What to feed our visiting Spanish students?

[lechatnoir]

We are hosting 2 Spanish students for a month and need to provide 3 meals a day. Dinner I'm fine with but not sure what sort of things they'd typically eat for packed lunch and breakfast. We have healthy dinner but lunch and breakfast less so cereal or toast for breakfast then packed lunch is usually filled wraps or sandwiches, packet of crisps and a piece of fruit sometimes pasta or soup.

Any suggestions? We don't get a huge allowance & aren't particularly flush so nothing too pricey (eg pack of ham or carton of OJ would be gone in one serving with 4 teens!) and things I can make/serve in bulk would be great.

Omelettes for breakfast.

Packed lunch of pasta, filled roll/wrap, fruit, pop corn, oat bar etc.

Are you able to contact them in advance to get an idea of things they normally eat?
I would say breakfast could be eggs, fruit, yoghurt etc. Maybe some bread rolls/toast.
Lunch maybe trickier but I'm sure a sandwich and fruit would work if you knew what sort of fillings they like?

Just give them whatever you usually have. Part of what they are doing is a cultural exchange so there's no need to try to replicate 'what they would normally have'. When we had a French student on exchange we just ate as normal, he was given the same options for lunch as my kids ie sandwich, fruit, crisps.

Bear in mind that Spanish people eat dinner really late. Often around 9pm. It might be tricky for teens to get used to having a big meal at 6pm.

Cereal is less popular in Spain. Toast is fine. Usually with olive oil rather than butter. Pastries and biscuits are also popular for breakfast.

Having said that, presumably they are there for the cultural experience as well as language practice, so they should adapt to what your family eat and do.

Not remotely helpful but when I lived at home we had two surprise Dutch guests for breakfast. My mum had seen a programme about what Dutch people have for breakfast and she sent me to the shops with a massive list. After a breakfast of frankly epic proportions and variety, one of them said "that was great normally we just have toast".

Actually maybe that is helpful?

I tend to host for the summer so I can take unpaid leave. I definitely spent too much the first few times.

Breakfast I did cereals, fruit, toast, yogurts. This covered their small break as well. I did a hot breakfast on Sundays a fry, or pancakes, eggs etc.

Lunch I did baguette, wraps, etc with meat and salad. Fruit. Crisps. The odd salad with roast from day before etc.

I shopped around but typically it was cheaper to buy a piece of meat and use that instead of the pre packed.

Set your budget and then see what the best deals are. Check early with them what they like to eat. Nothing worse than throwing food out.

I used my slow cooker lot, and did a lot of veg prep in one go. If they were out late I used to leave the making of a toastie, it cost little and I know it was appreciated.

It's a cultural exchange - within reason they eat what you eat. You might offer cheese and cold meat with a roll as a breakfast option or boiled eggs if you really wanted.

Agree with the comment about how late the Spanish eat dinner, it's why it's not my favourite country!

have never seen toast with olive oil for breakfast in Spain. 😕

Spanish people tend to eat more sweet stuff at breakfast than we would be used to. I would say that for breakfast toast with the option of jam, marmalade, nutella, butter or similar is fine. Or a boiled/fried egg. Croissants or pastries if you're pushing the boat out, but not expected. Orange/apple juice.

Lunch - many Spanish people will eat their main meal at 2pm but this is changing as working patterns shift more to a 9-5 rather than 9-2, a three hour break, then 5-8. I would agree that part of the idea about being in the UK and living with a family is to experience the British way of living and eating. So for lunch whatever you'd generally put into a packed lunch for your own kids or yourself - sandwiches, wraps, crisps, cereal bars, fruit.

No need to overthink things!

For breakfast:

• One day a week I would do crepes with lemon & sugar or supermarket-brand chocolate spread. I don’t know a teen who dislikes them and they are really cheap to make (you can prepare the mixture night before)
• Rest of weekdays toast and butter/jam/peanut butter or yoghurt/apple and cereal
• Weekends: I’d do brunch and let them lie in; things like French toast, fried egg sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, baked beans on toast.
• weekday lunches - sandwiches/rolls are sensible. You can do cheese and onion, hummus and grated carrot, tuna sweetcorn mayo, salami and lettuce. Choice of apple or banana or orange. Crisps or carrot/celery sticks is fine I think. Something sweet? if you have time you can batch cook muffins or flapjacks (these could also work for breakfast one day and lunch snack the next)

My experience of teens says they don’t love breakfast so in this case, something they can grab and eat on the way/at break can work well.

Water for lunch and offer tea/coffee/milk/ concentrated OJ at breakfast.

Spanish food is heavily regional so there is really very little point in trying to replicate what they have at home (eg the comment above about having olive oil on toast may be the norm in some areas but in northern Spain they eat a lot of butter).

I would have toast, butter, maybe jam or Nutella (allergies allowing) and fruit on offer for breakfast. Wrap / sandwich, crisps and fruit will be fine for lunch.

So long as you cater for any allergies / intolerance I would provide what your family normally eats so they get a flavour of a British diet.

This is what would happen if it was a reverse and we went to stay on the continent.

Same food as you normally have so they experience British meals. And traditional stuff like fish and chips, Sunday roast beef, pies etc.

I had french family, they would go crazy for crisps, always wanted fish and chips, Cornish pasties etc. When I went there I had croissants, taste tartin, onion soup, cassoulet, other stuff i cant recall the names of. Travel is about experiencing change.

Week two you can ask them if they want something different, from home, or if they'd like to make you something they have at home if you buy the ingredients.

I lived in Spain and they tend to have hot meals for lunch. They found the idea of having a sandwich for lunch to be very British, not satisfying and not proper food! Sandwiches are more something they'd eat between lunch and a very late dinner. A kind of snack food.
However I'm sure you don't have the time to cook hot lunches every day and I assume they're out and about so sandwiches and wraps see much more practical. Also they need the full British experience.
I remember in Spain between meals they'd often eat baguette with a slice of Spanish omelette inside so that would work. A bit more substantial than a cheese sandwich.

They will also presumably eat their evening meal at a usual British dinnertime rather than the Spanish schedule that they are used to, so they won't need a hot meal in the middle of the day to keep them going for a long time in the way they might at home.

Thanks so much this is really helpful (& stopped me panicking a bit!). We usually eat around 7:30/8pm often later so no chance of 6pm dinner here which works and lots of good suggestions plus tips for not trying to replicate what they eat at home. Sounds like it's just much of what we already eat with a little bit more choice and greater quantities! We're just waiting to hear who we're getting so with any luck I'll get 2 girls who aren't fussy but don't eat as much as my boys 😆.

It's exciting but quite nerve wracking 😀

provide what you normally have for the first few days and ask them what they want. ir take them to the supermarket.

I often teach teenagers on trips like this. The lunches the host families provide are often a bit disappointing - a slice of processed cheese or meat between 2 slices of white bread, a packet of very cheap crisps. I see a lot of students put it straight in the bin and head to the supermarket at break time. They come back with prepared salads and chopped fruit in pots, complaining that they don't get anything fresh with their host family.

The most successful lunches seem to be the ones where the family puts out a range of sandwich stuff and the student makes their own.

i host foreign students nearly every summer to make a bit of extra money. If you get teenage girls don't be offended if they dont eat much, mine eat such tiny portions!

breakfast - cereal and toast. They usually eat nutella. i offer eggs but they never eat them.

lunch- sandwich, piece of fruit, chocolate biscuit bar, crisps, drink. They have to have it in a bag to take away in disposable bag so no leftovers for lunch - too difficult.

dinner - whatever we usually have eg curry, roast dinner, lasagne, chicken and veg etc. plus a pudding - usually yoghurt and fruit, occasionally a hot pudding.

on our allowance we have to provide a 2 course dinner.

i love hosting, hope you enjoy it too. don't over think it..

For lunch I like a bento style, you don't need a bento box, just pack 4-5 different things.

So I might have some salad, a small pot of hummus, vegi sticks, nuts and some olives. I do have small screw top jars to carry salad dressing. I also take hard boiled eggs, bean salads (you can buy tinned) fruit, cous cous or pasta.

For your students it would have enough variety that is they don't like something there is still a lot left.

Just give them what you would normally eat. The only thing you might want to check for is meal times- people tend to eat later in Spain and when my Spanish niece used to stay she just wasn't hungry for the early dinner I gave mine before evening activities. So she often had hers when she came back.

I think they might be a bit surprised if you offer them olive oil to put on their toast.....

Yes, when I mentioned the olive oil on toast, I forgot to mention the tomato to go with it! Tostada con tomate is very popular here. Toast, olive oil, chopped up tomatoes and a pinch of salt.

My experience of teaching overseas students from any country.... they are never happy with the packed lunches they are given and will head to Macdonalds etc so don't make too much of an effort or go to any great expense.
Remember teenagers are teenagers wherever they're from.

Agree with Misthios that my Spanish friends eat very sweet breakfasts! Hot chocolate, pastries, Nutella, fruit, pancakes. Churros if grandma is making!

So on a daily basis I'd go with toast, jam, Nutella, fruit.

When DM used to host foreign students it was what we all ate.

Maybe Nutella or another spread if they requested it. Most of them were fine with what we gave them and if they did want snacks or extra fruit would buy this themselves (they travelled to London teeth day to their language school) and bring extra snacks home.

Most students my DM hosted got lunch out. We never supplied packed lunches but on weekends sometimes DM would say if you’d like to take sandwiches out and make them or I make them then do that.