If you aren't dong a pasta dish, you can throw some in there as well.
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Anyway eileenlaunonen, no shame in "side stepping" when cooking for a hoard! :D

A few fairly easy but impressive looking appetizer-type things:

Rare roast beef strips wrapped around pickled garlic, roasted red bell peppers, smoked gouda/mozzarella or green onions, held together with a toothpick which also serves as a "fork". A little dish with a mix of half salt and half whatever seasoning mix you favor, with a little spoon for guests to sprinkle or an olive oil, balsamic, salt & pepper dip gives a bit of flair.

A vegetable tray with dip is never amiss, and if you blanch the veggies, which brightens colors and takes away the "raw" taste, people will actually eat them!

Soften/sweeten cream cheese with enough fruit juice, good vinegar, minced clams or olives with a bit of their packing liquid or minced sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil to be able to pipe the cream cheese through a cake decorating bag. Pipe this mixture decoratively onto crackers, into puff pastry shells, or onto bread squares cut into decorative shapes with small cookie cutters, and sprinkle with chopped parsley, paprika or multi-colored pepper. An alternative is to do the same with cream cheese & canned or fresh fruit.

When I worked for a wedding/catering company, I used to order a lot of pre-made, frozen appetizers from a company in the San Francisco area called "Gourmet Express". Some defrosted ready to eat, some you popped in the oven. I never had anything from them that wasn't good and it saved the chef from going insane!

Good luck with your feeding your hoard!