bucks.

Go to the dollar store. They have cute plates and decorations for a buck! If you have a Target store near you they also offer 1.00 plates and invites often.

Serve chips with the food and a few dips. These will help fill plates and tummies and you won't need as much "real food" as my husband calls it, to feed everyone.

SANDWICHES:
As far as sandwiches go there are so many choices. You could buy a bulk bag of ham and do ham and cheese. Do some with wheat and some with white bread and either leave off the mayo and mustard and put it on the table for everyone to fix as they like or do some sandwiches with mustard and some with mayo. You can also do turkey or roast beef with cheese.

A cute idea is to take 2 loaves of sliced bread and large cookie cutters. Spread 1 loaf with peanut butter and jelly and top with remaining loaf. Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into shapes.

ONE LAST SANDWICH SUGGESTION:
Take flour tortillas and spread inside with cream cheese mixed with diced tomatoes with green chilies. Place 1-2 slices thin deli style ham or turkey on top of that.

Either roll up and slice into pinwheels or top with green onions, chopped and shredded lettuce and roll up and slice.

MINI-PIZZAS:
If you are having this at home a fun idea is to take either homemade or refrigerator biscuits ad spread out onto a cookie sheet. Let everyone top with 1 Tbsp spaghetti sauce and topping of their choice. You can use browned ground beef and or sausage. pepperoni (cut into quarters to use less) and cheese. You can also use mushrooms and black olives if you want, but these are more pricey items.

As far as punch goes here are a couple of ideas. You can search here and get gobs of recipes too. My two favorite recipes are:

SUMMERBERRY PUNCH:
1 heaping scoop sweetened strawberry lemonade Kool-Aid
1 large can pineapple juice
1 large can white grape juice
1 container frozen strawberries, thawed and mashed or whirled through a blender

Mix ingredients together. You can freeze a ring if desired at this point. To serve, add 2 liters of ginger ale or sprite.

ALMOND PUNCH IS SUPERB TOO:
1 small (3 oz) box lemon jello dissolved in 2 cups boiling water
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 cups cool water
1 large can pineapple juice
8 oz lemon juice
1 oz almond extract
2 liters ginger ale

Mix Jello and sugar and stir to dissolve. Add cool water, pineapple juice, lemon juice, and almond extract. Freeze in gallon ziploc bags. Thaw 2-4 hours before serving. Add 2 liters of ginger ale to serve.

One more easy punch recipe my aunt swears by:

SHERBERT PUNCH:
1 large can of white grape juice, chilled
1 (2 liter) bottle of ginger ale or sprite, chilled
1 gallon of your favorite sherbert, softened

Put sherbert in large punch bowl and pour chilled juice and ginger ale on top. Dip out a little bit of the sherbert to serve in each glass.

If you need cake ideas, let me know. I have many ideas and can give you pointers on how to decorate your own.

Dip recipes that are hearty and cheap include using your crockpot (or borrow a friend's):

NACHO DIP
1 block Velveeta, cubed
1 to 2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies (I use Wal-Mart brand)
cooked and crumbled ground beef or sausage (optional)

Put Velveeta and tomatoes in crock pot and melt on low heat. You can also get fancy by adding cooked and crumbled ground beef or sausage.

A GREAT BAR-B-Q DIP
1 bottle any kind of BBQ sauce
1/4 cup honey
dash of hot sauce.

Mix all together over medium heat. Can be served warm or cool.

VEGGIE DIP
1 small carton sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 package of vegetable seasoning mix*

Stir and set for a few hours before serving.

*Also make French onion dip this way substituting onion soup mix. Don't have soup mix? Use any variety of Italian herbs such as parsley, garlic, savory, thyme, oregano, sage minced dried onions to equal 2 Tbsp and add to sour cream and mayonnaise.

ANOTHER CHEESY DIP IDEA:
Take 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese and pour 1 can Rotel tomatoes or hot pepper jelly over it. Serve with tortilla chips, Fritos or crackers.

If you want more ideas just repost and I'll see what else I can come up with!