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.

Shrunkenhead, they seem to bring their own food with them so if I do ever get to meet them, they go via Sainsburys local after school and pick bags of donuts, pot noodles, chocolate milk and general junk and make the pot noodles and go to my son's room with this stuff. I will offer food if it is dinner time and they are still here but they have always declined. At the weekend they all seem to head to Burger king/Macdonalds and would rather be out. My friend's older teenager so 17 brings back friends and they order takeaway on her card something we probably couldn't afford to regularly do! So the benefits swing in roundabouts as my 10 year old DD and her friends happy with supermarket pizza but my DS and friends are endlessly eating so you couldn't afford to feed them all!

Oh yes they have definitely inhaled the crisps, crackers, cold chicken intended for DD'S packed lunch which is very annoying but I can't really begrudge that as DS doesn't have playdates anymore!

@HorseInTheHouse

Chicken goujons were a great shout. Everyone happy. Although apparently the child's favourite food is sushi - I don't think I'll be taking that on board for future visits!

One of my friend’s YR friends is a great lover of sushi and oysters. No chance any of my children would be sharing a meal.

I usually ask the other parents but typically I have one of the fussier children so I’m more attuned to it. I’ve yet to have any child complain about making their own pizza or something like pasta or risotto.

Pizza, chicken nuggets, fish fingers or sausages the very safe stuff - i ask about religion / allergies too.

I've always gone with build your own wraps. So choice of warm chicken goujons , ham/chorizo, grated cheese, sliced salad veggies such as cucumber, pepper, tomatoes, carrot, avocado, lettuce and a bowl of chips and a couple of dips all in the middle of the table and everyone just takes what they want. Suits the fussy and the ones that actually like some veg.

Spaghetti bolognese
Homemade pizza
Mac n cheese
Hot dogs
Chicken wraps
Chicken fajitas
Toad in the hole
Sausages and mash

Domino’s

Some of you are setting the bar very high with playdate Dominos

Fish fingers, oven chips, peas and choc ices

If I don’t know the child that well I always do nuggets and chips. Then put chopped up veg like carrots, peppers, cucumber in the middle of the table for child to help themselves. This has always been eaten without complaints. If it’s friends children who I know well I do a bigger variety of stuff.

Pasta with choice of either tomato based sauce or just grated cheese
Cucumber and carrot sticks

Ice cream / ice lolly

I normally ask ds10 to ask his friend. We normally do beige food though, pizza or chicken nuggets.
It’s much less stressful. Easy to cook/wash up.

My mum was a terrible cook growing up, I went to a friends house when I was about 6. She had made the most amazing home made vegetable soup. I ate three bowls. I wish I had the recipe. I can remember the friends mum telling my mum in shock.