The weekend continues.  You accomplished day 1 with your weekend guests.  Everyone arrived safely, got settled in and you fed your guests a nice dinner.  Now, it is day 2 and you have an entire day to complete.  That may include events, like attending a sports game or an outing at the park or going for a nice walk, if weather is nice enough.    That may also include feeding everyone 3 meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner).  Don’t forget some snacks too!  But, don’t worry, if you planned ahead this will be a breeze!

Start the day off right; serve everyone a nice hearty breakfast.   It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, unless you want it to be.   If you want it to look like you made a fancy breakfast, throw a quiche together.  They are simple to make, you just bake in the oven, slice and serve.  There is minimal prepping/cooking involved.  But it will look like you worked for hours in the kitchen.  You can even prep the filling for the quiche the day before then cook it in the morning.

Click here to check out my Mushroom & Spinach Quiche:  Mushroom & Spinach Quiche

Click here to check out my Ham & Scalloped Potato Quiche:  Ham & Scalloped Potato Quiche

Your guests won’t want to feel like they are making you work or putting you out.  All the planning you did before they arrived really helps to eliminate that.  Besides breakfast being the most important meal of the day, it can be one of the easiest meals to make.  If you would like to keep it casual, there is nothing better than making scrambled eggs with bacon.  I cook my bacon in the oven for less of a mess and for a quicker cooking time.  You can also pick up some fresh bagels and cream cheese (all you have to do is slice and maybe toast them).  I also pickup some fruit, like melon & strawberries.  Pickup whatever fruit is in season or available at your local supermarket.

Most importantly, I always make a big pot of fresh & hot coffee.  I like to grind my own coffee beans to ensure that I get a nice fresh cup of coffee.  You can grind enough coffee beans ahead of time for the entire weekend.  Just make sure you keep your coffee in an airtight container for maximum freshness.  There is a lot of debating over whether or not to place whole coffee beans in the fridge or freezer.  They will certainly keep just fine if you keep them in a container at room temp, out of bright light and away from any heat source.  The biggest concern when storing them in the freezer or fridge is they get moisture on the beans, therefore they can get freezer burn and absorb other odors/tastes.   I have never run into this with my coffee beans.  I keep them sealed tightly in my freezer.   I find that my coffee beans last much longer and keep fresher.  I grind the beans as I need them.  I mostly do this because I buy my coffee beans at a specialty store so I buy 3 lbs. at a time.  Buying fresh or gourmet coffee beans from a specialty store is not the most economical way of buying coffee.  So I would not want to find out that I ruined them before enjoying it.  I do enjoy my coffee and it is so worth taking a trip to my local specialty store to pick out my favorite flavors of beans! A good cup of coffee can make for a great day!! I think I could write an entire blog just about coffee.

When making coffee for your guests, make sure you know what they like to put in theirs.  Do they like creamer, half-half or milk & sugar?  I like to setup my coffee pot the night before.  That way, whoever gets up first can simply turn the coffee pot on to brew it.   Be sure to let your guests know if they get up early, how to turn your coffee pot on and where the creamers and sugar are.  Then they won’t feel like they have to wait for you, if they are up before you.

So you got through the morning and survived.  It is now time to move on to lunchtime.  I like to have enough ingredients on hand for everyone to make sandwiches.  This could be some nice deli meats/cheeses, chicken salad, tuna salad or even egg salad.  You can offer them some lettuce and tomato slices for their sandwich.  If you want to make any of the salads, you can even make those the day before.  Make sure you have condiments like mayonnaise and mustard, some nice chips and fruit.

You are doing great.  You have made it through several meals by now and your guests are happy so you are happy.  Now it’s dinner for your 2nd night.  You think, how can you possibly come up with all these meals?  Remember, you did your planning so it’s OK!  If you have guests that love to eat and will try anything than planning & cooking your meals becomes much easier.  They are not only fun to create & cook but also great to eat.  I like to come up with a fun meal to serve.  I love to use my kitchen island to setup a serving station for my guests.

For this past weekend, with our guests, I came up with a Taco Bar.  Olé!!

I decided to do a Trio of meats with Grilled Shrimp, Chicken & Steak.  That way, I knew there would be something for everyone.  I also made some homemade Spanish Rice, fresh guacamole, restaurant-style salsa, homemade brown rice pita chips and roasted corn (using my fresh corn-cob I have in my freezer).    I also added some sour cream, black beans, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese (Colby Jack Cheese) and tortilla wraps to my taco bar.  I decided to serve both flour & corn tortilla wraps.  It was such a fun dinner; everyone got to make their own tacos and topped them with whatever they liked.  Even the kids loved it! Everyone was going up for 2nd and 3rd’s! It is such a great feeling when you see everyone enjoying themselves and the food you serve.

You might be panicking right now thinking about making all those different recipes/dishes.  Great news; I was able to prep quite a bit of the meal ahead of time.  Plus, each recipe/dish was simple to make.  I had my chicken marinating for hours in the fridge (you could even do the day before).  For the shrimp, I cleaned, peeled & deveined the day before and kept it in the fridge in zip lock bag until I was ready to marinate it.   The steak was great with just a little S&P, so that was super easy!  I also made the salsa and guacamole early in the day and kept both in the fridge.  The salsa is incredibly easy; simply throw all your ingredients into a food processor and your done! can’t get much easier than that, for homemade.   You can even shred the cheese & lettuce and have those and your sour cream in small bowls or ramekins ahead of time.  Just cover and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.  The only items I had to cook right before serving were the meats, which I grilled outside.  I made the Spanish Rice, roasted the corn in the oven, warmed up the tortilla wraps and heated the black beans.  All of these side dishes have simple steps to prepare/cook them.

I placed my chips with salsa and guacamole out so my guests could snack on those while I was cooking the meal.   Who doesn’t like some chips with salsa and guacamole and maybe a cocktail or two?! You could even serve a pitcher of Margarita’s if your guests like them.

Click here to get my Taco Trio recipes:  Taco Trio-Grilled Shrimp, Chicken & Steak

Click here to get my Restaurant Style Salsa recipe:  Restaurant Style Salsa

Click here to get my Spanish Rice recipe:  Spanish Rice

Click here to get my Guacamole recipe:  Guacamole

Click here to get my Brown Rice Pita Chips:  Brown Rice Pita Chips

We made it to the final morning of my guests visiting.  I wanted to make sure they all had something to eat before getting on the road.  I kept it super simple; I made coffee and some egg sandwiches using the leftover bagels.   Now that we have made it through the weekend hosting guests, give yourself a nice pat on the back and take some time to relax (after your clean the house of course)!!

Mangia! Enjoy!