[snlmama]

The sound of it, this is a "family party," so adults and kids, right? I'm going to make suggestions based on that.

-- cookout fajitas or hot dogs - both are cheap and easy. Serve fajitas w/ corn chips and salsa, guacamole and beans; hot dogs w/ chips or potato salad.

-- If you want pizza, make your own - much cheaper than ordering out and people are always impressed you made it yourself. You can buy a mix of the dough or premade crusts if you don't want to make it yourself.

-- make a couple of "giant subs" using french bread loaves. Cut in 1/2, fill w/ meat and cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard. Bake for about 10 min. or serve cold. Serve w/ chips and dips or potato salad

-- baked chicken strips (dipped in batter or not) with pasta salad (pasta, whatever fresh veggies are on sale and italian dresssing ).

-- make your own burritos - kind of like fajitas, but have cooked ground beef or chopped chicken instead. Set out tortillas and bowls of beans, rice, lettuce, tomato, guacamole, sour cream and salsa and let everyone fix their own.

I have done all of those for one casual family party or another and they went over well.