your go to dinners for playdates?

Honestly I tend to do a bit of a "beige oven buffet" of pizza, chips, garlic bread, nuggets, and then peas and salad bits all to serve yourself. It's not more prep than making a "proper meal" as it's all pop in the oven stuff and means kids can just help themself to a bit of what they like the look of. Or fajitas/ wraps as a similar setup so spicy chicken in one bowl, plain chicken in another, cheese, salad bits etc.

Guessing you/your kids are the fussy ones @NerrSnerr

I remember one kid on a playdate claiming they "only ate McDonald's". Another time I dashed out to Tesco specifically to get a margherita pizza, as requested by my child's friend...they ended up not eating it, as it was apparently the wrong Tesco margherita pizza.

I gave up after that.

Definitely check in with parents. DD's bestie is, broadly, a good eater. But she absolutely will not eat sausages or chicken nuggets in any form - two of our old standbys.

Our go tos have tended to be

• chicken nugget type things, with chips and veg. I always insist all children at least try the veg and am always pleasantly surprised by how much get eaten! Usually just carrot, corn, peas, broccoli or some combination thereof
• For DS and his buddies - spaghetti bolognaise. Bizarrely, DD's friends are all "must eat everyting separately so won't touch pasta with bolognaise"
• Burgers - beef or chicken. I usually add token salad and fruit items on the side for them and again, insist they try at least one. Cucumber, avocado, tomato etc. This is current favourite as both the teenage and tweens all like it so if DS and DD have friends over at the same time, we don't have to do different things.
• In the old days - fish fingers. But again, weirdly, DD's friends are all anti fish fingers. DS' friends ate the damm things like they were candy in primary and he tells me they all regualrly have fish finger sandwiches or wraps when after school at friend's houses.
• Pasta pesto and bacon. this usually involves various combinations. Danny will eat the pasta pesto, no bacon. Mary likes pasta and bacon with regular cheese. Jenny has the pasta and feta cheese with pesto. etc etc.

Oh, and hilarious recent one that DD's friends are all into (DS' friends too but as they're all less fussy I stick with cheap options for them! ) .... steak!!!

Delicious is subjective though isn't it?

Given your child is seven, you have to be liaising with the parents of the child who is having a play date so just ask them what their child likes.

If it's often, just do pizza, or chicken nuggets/fish fingers and chips and peas etc.

Allergies/foods not allowed for religious reasons aside, no parent is going to complain about what you have fed them, but be very grateful you fed them at all.

I usually just go with pasta. Or sometimes eggy bread.

I did have a kid round recently who refused everything I offered except crisps. He went home hungry! I just explained to the mum that I had offered food but he didn’t want it. She was fine with it and said he was fussy and not to worry.

Pizza or wraps… wraps is fun, we do
sliced quorn nuggets, peppers, lettuce, cucumber, sauces on the side and kids help themselves… nicked the idea from a supermum

I always used to get them involved in the cooking.......
top their own pizzas,
design a burger,
Fajitas
Pasta with sauce
Jacket spuds with options for toppings
Toasties
Crimpit wraps....endless choices

After having had so much delicious home cooked nutritious food wasted by the friends of my kids, I abandoned all hope. I bought a selection of beige freezer food, and that's what I served on play date evenings, with a big dish of roast veg which my own kids loved.

Pizza, Sausages, plain pasta with simple tomato sauce and grated cheese, chicken nuggets and beans, Spaghetti Bol. Gosh fingers. Mac cheese . Simple, boring, maybe ‘junk’ in others opinions but in my experience more likely to be eaten than when you serve up your signature pasta dish or a lovely stir fry!!!

but always worth asking in advance ‘does your child like x’. As so often I had the parent say ‘they’ll eat anything’ then the child once at the table will list off a great list of ‘don’t like this this this’ often your version isn’t the same as their home version so even ‘spag Bol’ that they eat at home will be defected at yours if includes different veg etc.

always go for something simple - serve all separately on plate so kid can pick and choose (e.g. sauce next to not on top of pasta as some kids will only want the pasta ). Make minimal fuss for you - and have done ice cream or yogurt or fruit about for pudding so they can fill up on that if dinner not yo their taste.

My favourite mum when I went on playmates would make cheese toasties. She put different toppings in bowls and let us pick. (Ham, cheese, beans, salami, onion etc).

Then we had carrot sticks and cucumber in the middle of the table with hummus.

We all loved it because it felt like a fun activity. She didn't use expensive ingredients, but it was delicious and I remember them 20 years later hahaha

How often are the friends coming round and how many?
I don't think it's a case of being unreasonable at all fwiw, if they are around any more than once in a week and dinner is expected then I think you need to make a stand, you are not the provider for these children.
Generally playdates are considered reciprocal.