What do you feed school friends visiting for tea?

[HorseInTheHouse]

A child with no special diet or dietary restrictions.

What in your experience is a safe bet with the majority of children? Do you always do the same thing when your child has a friend for tea or do you have a number of options? Or do you not even think about it?

Have previously done meatballs a la IKEA with boiled potatoes and peas, pizza with carrot sticks, and spaghetti bolognese. There is a much bigger range of meals that I know my own children will eat and are used to but somehow I feel the need to play it very safe with visiting children.

Mine are older now but I used to do things like

Fishfingers and chips with garden peas
Pizza
Spaghetti bolognese
Cheesy pasta with peas

Corn on the cob
Pizza
Crudite

Fish fingers
Pitta breads
Crudite

Chicken goujons
Corn on cob
Chunky chips

Fajitas (but I use chicken sausages as they prefer them and microwave rice for extra filling)

Burgers or Hotdogs

'Picky bits' such as chipolatas, cheese muffins, crudités, Doritoes to help themselves

BBQ ribs
Rice
Sugar snap peas

All easy and quick and go down well with kids and their friends

There is a much bigger range of meals that I know my own children will eat and are used to but somehow I feel the need to play it very safe with visiting children.

Depends on the age - once you know the visiting children then you can serve what they enjoy and will eat. I used to ask the mum if their DC would eat xyz if they were visiting first time. I served a lot of pizza and fish fingers and mash.

Goujons. Toujours les goujons.

Generally stuff like
Mac and cheese with garlic bread
Pizza
Fish fingers
Burgers

The above is pretty unhealthy but its a sort of treat tea when their friends are over....

I once did a chicken and leek pie with mash, peas and gravy. My two would normally eat that but school friend refused and said they didnt like vegetables

pizza

Chicken dippers chips peas.

Macaroni cheese
Sausage and mash

Or get them to make their own pizzas, gives them something to do. i usually give them a tortilla as the base and put bowls of different toppings on the table for them choose what they want.

Pizza, pasta, sausages (vege), chips.
I ask parents/carers in advance about dietary requirements & allergies.

Can't go wrong with cheese pizza and chips

Pizza always.

Pretty much all the unhealthy stuff that children love. Chicken nuggets/pizzas etc. I’d rather play it safe and dinner at a friends is meant to be a treat anyway. I will ‘make up’ for an unhealthy tea by doing fruit kebabs with dipping cream, or I’ll help them make homemade smoothies. Just so that they can go home and tell their parents they had loads of fruit on top of their processed tea

Pizza
Cook pizzas
Add toppings at table and eat
Yummo

Yes I've had bad reviews about vegetables before. I think we all tend to know the vegetables that our children will eat and serve those more than other vegetables without really thinking about it. I always feel that I should serve some kind of vegetables, though.

Even things you think are safe sometimes go down badly - both of mine hate mashed potato and prefer me to save some of the plain boiled potato for them, unmashed and unseasoned They are probably in the minority, though, and I suppose if a visiting child doesn't eat their tea it's not the end of the world anyway.

Thanks for the ideas!

Homemade pizza where they put on their own toppings of my go to.

Have done hotdogs for larger groups.

Also chicken nugget, pasta etc. I agree it is better to play it safe.

I feed pizza - plain cheese, no toppings - , or veggie hotdogs and chips.
With both I make a large platter of crudites - pepper, carrot, cucumber and tomatoes - in case the parents ask if there were vegetables.

Even "good" eaters can get a bit freaked out at other people's houses, or like their mum's bolognese but not someone else's. I want them to relax and have a nice time, so aim for the safest possible foods.

I figure that either the kids have a healthy, varied diet, in which case one processed meal won't kill them. Or they don't, in which case another processed meal won't make a difference.

Chicken nuggets chips and peas

Ask them. My child doesn't like chips. Other doesn't like burgers or hot dog sausages(normal sausages fine) Two of DDs friends dislike pizza. Other DDsbest friend is Hindu...

Nuggets or dippers with chips and peas or beans

Pizza

Pasta

Token cucumber sticks for a bit of green :)

Pizza
Simple pasta
Sausages in buns

Yesterday I did pizza with a selection of toppings the kids could add themselves. That went down well. They even ate some of the salad which I wasn’t expecting.
The mum didn’t reply to my message asking what her DD liked to eat and I have met DC who don’t like pizza, but I also have chicken nuggets and fish fingers in the freezer, so thought she would surely eat something.

Pizza or pasta bake!

I used to make it buffet-style with a few choices e.g. pizza slices, tuna & mayo sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, mini samosas etc., followed by a mini Magnum or similar.

Pizza or pasta with tomato sauce.

Yes I've had bad reviews about vegetables before.

Can you imagine if there was a TripAdvisor style website for visiting kids to review the play date hosts