Cheap and Easy Potluck Brunch Recipes

This hamster knows how to eat brunch.

The easiest and most relaxing way to have brunch with eleven to 15 of close friends/random acquaintances is having a potluck brunch. Instead of waiting 45 minutes to be seated, everyone can start shoving their faces as soon as they walk in the door. It’s an incredibly cheap way to eat a lot of different foods for brunch, without seeming like a mooch. The most challenging part of potlucks is figuring out whose awkward apartment has the most chairs/space for humans. Then there’s the conundrum of deciding what to bring. There are times when whipping up a batch of crepes with lemon curd and nutella fillings seems like no big deal. Then there are other days where rolling out of bed and finding pants, let alone operating kitchen appliances, is mentally and physically impossible. For the the impossible pants days, try one of these super easy and delicous brunch recipes.

Apple and Cheese Sandwiches


Slice a long loaf of Italian or French bread in half the long way. Then fill it with thinly sliced apples (or pears), mesculin type greens, and slices of a nice sharp cheddar or brie. Condiment choice with these sandwiches is a controversial topic–I say balsamic vinegarette, my bf says honey mustard, and my best friend says Bacon. (But he says to put bacon on everything, so I don’t really count his opinion). So the answer is condiments on the side in little bowls.

Potatoes!

You can go two routes with potatoes, ambitious or lazy. Both are damn tasty.
Ambitious: Wash a few pounds of whole potatoes. The slice them into pieces about the size of steak fries. Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes or until they’re easily stabbed with a fork. Either way, flip the potatoes a few times so they get evenly crisped and browned.
Lazy: Buy a bag of precut frozen hashbrowns or home fries. Follow the baking directions on bag.
For either method, finish the cooked potatoes by seasoning them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Then sprinkled in some chopped red and green peppers.

Muffins from a Box!

Every grocery store and bodega has a few boxes of muffin mixes in random flavors, like blueberry, apple, corn, etc. Boxed muffins are the next best thing to baking from scratch, they’ve got more flavor and moisture than the over sugared prepackaged ones. Preparation is easy. The batter takes five minutes to mix up, and making their twenty minute cook time an opportunity to power nap on the couch. And if you don’t have a muffin pan, many boxes include instrucations for loaf baking. (Vegetarian note: Jiffy brand are the cheapest mixes, but most of them include lard as an ingredient).

Box o Donut Holes!

And then sometimes wake up and realize you don’t have the motor skills or concentration to operate a butter knife. This city is littered with Dunkin’ Donuts. Just go order a box of holes. And if you can’t form sentences, just point and grunt.

Photos from fanpop.com, connectedmissouri.com,